Kayak paddles with canoes.

Advice
#1

In adventure racing competitors usually always use kayak paddles in canoes.



Can anyone tell me why there would be an advantage to this?



Thanks.



andy.

St. Charles, IL

#2

You get a faster stroke, plus …
…you don’t have to do the amount of correction you would with a canoe paddle, and you elimanate the fraction od a second loss when you switch sides with the paddle.

It might be kosher in a adventure race, but in most normal races it is a no no.

Cheers,

JackL

#3

“kayak paddle”?
http://www.dixonprice.com/RRpage.htm



Scroll down to the illustration of the author…





Double-bladed paddles were very common in canoes in the US in the late 1800s.

#4

I used a kayak paddle for the first time
in about a month last night (been using canoe paddles for the last month) and boy, my double blade paddling muscles (pectorals) tired very quickly compared to my single blade muscles. I was using only a double blade paddle for the first couple months of the season this year and the transition to single blade was challenging then, but now single blade is easier and double blade is more tiring.



I had been using the single blade only for the last month or so in my Sawyer Sumemrsong to get to know the boat (new to me) and improve my single blade skills, but I think I’ll start doing 50% single blade and 50% double blade to keep both sets of muscles toned, since I still paddle both kayaks & canoes and the Summersong moves well with both types of paddles.