I never knew there was such complexity in paddling.
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Agree. Most people just reach pull swing reach pull swing. It gets complicated when people ask for advice and the suggestions are simple: reach further, push, pull, stomp, twist . . .
I agree that it seems a bit exessive, when all.anyone has to do is buy a fast Olympic style boat and model what the olymiads do.
Itâs becoming clear to me that Iâve complicated such a simple process. If i hadnât beennasked a question, I woukd have kept my thoughts to myself. I guess thsts why amatuers like me try to fill void, because the gatekeepers shut down the tech stuff.
Anybody got any puppy pictures or videos of kayaks on cars.
It is if youâre an professional coach looking for 100ths of a second.
Sometimes itâs just the idea of learni g how tobdo something right. The pleasure of experimenting with technique to improve efficiency. Learning so the info can be passed on to your grandchildren. That way thry can build on it. I know - rather naive . . .
Like typing? 
Iâm guilty too.
We grow by sharing. What good is information you struggle to accumulate over 73 years if you die with it and havenât shared. I said very little to Craigâs son, but Craig said it helped him. He learned by observing. The same happened with my grand daughter. I look at pictures of her paddling. She is now 13 yrs old, and I see splashless catches and clean exits that donât fling water. She learned through observation. I would post a video of her paddling, but the video wonât load.
I shared what I learned with Steve. I learned as much from him as I gave. I share extensively on side channels with others and get back as much as I give.
If anyone thinks my content is too longbwinded or meritless, simply ignore it. In three years, I partially recovered my lost physical ability and compensated by improving my technique. When you expose what you believe for critique, others will help you shape and perfect it. Iâm clealy the beneficiary here, and I helped a few people along the way.
NotThePainter posted several extensive videos about making a Greenland paddle out of a 2x4. I made one within 5 hours, based on his shared experience. It was a near exact copy of the carbon fiber GearLab paddle Craig loaned me. I donât like either paddle as much as my Kalliste, but now I know. The long-term curiosity solved. You donât know unless you try. The best way to learn is through sharing. The truth is that Iâd rather paddle that hurt my eyes and waste my time tapping out information on a 2 .75 x 6 inch phone screen.
For successful paddling at a constant speed of 5 mph and maintaining the same pace for two hours in your Current Designs Solstice GTS with a Werner Cyprus paddle, refining your technique and focusing on efficiency can be your considerations. Ensure you are correctly rotating your torso at your major power phases (cutting in with blades) to engage your core muscles better and at the same time spare your arms. Follow your paddle vertical as it enters the water to keep maximum propulsion and drag to a minimum. Your stroke should begin at your feet and finish at your hips, exiting the water with a clean movement. Let your paddle be relaxed so that you can avoid fatigue. Instead of locking your legs, try to synchronize your leg drive with your stand up paddle board strokes by pushing off with the foot on the same side as the paddle stroke, which helps to stabilize your kayak and adds power. Keep your hips flexible to adjust for waves without losing momentum. Regular practice and building endurance will also improve your speed and stamina over time.
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Weâre talking about two different things here (at least), efficiency and speed. Wanting to go as fast as possible over a given distance and wanting to travel the greatest distance for a given amount of energy expended are both admirable goals, but they are not the same. That is, the fastest paddler is not necessarily the most efficient. F-1 cars get about 7 mpg. Fast, but not efficient. My old VW (Diesel) got 50 mpg, but it could barely hit 65 mph downhill with a tailwind. My goal most days is to find a balance that will get me where I want to go in a reasonable amount of time. After, I want to feel as if Iâve had a bit of a workout without having to crawl to the car.
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I believe I pointed out that pure speed in sprint racing is very different than trying to improve average cruising speed, but then, Ive come to the conclusion that the topic is of little interest on the forum.
A rudder can turn a kayak, but that is not itâs primary purpose. The primary purpose is to counteract the effects of a crosswind, just like a skeg.
From what you posted I gather that you did not feel the need for a rudder until you came to a turn. When a rudder is used to turn kayak it introduces a lot of drag. Edging the boat is usually a much faster and more efficient method of turning a kayak. A rockered boat can almost be spun in place when edging, especially if the widest part of the kayak is near the cockpit.
You should have edged the boat and used a sweep stroke for a quick turn rather than wasting time and introducing a lot of drag by employing the rudder.
My head is going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder for a transplant. Proceeds go to charity. Worth big bucks 
.
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@rstevens15 Some things to point out regarding your assessment.
- Hard Chine boats donât Edge turn as well as soft chine.
- The Tsunami (atleast mine) has zero Rocker. So edging the boat really doesnât seem to add anything.
So To give you an example, the Tsunami turns with Just paddle strokes in say about 20 boat lengths, If you Edge the boat and use paddle strokes, it turns in about 17 boat lengths, if you donât edge and just use corrective strokes and the rudder it turns in about 15 boat lengths, and if you Edge, rudder and use corrective strokes, you might get it to 12 boat lengths.
My Tempest 180 turns just on corrective paddle strokes (and remembering to pull the skeg up) in about 12 boat lengths.
âA skeg or rudder will counteract yawing but it still wastes energy. Iâm not sure which wastes more energy, the yawing or counteracting it, but itâs probably close either way.â (I guess I didnât do the quote feature correctly. Someday Iâll figure it out).
One thing that is interesting is that a rudder or skeg does have a certain advantage in terms of efficiency, because the lateral force that âstraightens the boatâ is applied at or very near the stern, where due to the mechanical advantage of that long âlever armâ (relative to the paddlerâs position and relative to the whole of the boat), very little lateral force is needed to affect the desired result. This translates to very little drag resulting from the process (for comparison, consider how much âstrongerâ the ruddering action would need to be if applied just a short distance rearward of the center of the boat, with a sharper angle of the rudder being needed to create the force needed in the absence of good mechanical advantage, resulting in more drag).
One reasons Verlen Krugerâs Sea Wind (canoe) is so good for long-distance tripping is that a rudder is used for correcting the steering action that is imposed by paddling on just one side. A canoe paddler can correct this action, obviously (and in most canoes, knowing how to do this is critically important), but it turns out that a rudder - doing its thing at the extreme back end of the boat where the bare minimum of lateral force is required - accomplishes this much more efficiently than correction strokes applied by the paddler. Still, all this is just food for thought and is not meant to minimize the importance of paddling in an efficient manner in the first place. And ESPECIALLY, I am not going to try to tell good kayakers what constitutes a good stroke. With this post, I just wanted to illustrate a basic mechanical principle.
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I doubt that.
The rudder would indeed be real advantage with crosswinds to counteract weather helm of lee helm, so that you can just choose on which side to paddle based on preference or fatique.
For going straight with no crosswinds, paddling with a âpitch strokeâ is much more efficient also because a rudder adds resistance especially when used too much and locks your feet into a fixed position that I would not prefer on long distance canoeing.
Of course, it you cannot paddle with a âpitch strokeâ, then a rudder may be more efficient.
BlockquoteThe rudder would indeed be real advantage with crosswinds to counteract weather helm of lee helm, so that you can just choose on which side to paddle based on preference or fatique.
For going straight with no crosswinds, paddling with a âpitch strokeâ is much more efficient also because a rudder adds resistance especially when used too much and locks your feet into a fixed position that I would not prefer on long distance canoeing.
Itâs true that the rudder âadds resistanceâ, but falling back on this as the reason for your point shows that you missed the point I tried to make. So Iâll review, but only this one time.
The reason a pitch stroke is not more efficient is because the lateral force that it creates is applied at a location on the boat where that force must be much greater than if it were applied at a location that is much farther away from the pivot point of the boat, or in other words, if that lateral force were applied via the advantage of a longer lever arm.
Also, donât lose sight of the fact that a pitch stroke and a rudder are both working by the exact same physical principle, and that is by creating lift. I hate the term term âliftâ because it can connote a force direction of âupâ, which can be distracting for anyone who doesnât automatically relate to this strange convention in nomenclature, so another way to describe âliftâ in this case is as a wedging action of a blade that is moving through water, whether paddle blade or rudder. The angle of this wedging action is markedly different for the pitch stroke or a rudder which are both accomplishing the same thing here, but the principle about how power is robbed from the force applied in one component direction and added to another is the same in both cases. But since the lateral force applied by a pitch stroke must be stronger than the lateral force applied by a rudder, more power must be robbed from the primary component of motion to have the desired result. And this is the crux of the issue, and itâs why the pitch stroke cannot be more efficient than a rudder at counteracting the yaw that results from applying propulsive force at some distance away from the boatâs centerline.
You can âfeelâ this effect of a longer lever arm for yourself with a simple demonstration. Where would you apply a stroke that makes your boat pivot if you wanted the stroke to have maximum effect? (pivoting is just another form of changing heading, and the forces involved are the same as in our main example here but are easier for the paddle to isolate and focus on). Would you apply the stroke very close to center within your normal area of applying forward power, or as far away from center as you could reach? Obviously you would apply the force as far away from the boatâs center as you could reach (and in this particular case, the physical principle involved is the same whether you reach straight out to the side or toward one end of the boat - either way you are amplifying the effect of your blade motion when reaching farther away from center).
Okay, this message is already too long, but hereâs one more way to visualize my point, to help ensure that I make this clear via just one post. Imagine that a paddler is moving his boat forward with an absolutely perfect single-blade stroke, in terms of applying power perfectly parallel to the boatâs centerline and as close alongside as possible. Also imagine that you are a giant in the sky who will reach down from above and do the job of counteracting the boatâs tendency to veer away from the side on which the paddle is being used. I already know from one of your other posts here that you understand why lateral force applied to the stern is more effective than lateral force applied to the bow, so hereâs the question. As a giant in the sky whoâs going to reach down and push sideways on some part of the boat to keep it going straight, where must you apply that lateral force if your goal is to use the lightest touch possible when accomplishing this task? Will you apply that force somewhere close to the paddler, or at the very tip of the stern? Of course (because of the physical principles above) you would choose the stern. Now, just remember that when the paddler does this without help from a giant in the sky, whether by pitch stroke or by rudder, the lateral force that accomplishes this correction is robbed from the force used to make the boat go forward. Obviously, lessening the magnitude of the force that is required, lessens the amount of power that is robbed from that which makes the boat go forward. This can seemingly be disguised by the fact that a correcting stroke âis mostly applying forward powerâ, but the principle I keep stressing is always there and can be isolated by breaking down force components.
Related to what you said about your own expectations for comfort, in a Kruger-style boat (or a kayak), one puts their feet against a brace to counteract the force thatâs applied to their forward stroke, and whether everything about that brace suits your preferences as a paddler is not related to the point I was making. This wouldnât be my choice either since I paddle a canoe from a kneeling position for my own reasons. For my style of paddling, I actually enjoy being able to do all sorts of subtle things with a single-blade paddle while underway. But physics makes no exceptions related to my preferences or anyone elseâs, and I am accepting that there is a loss in efficiency regarding creating forward motion in exchange for my own comfort and especially in regard to having a greater ability to âmake the boat do neat stuffâ (last summer I encountered a sit-and-switch paddler who heartily chastised me for not paddling âthe only way that makes senseâ, but what was âthe right wayâ for him (he was a racer) would be the wrong way where lots of tricky and magical-feeling maneuvers are required). Everything in paddling involves accepting compromises in terms of the physics involved.
Well here I think is when theory suffers from practice.
While I do try to paddle as close to the boat as possible, I donât even try to paddle perfectly parallel to the boatâs centerline because in my opinion that is a futile effort.
Making a pitch stroke is the only way to paddle parallel to the centerline of the boat, but in this case it is to counteract the yaw from the forward stroke almost at the same time it happens and not afterwards, as is done with a J-stroke and rudder stroke (thumbs-up J).
Anyway, my experience with a rudder almost everyday now, shows no advantage over a pitch stroke except when there is too much weather helm that also forces me to paddle constantly on the windward side.
A rudder can only turn your boat when and as long there is a speed difference between the boat and the water. For really sharp turns there is too much speed loss for a rudder to turn the boat, also because a rudder only has an effect on the stern, not on the bow. My SmartTrack rudder also impedes turning even more because it canât be turned to 90 degrees itself.
But for sharp turns a paddler has a much better tool at hand than a rudder â a paddle!
Here is an almost 5mph trip this morning. A lot of the drops in speed bc I paddled over to my kid rowing to talk to him. I also was floating around in the sound to take videos and circling at inlet to wait for a boat to pass thru. Strava tagged these as moving. So I think I maintained 5mph on this trip. I am making less splashes. I adjusted my head rotation to not turn it until I am ready to rotate. There was no wind and at slack so no currents helping me in either directions today.
I am no longer in the Current Design GTS since I made this post. I had went to a Necky Chatham18 and again now to a Zegul Greenland GT. I am using a Werner Ikelos 210cm .
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It looks like I ought to explain something. Throughout the field of science, whether in real-life experiments, or in âthought problemsâ which have the purpose of illustrating a principle, itâs proper to take steps to eliminate variables which are not part of the comparison but which if not standardized could affect the result and confuse things. In thought problems, one goal is to focus the readerâs attention on the point that is being made, and thatâs another aspect of standardizing stuff thatâs otherwise unrelated to the problem, so I didnât even think it might be necessary to explain that when I specified a paddle stroke that eliminates obvious steering inputs that you might use that as a way of sidestepping or even negating anything about the overall point. So, no, I was not suggesting that perfection in real life would be to paddle absolutely parallel to the boat, and indeed, these pitch strokes that you mention can often do their job better if the actual path of the paddle is altered a bit to make the most of their combination purpose - applying force in two component directions at a right angle to each other (and I have no doubt you take full advantage of that when paddling).
As to you not noticing any greater efficiency when using a rudder, that makes sense and I totally believe it. The principle I was describing earlier is not going to cause a night-and-day difference in most situations and I never meant to make it sound that way, but the validity of how physics describes what is happening in that sense doesnât come to an end whenever the method of measurement isnât sensitive enough to discern it. Instead, thatâs just an example of when the paddler can justify skipping the rudder and paddling in a way that works better in his situation for other reasons. I see that another poster here has referenced an article which goes into the innate efficiency advantage of rudders in the realm of racing, in greater detail than I ever could and with analysis to back up the conclusion. But in your situation (and many other situations including my own), any slight advantage that a rudder has in that specific way would be far outweighed by other kinds of advantages associated with just using the paddle, so âI getâ that part.
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What was your son paddling at 5 mph? Drops didnât leave you much time for talking, circling, or videoing. No wind or currents and you hit 8.3 mph, nice work.