Brian Nystrom wrote:

Feathered paddles can be shorter (due to different technique used)
and therefore lighter.

How do you figure that? There's no difference in technique that would
require a different length paddle, one way or the other. You seem to be
assuming that there's a difference in paddle placement, paddle angle,
torso rotation, etc. when there isn't.

Hard to describe in words, without a paddle in hand.

With unfeathered blades, your two hands have a paddling motion
in two parallel circles, like cranking two old Model-T starters.

With feathered blades, your shoulders get involved in the strokes
and (with proper personal angle) the wrists and forearms stay
mostly stationary with respect to the paddle. Upper-arm movement
substitutes for a certain amount (10cm?) of paddle length.

On 15-Jun-2004, Bill Tuthill wrote:

With unfeathered blades, your two hands have a paddling motion
in two parallel circles, like cranking two old Model-T starters.

With feathered blades, your shoulders get involved in the strokes
and (with proper personal angle) the wrists and forearms stay
mostly stationary with respect to the paddle. Upper-arm movement
substitutes for a certain amount (10cm?) of paddle length

I don't see why you have this difference. I use the same technique
(closest to your second description) whether feathered or not.

The former technique is what I tell folks to stop doing and the latter
is what they should do.

Mike

Michael Daly wrote:

On 15-Jun-2004, Bill Tuthill wrote:


With unfeathered blades, your two hands have a paddling motion
in two parallel circles, like cranking two old Model-T starters.

With feathered blades, your shoulders get involved in the strokes
and (with proper personal angle) the wrists and forearms stay
mostly stationary with respect to the paddle. Upper-arm movement
substitutes for a certain amount (10cm?) of paddle length

This is a common misconception, typically propagated by proponents of
feathered paddling. It's nonsense. There is nothing about paddling
unfeathered that forces this kind of difference in technique.

I don't see why you have this difference. I use the same technique
(closest to your second description) whether feathered or not.

The former technique is what I tell folks to stop doing and the latter
is what they should do.

Exactly. There is no difference in proper technique, whether the paddle
is feathered or not. Placement is placement. Torso rotation is torso
rotation.