Hand paddles for $40 (in another thread) got me wondering
about other stuff. (Are web-fingered gloves good enough to
get down a difficult river? If not, no point carrying them;
better to walk out or wait for rescue.)

Anybody have words of wisdom about elbow pads? It seems
my elbows are the only thing I ever injure nowadays, so...

Here are some choices of elbow pads, on order of price:
$25 Protec (mine are plastic reinforced, unlike pictures)
$29 Shred Ready Tsunami Elbow pads (look great)
$33 Six Six One (for cycling, might absorb too much water)
$45 NRS Elbow pads (overpriced?)

Some provider makes an under-the-drytop elbow pad
that might stay on more securely than the above models,
but I can't find it on the web now.

Bill Tuthill wrote:
Hand paddles for $40 (in another thread) got me wondering
about other stuff. (Are web-fingered gloves good enough to
get down a difficult river? If not, no point carrying them;
better to walk out or wait for rescue.)

Anybody have words of wisdom about elbow pads? It seems
my elbows are the only thing I ever injure nowadays, so...

Here are some choices of elbow pads, on order of price:
$25 Protec (mine are plastic reinforced, unlike pictures)
$29 Shred Ready Tsunami Elbow pads (look great)
$33 Six Six One (for cycling, might absorb too much water)
$45 NRS Elbow pads (overpriced?)

Some provider makes an under-the-drytop elbow pad
that might stay on more securely than the above models,
but I can't find it on the web now.


I've bought elbow pads in 1999, and I've used them on just about every
whitewater trip since then. Breaking your elbows is a painful
experience, and after I had that happen twice, they seem a lot more
susceptible to weeks of pain if I do hit them in the wrong spot again.

My conclusions based on my experience so far:
-Get something that has a hard outside and soft inside. The completely
soft elbow pads don't spread the impact on a point that well.
-Get elbow pads with a seperate (hard) protection for your lower arm as
well. The chance that you only hit something with your elbow and not
with your lower arm, especially when you deliberately use your arm(s) to
protect yourself against an impact, seems pretty low to me.
-Get pads that stay in place (no turning or twisting around your arm,
and no sliding down either!). I have the Lotus elbow pads (no longer
made) with neoprene shaft around the bottom and top, combined with
elastic straps at both top and bottom. That doesn't work, because the
lower arm is narrower and because the top strap sits right on top of the
biceps, so it *will* slide down! Solved that problem by adding another
strap on the inside of the elbow.

-I have pads with neoprene on the inside, and the protection (plastic
with layer of minicell) as well as strong covering material over the
plastic protective parts on the outside. That means that my arms are
effectively well insulated, which helps quite a bit in the winter and
doesn't bother me in the summer.

I've seen paddling buddies use skateboard elbow guards, but I haven't
seen anyone really enthouaistic about those.

I've bought a set of Mountain Surf (?) elbow guards to replace these
Lotus pads, but the Lotus set just keeps on working so well, that I
haven't had a reason to use them yet. Maybe I'll convince my GF to start
using them... :-)

I paid roughly 60US$ for the Lotus pads, and maybe 40 or so for the
other pair. It is a lot of money, but for me that was money very well spent!

I believe in paying more and getting what works than paying not so much
for what doesn't work... :-)

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/

Wilko wrote:
Bill Tuthill wrote:
Hand paddles for $40 (in another thread) got me wondering
about other stuff. (Are web-fingered gloves good enough to
get down a difficult river? If not, no point carrying them;
better to walk out or wait for rescue.)

Anybody have words of wisdom about elbow pads? It seems
my elbows are the only thing I ever injure nowadays, so...

Here are some choices of elbow pads, on order of price:
$25 Protec (mine are plastic reinforced, unlike pictures)
$29 Shred Ready Tsunami Elbow pads (look great)
$33 Six Six One (for cycling, might absorb too much water)
$45 NRS Elbow pads (overpriced?)

Some provider makes an under-the-drytop elbow pad
that might stay on more securely than the above models,
but I can't find it on the web now.


I've bought elbow pads in 1999, and I've used them on just about every
whitewater trip since then. Breaking your elbows is a painful
experience, and after I had that happen twice, they seem a lot more
susceptible to weeks of pain if I do hit them in the wrong spot again.

My conclusions based on my experience so far:
-Get something that has a hard outside and soft inside. The completely
soft elbow pads don't spread the impact on a point that well.
-Get elbow pads with a seperate (hard) protection for your lower arm as
well. The chance that you only hit something with your elbow and not
with your lower arm, especially when you deliberately use your arm(s) to
protect yourself against an impact, seems pretty low to me.
-Get pads that stay in place (no turning or twisting around your arm,
and no sliding down either!). I have the Lotus elbow pads (no longer
made) with neoprene shaft around the bottom and top, combined with
elastic straps at both top and bottom. That doesn't work, because the
lower arm is narrower and because the top strap sits right on top of the
biceps, so it *will* slide down! Solved that problem by adding another
strap on the inside of the elbow.

-I have pads with neoprene on the inside, and the protection (plastic
with layer of minicell) as well as strong covering material over the
plastic protective parts on the outside. That means that my arms are
effectively well insulated, which helps quite a bit in the winter and
doesn't bother me in the summer.

I've seen paddling buddies use skateboard elbow guards, but I haven't
seen anyone really enthouaistic about those.

I've bought a set of Mountain Surf (?) elbow guards to replace these
Lotus pads, but the Lotus set just keeps on working so well, that I
haven't had a reason to use them yet. Maybe I'll convince my GF to start
using them... :-)

I paid roughly 60US$ for the Lotus pads, and maybe 40 or so for the
other pair. It is a lot of money, but for me that was money very well
spent!

I believe in paying more and getting what works than paying not so much
for what doesn't work... :-)

There are a lot of good elbow pads for mountain biking that should work
well for whitewater. They start at ~$20.

Wilko wrote:
My conclusions based on my experience so far:
-Get pads that stay in place (no turning or twisting around your arm,
-Get something that has a hard outside and soft inside. The completely
soft elbow pads don't spread the impact on a point that well.

Agreed, strongly. Some Protec elbow pads are soft, others hard like mine:
http://daddiesboardshop.com/ProductI...blk-sk-bmx.jpg

The "Tsunami" is the name of the Shred Ready model. I can't tell from the
online pictures whether it will stay on better than other models.

-Get elbow pads with a separate (hard) protection for your lower arm as
well. The chance that you only hit something with your elbow and not
with your lower arm, especially when you deliberately use your arm(s) to
protect yourself against an impact, seems pretty low to me.

Not sure I agree. When I hit my forearm, it gets bruised, but I seldom
feel any pain, and it heals quickly. Plus it hardly ever happens.

Brian Nystrom wrote:
There are a lot of good elbow pads for mountain biking that should work
well for whitewater. They start at ~$20.

The 616 (Six One Six) "Race" model I mentioned might be for mountain biking.
It can also be found on snowboard-oriented websites.

Bill Tuthill wrote:
Hand paddles for $40 (in another thread) got me wondering
about other stuff. (Are web-fingered gloves good enough to
get down a difficult river? If not, no point carrying them;
better to walk out or wait for rescue.)

Anybody have words of wisdom about elbow pads? It seems
my elbows are the only thing I ever injure nowadays, so...

I'm using soft pads held in place by long underwear type garments, thus far
with no negative results. The company started targeting, I think, motorcycle
use, but they work under a drytop. Or a ski shell.

These are far more expensive than any of the options you mentioned.

http://www.forcefieldbodyarmour.co.uk/

Bill Tuthill wrote:
Wilko wrote:
My conclusions based on my experience so far:
-Get pads that stay in place (no turning or twisting around your arm,
-Get something that has a hard outside and soft inside. The completely
soft elbow pads don't spread the impact on a point that well.

Agreed, strongly. Some Protec elbow pads are soft, others hard like mine:
http://daddiesboardshop.com/ProductI...blk-sk-bmx.jpg

The "Tsunami" is the name of the Shred Ready model. I can't tell from the
online pictures whether it will stay on better than other models.

-Get elbow pads with a separate (hard) protection for your lower arm as
well. The chance that you only hit something with your elbow and not
with your lower arm, especially when you deliberately use your arm(s) to
protect yourself against an impact, seems pretty low to me.

Not sure I agree. When I hit my forearm, it gets bruised, but I seldom
feel any pain, and it heals quickly. Plus it hardly ever happens.

Brian Nystrom wrote:
There are a lot of good elbow pads for mountain biking that should work
well for whitewater. They start at ~$20.

The 616 (Six One Six) "Race" model I mentioned might be for mountain biking.
It can also be found on snowboard-oriented websites.

That would be "Six-Six-One", not "616". Fox, Roach, Raceface, Dianese
and others offer appropriate products. Many of these are also sold for
motocross use. Don't overlook general sporting goods stores, as there
are good elbow pads sold for "stick and ball" sports too, often at much
lower prices. I recently picked up some surprising good - and very
protective - elbow pads at a local "retail salvage"-type store (Building
19) for a buck.

Jeremy wrote:
Bill Tuthill wrote:
Hand paddles for $40 (in another thread) got me wondering
about other stuff. (Are web-fingered gloves good enough to
get down a difficult river? If not, no point carrying them;
better to walk out or wait for rescue.)

Anybody have words of wisdom about elbow pads? It seems
my elbows are the only thing I ever injure nowadays, so...

I'm using soft pads held in place by long underwear type garments, thus far
with no negative results. The company started targeting, I think, motorcycle
use, but they work under a drytop. Or a ski shell.

These are far more expensive than any of the options you mentioned.

http://www.forcefieldbodyarmour.co.uk/

I sure hope their products are better than their website, as it's a
great example of how not to design a site. It's a good candidate to be
submitted to Vincent Flander's site "Web Pages that Suck".

On Jun 28, 10:10 am, Brian Nystrom wrote:
http://www.forcefieldbodyarmour.co.uk/

I sure hope their products are better than their website, as it's a
great example of how not to design a site. It's a good candidate to be
submitted to Vincent Flander's site "Web Pages that Suck".

Hey, what's the point of learning Java and Flash if you never
[over]use it?

Steve

wrote:
On Jun 28, 10:10 am, Brian Nystrom wrote:
http://www.forcefieldbodyarmour.co.uk/

I sure hope their products are better than their website, as it's a
great example of how not to design a site. It's a good candidate to be
submitted to Vincent Flander's site "Web Pages that Suck".

Hey, what's the point of learning Java and Flash if you never
[over]use it?

That's pretty amusing. I did a web search for the company name. The gear
was bought locally in a motorsports leather shop, no Java required.