It looks like a lot of fun. I am just back from a weekend of whitewater paddling (first since the spring) and this really brings home that it is great practice & experience for sea kayaking.
Gmail emailed me your comment about the Werner Stikine paddle. Mine is not feathered. I am traditionally a Greenland paddler but I do really love the Stikine except for that it isn't balanced; meaning if you don't grip it tightly when rolling it will spin upside down with the powerface facing up. In my opinion feathering is all about grip. If you have the typical Euro blade control hand and hold the paddle with those knuckles in line with the top of the blade, and keep a tight grip, then high angle paddling with a small feather might be comfortable (but arguably not necessary). I pretty much never feather and despite talking to many very experienced paddlers and instructors about it, and watching tons of videos, and reading lots of articles. I really see no need to feather if you have a loose Greenland style grip on your paddle (like I do nearly each time you see me using a Euro blade). I consider my forward stroke symmetrical so feathering would just require me to rotate my right wrist on each stroke which gets tiring.
@@mmcholm I made a Greenland paddle and used it for a while until I got a Cyprus and then it kind of took over. My Greenland could stand a bit of further thinning down, something I just haven’t got around to doing. I played with feather with it and it seemed that a slight feather (15 degrees) maybe made the catch seem smoother. When I started doing a bit of whitewater paddling and got the Stikine (used) I figured maybe I should standardize on 30 which seemed to work fine until I found rolling was more reliable without the feather. I hadn’t thought about the relationship between feather and grip. I certainly don’t want to have to use a tighter grip. I’ll have to try the Stikine again to see about the balance. I have to say that I do generally feel that it feels a bit ‘clunky’ to paddle with for some reason. I got a smoking deal on another used Cyprus so have been using it for WW the past few times and find it works better than any other WW paddle I’ve used thus far. Appreciate your replies and videos.
@@AndrewMoizer I have Cyrpus as well. It's fine for Class 1-2 sea state but for big white water I go to the Werner Stikine or my Gearlab Aukaneck as they are much stronger. I wouldn't be doing any recreational touring or anything like that with a big white water paddle as the purchase is too strong for that. I use my Gearlab Kalleq and Kajaksport Inuskuk or Werner Kaliste for touring and calmer water.
My next step is try and get a L4, I trained hard for the L3 and I think Ive learned a lot since then. Great videos I see we share a lot of the same interests.
That looks like a BLAST! I'm hoping to do my L2 this year, so this gives me the inspiration to keep going! Q: it seemed like it was more challenging to brace while you were surfing with the GL paddle (you had to roll a couple of times) - or was that on purpose for practice? I have both a GL (GearLab Kalleq) and a Euro (Werner Cyprus) and go back and forth between them. I love both, but wonder which I should focus on when getting into more dynamic water.
Hi. Thanks for watching. I capsized coming off the wave because I ended up in a whirlpool lol. Once you're sucked in the bracing doesn't do a heck of a lot. I'd rather use my Greenland for rolling any day. That said I probably should have been using my white water Euro for surfing (Werner Stikine). I was a really tough wave to get on so a bit more power would have helped.
@@mmcholm I'm wondering, is your Stikine feathered (e.g. the normal 30*)? I went back to no feather paddles because I felt my roll was working much better. I'm almost ready to cut my Stikine and put it back together without feather (or make it a two piece).
I noticed that the one guy had a bit of air trapped in his dry suit when he was rolling. My question is, do you think that extra trapped air is helpful when rolling or doing a scramble? One would think the extra flotation would be helpful, however, I imagine that extra air trapped in the sleeves would make it harder to roll because now your arms and paddle are fighting the extra buoyancy. What is your opinion. Would it be better to completely burp the dry suit, or it doesn't really matter and the difference is insignificant?
If you have a lot of air in your dry suit then you might stall out on a roll (stop face down on the side of capsize versus coming up on the other side). That said, if you are practicing a balance brace then air in the suit helps. Best to burp the suit otherwise.
Impresionante vídeo, cuanta destreza!!👏👏👏...Hay que practicar y practicar.....
¡Gracias por ver!
It looks like a lot of fun. I am just back from a weekend of whitewater paddling (first since the spring) and this really brings home that it is great practice & experience for sea kayaking.
Gmail emailed me your comment about the Werner Stikine paddle. Mine is not feathered. I am traditionally a Greenland paddler but I do really love the Stikine except for that it isn't balanced; meaning if you don't grip it tightly when rolling it will spin upside down with the powerface facing up. In my opinion feathering is all about grip. If you have the typical Euro blade control hand and hold the paddle with those knuckles in line with the top of the blade, and keep a tight grip, then high angle paddling with a small feather might be comfortable (but arguably not necessary). I pretty much never feather and despite talking to many very experienced paddlers and instructors about it, and watching tons of videos, and reading lots of articles. I really see no need to feather if you have a loose Greenland style grip on your paddle (like I do nearly each time you see me using a Euro blade). I consider my forward stroke symmetrical so feathering would just require me to rotate my right wrist on each stroke which gets tiring.
@@mmcholm I made a Greenland paddle and used it for a while until I got a Cyprus and then it kind of took over. My Greenland could stand a bit of further thinning down, something I just haven’t got around to doing. I played with feather with it and it seemed that a slight feather (15 degrees) maybe made the catch seem smoother. When I started doing a bit of whitewater paddling and got the Stikine (used) I figured maybe I should standardize on 30 which seemed to work fine until I found rolling was more reliable without the feather. I hadn’t thought about the relationship between feather and grip. I certainly don’t want to have to use a tighter grip. I’ll have to try the Stikine again to see about the balance. I have to say that I do generally feel that it feels a bit ‘clunky’ to paddle with for some reason. I got a smoking deal on another used Cyprus so have been using it for WW the past few times and find it works better than any other WW paddle I’ve used thus far. Appreciate your replies and videos.
@@AndrewMoizer I have Cyrpus as well. It's fine for Class 1-2 sea state but for big white water I go to the Werner Stikine or my Gearlab Aukaneck as they are much stronger. I wouldn't be doing any recreational touring or anything like that with a big white water paddle as the purchase is too strong for that. I use my Gearlab Kalleq and Kajaksport Inuskuk or Werner Kaliste for touring and calmer water.
My next step is try and get a L4, I trained hard for the L3 and I think Ive learned a lot since then. Great videos I see we share a lot of the same interests.
Cool! Good luck. If you can get Michael and Mike from Skils you'll be learning from some of the best. Thanks for watching.
This is amazing to watch!
Hi Olga! Thanks for watching 🙂
That looks like a BLAST! I'm hoping to do my L2 this year, so this gives me the inspiration to keep going!
Q: it seemed like it was more challenging to brace while you were surfing with the GL paddle (you had to roll a couple of times) - or was that on purpose for practice? I have both a GL (GearLab Kalleq) and a Euro (Werner Cyprus) and go back and forth between them. I love both, but wonder which I should focus on when getting into more dynamic water.
Hi. Thanks for watching. I capsized coming off the wave because I ended up in a whirlpool lol. Once you're sucked in the bracing doesn't do a heck of a lot. I'd rather use my Greenland for rolling any day. That said I probably should have been using my white water Euro for surfing (Werner Stikine). I was a really tough wave to get on so a bit more power would have helped.
@@mmcholm I'm wondering, is your Stikine feathered (e.g. the normal 30*)? I went back to no feather paddles because I felt my roll was working much better. I'm almost ready to cut my Stikine and put it back together without feather (or make it a two piece).
Can you take the class if you don't have a Sterling kayak? (kidding of course)
Thanks for watching. Yeah we're spoiled with those boats.
I noticed that the one guy had a bit of air trapped in his dry suit when he was rolling. My question is, do you think that extra trapped air is helpful when rolling or doing a scramble? One would think the extra flotation would be helpful, however, I imagine that extra air trapped in the sleeves would make it harder to roll because now your arms and paddle are fighting the extra buoyancy. What is your opinion. Would it be better to completely burp the dry suit, or it doesn't really matter and the difference is insignificant?
If you have a lot of air in your dry suit then you might stall out on a roll (stop face down on the side of capsize versus coming up on the other side). That said, if you are practicing a balance brace then air in the suit helps. Best to burp the suit otherwise.
@@mmcholm thank you for the answer. I've never used a dry suit, I use wetsuits.