Some people benefit from ankle wedges
cut to go under the ankle so that the ankle does not have to be completely straight.
It is possible that some people can’t point their toes like ballerinas. Yet, if you saw my ankles, you would quickly agree that they are not only peculiar but dysfunctional. Prior to my taking up c-1, I doubt that they straightened completely. Fortunately, now they do.
Gender
lesg,
i’m a he, not a her!
If knees are not the problem, maybe…
… this will work for you.
Solution #1. Instead of trying to place your feet flat on the floor with the instep in contact with the hull, wear flexible shoes and put the ball of your foot on the floor, with the back of your heels sticking up between the seat supports just outside of the webbing. I can kneel either way, but the ball-down, heelbacks-up position gives my ankles a really nice rest after being extended instep-down for a long time. I can’t promise this will work for you, as I’ve been doing very serious flexibility training for almost 25 years. Worth a shot, though.
Solution #2. Tilt your seat (best to do that anyway if you are kneeling) and install a footbrace out in front. Sitting on an angled seat with your feet out in front of you feels very solid, so paddling this way whenever you need to relieve ankle strain won’t compromise your control and power as much as just sticking your feet out in front of you on the bottom of the boat. This is also a better place to put your foot when you paddle with one foot forward and one under the seat (as described by another poster), because this really “locks” you into position. My newest boat still has no footbrace, and I put my feet right up on the forward thwart to rest my ankles. This puts almost my entire body higher than the gunwales, so it’s not recommended for swift water!
Boo- if your knees are in good shape
then you should be able to kneel. What people have said about pad and seat placement is true. Adjust it till it’s comfortable. Ankle blocks and footbraces can help a lot. I’m saying this from my friend’s experience, not mine. She had a lot of pain from foot position and the ankle blocks fixed it.
My left leg doesn’t bend much more than 90deg without tearing apart the scar tissue holding it together. I can kneel on my right leg, but can’t bear kneeling weight on my left. So I sit low in the boat and use a backband and footbraces. This limits my reach for cross strokes. I wish I could kneel, but I need to be able to walk when I get out of my boat. I would encourage you to develop your ability to kneel because you can do more from a kneeling position.
Look up yoga and pilates exercises that stretch and strengthen the quads. Also, strengthening your ‘core’ muscles will give you better body control which takes some strain off the legs.
LesG, I have the same problem,
but I have remedied some of it. I’m not sure why I’ve been cursed with this, but it may have something to do with the height of my instep and arch which causes me to have to keep my toes pointed straight back or maybe its something else. Whatever the cause, here is what I do.
At first I would force myself to kneel like this and when I would stand up on shore after paddling this way my ankles/legs were at near paralysis from the tendon stretch. My first suggestion is to wear a hiking shoe with a STIFF sole. This will allow you to keep your toes pointed somewhat down. The drawbacks to this are foot entrapment if your feet are big and/or if your seat is low and of course swimming may be a problem with some shoes. I tried this for a while, and while it helped, I wanted to wear a cold weather neoprene mukluk type boot which unfortunately has flexible soles. I installed ankle support pads made from several layers of a cut-up closed cell foam pad and this helps considerably, but not 100%. After a while in the kneeling position, I sit and return my feet to their normal position to allow my tendons to relax. This is especially helpful to do before landing. Kneeling with one foot out helps some, but in some situations this compromises stability. I have just installed PADZ ankle supports in lieu of my homemade ones, but I have yet to use them. If they’re not high enough, I’ll re-install with layers of cut up closed cell foam pad underneath. Good luck!
Vince
Lots of great tips here.
kneeling while watching TV has helped me go from 5 minutes of comfort to about an hour. Using padding in the bottom of the canoe made it easy to go for a while. Setting the seat up to just thr right height for kneeling and some sitting made it an all day possibility. Or couse if I’m in the boat all day, I kneel and sit and stand and lay down even.
Now that I have been
kneeling in the canoe, I find kneeling much more comfortable. Playing chess on the floor last night, found me kneeling instead of sitting. Prior to the canoe thing, I would never had knelt for more than a minute or two. However, it did not help me win my chess game…
I wear knee pads
Instead of padding the floor of the canoe because I don’t like my feet on squishy padding when I’m sitting. I sit some times and kneel sometimes depending on the water conditions and whichever I feel like doing at the time. Padding on the floor just gets in the way when sitting.
I placed adhesive backed stair traction tape on the floor of the canoe to keep my feet from sliding on the floor while sitting and I want to brace my feet some. My boat doesn’t have foot braces yet.
Initially I tried kneeling without padding or knee pads and pain on the knee bones where they made contact with the floor was verrrrry unpleasant. The knee pads eliminated this problem and I can place my knees where ever I want on the floor instead of having to place them only where the foam is glued to the floor. The main problem I have with wearing knee pads is that they move around on my knee some if I keep them loose enough to not cut off circulation around the back of my knee and need to be repositioned occasionally.
Good luck finding a solution for your needs.
Here’s what I tried last weekend
I also kneel in the canoe with a big T-shaped pad and sometimes get soreness on the back of the ankle.
I borrowed one of my kids pool toys called a noodle. It’s a long peice of plastic foam that floats. Cut a piece to fit comfortably below the ankles while kneeling (2-3 ft depending on canoe beam). This took away all the soreness in the achilles tendon area.
Just a bit tricky adjusting position, once in place.