(ORIGINAL POST AT BOTTOM)

Another possibility: I visited AT's web site and read with horror Jimmy
Blakeney's product revue of the AT2--in the last paragraph he states:

"So, the two biggest reasons I like this paddle are its comfort/grip (combined
w/the known benefit of a bentshaft) and its smooth feel in the water and quick
stroke rate. It feels very balanced from the moment you pick it up, just make
sure your holding it the right way (low volume part of blade on the bottom). As

I've said before, any decent paddle will work, but the differences are in the
details, sometimes very important details."

So, according to that (very credible) source, I've been using the paddle upside
down?! I've been paddling with the higher area half of the blade (assuming the
ridge where the shaft combines with the blade is the dividing point between the
two) facing down, just like my last paddle, a similarly asymetric Werner
Freestyle! Granted, the review is for the AT2, not the AT4, but I would have
to imagine the designs are similar enough to employ the same paddling style.

Any of you AT paddlers out ther care to weigh in on which side of the blade
goes down? Haven't paddled for a week, and even so, whatever I'd done to my
elbow doesn't seem to be getting any better. No paddling for me for a while, it
looks like...waaaaa!

ORIGINAL POST:
Please help! It's like this: I finally go to a bent shaft (an AT4 River)
design after 6+ years of using straight shaft kayak paddles and find myself on
Virginia's Whitetop Laurel (a personal first 'D'!) after extensive rains last
Saturday. Somewhere about halfway through the 13-mile run--a fine choice for
an inaugural run with my new paddle, I might add, or so I thought--I began
feeling a pronounced pain in my right (power side) elbow, concentrating towards
the outside of it. Next morning the pain was so intense I had to lay off of
paddling--ARGGGHH! Vitamin "I" didn't even help, and {unfortunately} there
were no more potent pharmaceticals available. Day after, I paddled the
Nolichucky and by the time I took off my elbow had swollen to about the size of
a tennis ball! I THOUGHT I was gripping it correctly, basically where the
shaft enters the first arm of the "V"...is this wrong? Didn't run into any
trouble on either rivers, didn't hit it on any rocks--what gives? It's a 200cm
paddle but I am 6'4" with fairly long arms...could the paddle still be too
long? Over the years I've actually been steadily shortening my paddle lengths,
I started up around 206cm!! Maybe it's time to go with a 196 or 198?? Any
suggestions are appreciated (and DON'T say "give up paddling", pleeeze!)


Jeff Oxley
Recovering aqua-holic--and relapsing again (full time)
Editor, Blue Ridge River Runners (part time)