Take your "feathered" paddle in your hands. Place one blade in the "down" position with the blade aligned to grip the water. Now, simply raise that blade and put the other blade down, again aligned to grip the water, and just TRY to accomplish this without rotating the shaft. Also, just try to rotate the shaft without flexing your wrists.
With a non-feathered paddle, you can do this without rotating the shaft, and with NO wrist movement. Place a mark on the top of the shaft when one blade is down, and that mark will still be on top of the shaft when the other blade is down. In this case, the ideal wrist position for one hand is the same as for the other, and no adjustment by means of shaft rotation is needed at any time.
With a feathered paddle, you alternately rotate the shaft forward, then back again on successive strokes. This cannot be done without wrist action. Whether this is comfortable for you is one issue, but to say it causes proper alignment of the wrists, or that it makes both wrists align the same (I've heard both statements here) makes no sense. The fact that the shaft must rotate in opposite directions when preparing for successive strokes eliminates any chance that both wrists can move in exactly the same way, or that flexing of the wrists is minimized.
Regarding the term "feathered", you are forgetting where this comes from. The first feathered kayak paddles WERE truly "feathered", with the blades 90-degrees out of alignment from each other. When I was a kid, all the kayak paddles I ever saw had the blades oriented at 90 degrees from each other, and I believe that the idea of having them out of alignment by only 60 degrees or less is recent, and probably came about so that a smaller amount of wrist flex is required.
It can be done without wrist action . . If you hold the paddle shaft loosely and use the fingertips of the “non-control” hand to rotate the paddle shaft toward you, very little wrist action on the part of the control hand is required.
I don’t care… if someone paddles feathered or not! I paddle unfeathered because it works for me. Anyone that’s paddled with me knows that I’m not a slow paddler and that I’m a fairly accomplished one to boot. All of my boats are long and thin and they demand me to paddle them hard, and I do, be it the kayak, surf ski or my canoe. I use the same paddle for all, my wing paddle. I just adjust the length dependent on which boat I happen to be in.
Perhaps, and I don’t doubt that it… … works well for people and that many find it to be perfectly comfortable. But that’s not the point at all. My point is very simple: Creating the need to rotate the paddle shaft on alternate strokes (due to non-alignment of the blades) does NOT eliminate or minimize wrist motion. It does just the opposite. If you really wanted to eliminate wrist motion, you’d set the blades so that no shaft rotation between strokes was needed.
Keep in mind that there’s a particular feathering angle for a particular stroke angle.
If you use a right-hand paddle, the right hand wrist never needs to flex. The left hand wrist doesn’t need to flex either because you let the paddle slip/rotate in the left hand.
Not forgetting at all "Regarding the term “feathered”, you are forgetting where this comes from. The first feathered kayak paddles WERE truly “feathered”, with the blades 90-degrees out of alignment from each other. When I was a kid, all the kayak paddles I ever saw had the blades oriented at 90 degrees from each other, and I believe that the idea of having them out of alignment by only 60 degrees or less is recent, and probably came about so that a smaller amount of wrist flex is required."
No, I didn’t forget this. It’s fairly well-known.
I just don’t think the reason was ever to reduce wind resistence. Or, it the original purpose was to do that, it was solving a problem that really didn’t exist.
No wrist flexing required. “does NOT eliminate or minimize wrist motion. It does just the opposite. If you really wanted to eliminate wrist motion, you’d set the blades so that no shaft rotation between strokes was needed.”
No, this is wrong. The key is to allow the shaft to slip in one (or both hands). If you do that, you don’t need to flex your wrists at all.
“With a non-feathered paddle, you can do this without rotating the shaft, and with NO wrist movement. Place a mark on the top of the shaft when one blade is down, and that mark will still be on top of the shaft when the other blade is down. In this case, the ideal wrist position for one hand is the same as for the other, and no adjustment by means of shaft rotation is needed at any time.”
The only way you can keep the paddle shaft from rotating is EITHER to flex your wrist OR let the paddle shaft slip in your hand.
With a high-angle stroke, the effect is more extreme. With a very low-angle stroke, the amount of wrist flexing required is close to zero.
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If you are flexing your wrists with a feathered paddle, either your technique is wrong OR the feather angle is not correct for your stroke angle.
You say that different stroke angles require different feathering angles. Once again, hold the paddle crosswise in front of you and put one blade down, properly aligned to grab the water. Now, simply raise the other blade higher, and higher still. What changes? No matter how high or low the other blade is, the blade in the water is still 90-degrees to your direction of pull. Now, during an actual stroke, there may be some slight rotation of the shaft necessary when reaching far forward, but my examples are in the interest of revealing the lack of symmetry that goes on here, so I’m comparing what goes on on directly opposite sides of the boat to make the comparison easier.
Also, the idea that wrist rotation is not required CAN’T be true unless taking only one stroke, on a particular side. Now, if the paddle shaft rotated in the same direction in preparation for each stroke, I could see how some comfort/ergonomic thing might be going on here, but when the direction of rotation alternates, and is always opposite of that which happens when prepping for the catch on the other side, that is NOT symmetrical and by definition can NOT require no wrist motion OR the same motion for each side. To illustrate, a forward rotation of one hand when compared to a forward rotation of the other hand rotates the shaft THE SAME DIRECTION - forward. I don’t know how to make this any simpler. Forward rotation of the shaft for one stroke and backward rotation for the next cannot be done with symmetrical hand movements. I don’t care how good it feels to you, as anything can be learned with practice. I’m strictly looking at what body motion is needed to cause the shaft to rotate forward versus rotate backward.
Slipping shaft Sure, the blade slips within one hand, but what makes it rotate at all if not movement of the other hand? And what makes the direction of rotation reverse itself on the following stroke? Again, at least one hand must be imparting rotation to the shaft. And since the direction of rotation reverses each time, that motion is by definition not symmetrical, and if not symmetrical it is not “neutral” for both hands/wrists at the same time.
Canoe paddlers rotate the shaft 90 degrees on the recovery stroke as do competitive rowers, and in both cases it has always been called "feathering". In both cases, you can actually feel the difference in air resistance between feathering and not feathering. For you to suggest that the word "feathering" must have been applied to the early 90-degree kayak paddles for a reason that is different than what was the case for all the other forms of paddling and rowing seems more like avoidance of the point than logic. I'm not saying that air-resistance on the recovery stroke is always something to be concerned about, but that doesn't negate the meaning of the word.
wrists/forearms/kayaking culture The usual advice for a high feathered stroke is to perform the movement with forearm rotation, not cocking the wrist. This is very easy to do with a feathered paddle for a very high stroke, but becomes troublesome if the paddle becomes horizontal (and then requires the wrist to break).
With an unfeathered blade it’s easy to perform a low, horizontal stroke with neutral wrists. For a high vertical stroke, you alternate which forearm rotates to orient the blade. This is very natural and is symmetrical.
IMO, feathering is more related to “kayak culture” than a true need. Also (and maybe more important for some personalities) unfeathered blades used to have the stigma of a beginner attached to them, and perhaps still do. This used to be especially true on the river where only newbies in “Duckies” used them.
In my case I simply dislike the feel of feathering, although I did paddle feathered for a number of years. Introducing an asymmetric movement, with no clear and solid benefit (and a severe disadvantage in some conditions), doesn’t make sense to me. However, personal preference rules. Just try to keep your wrists neutral and joints aligned, no matter what technique you use.
My advice to “feathered students” is to keep a very light grip, use forearm rotation rather than cock the wrist, and be wary and defensive of beam winds.
My advice to “unfeathered students” is to keep a light grip, deal with headwinds – knowing you have an advantage in beam and tail winds, and be wary of all the flak you will get from your “properly schooled” friends …
Flak and making up your own mind Ten years ago someone more experienced told me “Don’t cross the centerline! Punch it straight forward!” (I was trying to emulate–probably ineptly-- what was in Reitz’s forward stroke video.)
Also: “Don’t bury the blade!” from someone else, also more experienced. Plus he defined a stern rudder that was actually a stern sweep.
A whitewater shop guy snugged up the backband in my new boat (not a playboat) so tightly I could not rotate AT ALL and he said that was how it should be. By that time, I knew to simply ignore his advice and let it ride low and loose.
And yes, like probably most kayakers I’ve heard assorted claims about feather angles. There’s enough variation that I have to wonder how differently our body joints are put together. For example, I read that women’s elbows bend differently from men’s because nature designed them to hold babies on (wider) hips. Never mind things such as limited flexibility or injuries.
that’s in reply that’s in reply to the naysayers that tout the GP as being a useless paddle way too slow to accomplish anything serious. My take: it’s not what you have, it’s how you use it. While records are a great feat for the individuals that accomplish them, they have very little relevance to me since my goals on the water are totally different.
