I did read your historically correct and logically coherent explanation but I believe the feathering was a side benefit but not the reason. Sea Kayaking started before WW and as soon as the first large blade was put on a shaft, a problem had to be corrected. Wind resistance. Feathering was invented to counter the wind, be it wind or air resistance of moving the blade forward. This concept was carried over to WW paddlers without analysis. It was what you did with a double sided paddle so it would slice into the wind and make the forward blade movement easier. All the rest of it is unanalyzed habit and illogical doctrine. A good river paddler can make any paddle work well and made the feathered paddle work well and propagated the doctrine.
If you want to, you can think of a lot of reasons you do anything. Even the GP was met with suspicion and ridicule by conventional paddle users and now it's known that you can paddle in very rough conditions and even race with it. Greg Stamer posted how he won a race against racing kayaks and wing paddles a while back. It's good that people try things. It just means more good choices for everyone.
Back when ww kayaking was already going very strong, sea kayaking was nearly non-existent, and had no influence whatsoever on what sort of paddles were being offered to whitewater paddlers. I think you have a very “expanded” notion of what was going on in sea kayaking back in the 60s, 70s, and even the 80s. Whitewater kayaking was growing “rapidly” back then, but sea kayaking was way behind. Those of us in whitewater were totally unaware of sea kayaking, and while we were a bit “stupid” about 90 degree feather, we were TOTALLY clear on the reasons… mainly the (weak) issue of the upper blade at 90 degrees for minimal air resistance, and also the need to dodge poles for the few who were slalom kayaking.
If someone had told us that certain British sea kayakers insisted that 90 degree feather was the only way to go, we would have said, “Huh? Sea kayakers? Britain? Well, our paddles are 90 degrees already.”
I think Jay would benefit greatly by reading the book River Chasers, by Susan L Taft. Although Klepper and company, Folbot and others were producing commercial sea kayaks from the early part of the 20th C and really did create a recreational market, whitewater kayaking was following very closely in time from the open canoeing tradition and exploratory river running. Jay has a point, sea kayaking as a rec sport was first, but whitewater development left it in the dust. The post ww2 rubber raft surplus made river running a recreation that sea kayaking would never get out of the single digits in comparison. Sea kayaking never has been a mainstream sport and whitewater once came close, but contracted pretty severely since then. However, very few ideas migrate from sea kayaking to whitewater, but whitewater ideas (right or wrong) have flowed far more significantly into sea kayaking.
Still… better than typwriters or word processors. That’s the stuff I grew up with. I still prefer scribbling in notebooks. I just started walking on two legs in about '83.
Just walking in In '83? And you’ve used typewriters and word processors?
In '83 I was 4 years out of HS already in the Navy (whose computers were either borderline useless glorified typewriters, or filled whole rooms), and I’m still relatively young on these boards…
Feathered origins Actually it was flat water kayak racing that was the father of the feathered paddle - in Germany. I think it was in 1936 that it was an official sport of the olympic games in Berlin.
No, it wouldn’t Feathered paddling requires a control hand to rotate the off-side blade, though once in the water at a reasonably appropriate angle, the blade will orient itself, so a deathgrip on the paddle isn’t required.
How can you switch from 90L to 90R without changing the feather of the paddle? Are you using a Toksook or other paddle with symmetric blades?
...is in crosswinds. One thing that many paddlers don't seem to realize is that when you're heading into the wind and it hits your paddle, it will slow you down, but you're still stable and in control, but with a crosswind hitting a feathered blade from the side, it's quite possible that the result will be the need to brace quickly or if you don't get it done in time, a capsize. It seems to me that anything that seriously compromises the stability of a kayaker is going to be more critical than something that merely reduces forward progress, since constantly fighting to stay upright will take a lot of energy and also compromise one's forward paddle stroke. In effect, it's a "double whammy" that slows you down and wears you out.
...and I suspect what's actually going on is that it's so little feather that if you simply allow the blades to seek their own orientation in the water, they will. Essentially, the paddle is self-correcting.
A coach borrowed one of our adjustable Epics to mess around with once, leaving it loose to see where the feather angle would go if he paddled normally and let it move to where it wished. He came up at about 15 degrees, or slightly under. To me, that 12 to 15 degree range feels easier than zero.
clarification… what I meant was that I can change the angle of my blades, to any angle between 90L and 90R without much of a problem with any of my strokes. I use a Lendal crankshaft with Kinetic blades.
So lets say I am paddling with 30L and I decided I want a change so I switch to 75R. No problem - it might take a few strokes to adjust but that is all.
When I paddle I mentally cut the paddle in half, my right hand controls the right blade and my left hand controls the left blade. For a low brace on the left side my left hand controls the angle of the blade, and the right hand on the right.
Maybe a forward stroke example will help. Starting on the right side, my right hand ‘controls’ the blade as it enters the water. There is actually very little grip in the ‘control’. Once the blade is in the water I relax both hands and use the ‘hook and push’ method you describe. My right hand ‘controls’ the right blade as it releases from the water. Once the release is completed my left hand takes over and sets the left blade for entry into the water and the process is repeated on the left side.
It sounds rather complex but it happens very fluidly and without any thought at all.
