Thankyou for the resposes to my last question.
As continued prep for a fast approaching race for a novice I hope some one could advise me on the follwoing questions.
1)paddle- is there any benefit to a narrower blade, my kayak came with a nimbus paddle and it is narrow, I feel that I cannot really get the boat going well with it. the slightly wider flaire paddle gets me moving at a much faster pace, for a 10km race is there any real reason for me not to go with a bigger paddle?
2) how do we exit the kayak effectively. We are not allowed (and wouldn’t want) to beach the (tandem)kayak, but as we finish we have to be out and onto the beach to start running/biking ASAP. Are there any prefered techniques to do this
thanks
…
while it’s hard not know you and the exact paddles I would say that a 10km race could make good use of a larger blade whereas for longer paddles such a blade may wear you and your shoulders out too soon.
Is this a sit inside or SOT kayak? Odd that you can’t land the kayak. But either way I can’t see why you can’t just sort of fall out near the shore, right the boat and carry it ashore. If you pull your legs out first (assuming sit inside) then sort of hop off you’ll reduce any emptying of your kayak. To quickly empty your kayak if sit inside just lift the bow while the stern is still in the water and flip upside down then back right. Your profile sounds like the race may be somewhere without much surf which keeps things simple.
some (hopefully ) answers
1. Yes, a wider blade will be faster, and if you can afford one, a wing with a high angle stroke would be the best - providing you can get some time to get used to it.
2. How my wife and I exit onto a beach. - she is in the bow. We head straight on in, and she jumps out and picks the bow up and pulls it in to a point where I, (in the stern) am no longer in deep water, and can exit it quickly.
Jack L
i would
At this point, assuming the race is soon, I would stick with what you’ve been training with. Ten kilometers is still too far for an all out sprint. In the future I would get a better paddle, and second the wing especially for racing.
As far as getting out. I like jacks method of just roll out. The dunk might feel good.
Ryan L.
quickest exit
For a quick exit, it depends on which boat I am in. For two of my kayaks I can actually pull my legs out of the hull and through the cockpit while paddling. As I approach the shore I stash the paddle under the rigging and swing out my legs to hang over the gunwales. When I hit shsllow water I lean forward and stand up, straddling the boat. From there I can walk it ashore or step over with one leg, walk to the bow and haul it up. With the other two boats, with tighter cockpits, I do an arm push-up grasping both sides of the coaming to pop my butt up onto the back of the cockpit and scoot back til my legs are clear and swing them onto both sides or both to one side. This has to be done quickly and smoothly or you’ll dump (took a bunch of practice to accomplish this gracefully and I still don’t always succeed in execution.)
Thanks
for everyones suggestions to both my posts, I thought it would be polite to update how we got on- we managed our 10km in 1hr and 3 minutes (including hauling the boat to shore and getting our running shoes on) so we were pretty happy with that.
I am very appreciative of forums like this where more experienced people will give advice to beginners.
Marie-clare