INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Again, MANY THANKS for all the GREAT input. I will take all into consideration. In retrospect, I under estimated the flow of the canal, usually its ‘negligable’, but was coming off of being flooded. It was still a low flow, but higher/faster than the norm. Since half of the trip is ‘upstream’, well, you get the picture. I also was using a straight shaft paddle in my little Perception Sonoma10, which is not my norm. Also being 50 plus yrs old and not in 30 yr old shape also play into the mix. I will continue to work on my form, as I’m shooting for an ACA L1 class in July. I will keep you all informed. THANKS
Don’t do it!
I would definitely stay away from feathering, it will only encourage you to twist your wrist back and forth. Any action which causes you to flex/extend your wrist, especially repetitively, will make your tennis elbow worse. If someone tells you that you can paddle with a feathered paddle and not twist your wrists, they might be right, but the twisting of the shaft will have to come from other unwanted movements of the body…lifting one arm more than the other. Paddling asymmetrically isn’t a good idea.
Feathering is slowly going away in the paddling community; many paddlers have incrementally decreased their feather angle from 90 degrees all the way down to 15 degrees and more and more paddlers are not feathering at all. Many of the benefits paddlers feel when they switch to a GP are provided, in my opinion, by the lack of a feather angle, not by some magical power inherent in GP’s. I’m not bashing GP’s, they are a great option for some people. I actually built myself one and gave it a fair shot; I just didn’t like it.
A great friend of mine and I both have tennis elbow. For me, it started while painting my house; he’s had it for a while. I can paddle many miles, he can’t paddle more than a couple of miles. He uses a feathered paddle, I don’t.
I hope this helps,
Pedro Almeida
I agree its not the paddling
I haven’t paddled in months and it can get worse during the off season ! I agree poor paddling can “aggravate” it but it didnt cause my tendonitus- I wish I knew what is causing it but noone can figure it out (both arms!) Some internal problems i guess.
Good luck as i know many get rid of it and you may be one of the lucky ones.
Update & Thanks on Tendonitis
Just to keep all up todate. I’ve been in therapy with my chrio using electic stimulation and I also purchsed an arm brace. Therapy has been going well, will test it on the water in a few weeks.
I Don’t Think This Was Mentioned
– Last Updated: Apr-02-09 6:23 PM EST –
The older you get the more important it is to do a LONG SLOW EASY warmup before paddling hard. I found this out the hard way. Knees and bicycling.
elbow tendonitis
Thanks to all who have posted here, especially cooldoc. Most excellent, thorough and helpful info. I overdid it on an SF bay paddle during rough weather and have been working with this for awhile, but this info most helpful i’ve found.