Matt

[josko]

Huge thanks to Matt Drayer for an impromptu surfski lesson this morning. 

[mattdrayer]

w00t!  You did great — and we didn’t get eaten by the sharks of Woods Hole  — all in all a fun day out.

If anyone would ever like to try a surfski in nice calm Nahant Bay I have an Epic V8 in my garage ready and waiting.  I’ll be out of town for 10 days starting this Thursday but otherwise I’m happy to meet up anytime.

Matt

[David M]

Hey Matt,

I may take you up on this.  Live in southern NH.

In the meantime  I recently purchased a new Epic Full Carbon Small-Mid Wing.   I'm  paddling it with a Stellar S16S  and occasionally with my Cetus on exercise paddles.

Love the paddle but it is extraordinarily slippery, especially compared with my Werner  cf blades.

I have experimented with surfer's wax but find it wears off rather quickly.

 Any thoughts?

David

Edited August 3, 2020 by David M

[Nancy Hill]

Wayne and I have wrapped part of the shaft (where our hands are) with triangular silicone self fusing tape. It hardly adds bulk, but makes it much easier to hold. I was getting forearm strain from my death-grip on my Epic wing, but the tape has cured the problem and is holding up well (3 years now with no sign of needing to be replaced).

-Nancy

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by Nancy Hill
spelling

[mattdrayer]

6 hours ago, David M said:

Love the paddle but it is extraordinarily slippery, especially compared with my Werner  cf blades.

I have experimented with surfer's wax but find it wears off rather quickly.

I used to wrap tape around my paddle shafts to add some friction for my hands, but I learned quickly that the friction I thought I needed translated more into additional blisters than additional grip, so I took it all off.  I do use the self-fusing tape that Nancy referred to, but only as high+low stops on each side to keep my hands in the proper spots, sort of like this: 

<=--|o|----|o|--=>

Aside from the slip-stops the one thing I've done is apply some light scoring with very fine steel wool to the spots where my hands go -- just enough to scuff the finish and take the shine off, you really don't need much.  Again you want to avoid creating blisters, because at say, even a slow cadence of 60 strokes per minute at a pace of 10 minutes/mile, that's 600 strokes per mile, times say a 10 mile adventure and you are talking 6000 strokes (3000/side) in 100 minutes -- any form of friction, even a few grains of sand or some loose threads of tape, can really eat away at your palms and fingers.  Proper technique dictates that you shouldn't be gripping the paddle shaft too tightly, anyway.  If you're gripping too tightly then your forearms lock up, your upper arms lock up, your shoulders lock up, your entire upper body locks up, and with everything seized you can't rotate, you can't balance/adjust, you can't breathe...  So yeah, loose is good, loose is efficient, loose is fast, and keep the paddle shaft as clean and clear as you can 

Matt

[josko]

I've also found that tape on the shaft takes away from paddle 'responsiveness' and adds blisters. I do try to wash both hands and paddle if I think there are traces of oils on either. 

[Inverseyourself]

I had a slippery-issue as well. Unfortunately, surf wax disappears after a while, at least in my experience. I used self-amalgamating tape, which regularly completely shredded my hands, especially during time trials where I just didn’t pay attention to that. Major calluses. I switched to using it on one side only and am getting more used to it on the side I’m not using it on.  I created stops that Matt referred to with yellow electrical tape, fairly thick so that I can easily feel it. The yellow also gives me a peripheral visual aide to see where my hands are.

[mattdrayer]

Yep exactly —