lhunt

The Blackburn Challenge committee is looking for 2 volunteers on July 19th to man a checkpoint on the Dog Bar breakwater in Gloucester near the Eastern Point lighthouse. It's a great place to watch the race from, too. They are also looking for volunteers for registration (Gloucester High School, early morning) and lunch (Greasy Pole). Anybody interested can contact Donna Lind (see here). -Lisa

Mmm... But last update, June 9...

Wind speed and gusts are there. I was missing direction. But if you zoom out enough you do see some barbs. I zoomed in before pulling up wind speed as a choice, so I only got one little barb that happened to fall on Cape Ann. Wave height is in a "marine" subsection of the drop-down. You have to scroll down for it. I don't think the old one had water temps, did it? I get those from here, with a grain of salt... It (the NOAA new one) is very slow, though.

Don't know if others already know, but I just found the new "proposed" NOAA graphical forecast here. Nice zoom in capabilities (if a little slow), but I don't see wind direction yet :-( Maybe they're working on it - there is one little barb there. They are looking for feedback... -Lisa

I'll put in a plug for a simple-seamed rashguard. (Meaning a layer you wear under everything else to prevent chafing.) The ones with "flat-lock" stitching (which is all of the special paddling ones) don't work for me. The stitching thread is too rough and chafes wherever the seam gets crossed by whatever I'm wearing on top. So instead I bought myself some short-sleeved shirts which are made for general sports use. They are very thin, very, very stretchy in all directions, and one size too small. They have regular seams with the raw edges meant to be inside the shirt, but I wear them inside out under everything else. They work like a charm and cost very little off the clearance rack. Suz, I know you're not a wetsuit person :-) But for others... Wetsuits can be altered, believe it or not. I tried it, it worked. Instructions are here. Much better, but still restrictive :-(

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, I'm doing something in between the two. I do it like the guy on the bottom (cowboy) but right over the cockpit. I like the sidesaddle approach on the top - will give that a try, too. But if you do a regular cowboy you can keep your weight lower longer, I think. Here's an old video from 2009 - I'm doing it better (I hope) now! In this one I missed the cockpit and sat on the back deck by mistake, making it so I had to scooch forward a few inches. That makes it more like the regular cowboy. Thanks to Leon for taking the video. This is almost exactly how I used to get on my (very tall) horse bareback long, long ago when I was a teenager. Except this horse keeps trying to roll over. Lisa

Hmm, I've been doing a scramble-like thing I call the cockpit cowboy, because it's exactly like we used to get onto a horse bareback as kids. A very tall and plump horse who keeps trying to get down onto the the grass and roll over :-) But you can only do it if you can get your legs into the boat after putting your seat in the seat.

60.4 deg. off the Beverly coast today (6/2). -Lisa

Pix. Picasa playing games with me (again)!

Maybe you were lost, you old sea dog, but I knew exactly where we were (by GPS), and Shari did too (by just knowing). I only passed the turn initially because it had no water in it, which was rather disappointing - I was hoping I was wrong. (Shallow water my eye, that thing was dry as a bone with probably another 8 or 12" to go). I can't seem to get to the historical tide levels, but as I remember we were within 1 or 2 hours of high tide and we were surprised to find no exit. Oh, well. It's a nice challenge trying to do a 180 in an 18-footer in those little channels. Pix here (many of these are Shari's and Leon's). I think the real hero of the day was Shari - she volunteered not to wait for the tide but go back the long way and finished it strongly. I mean we two had been training for the Blackburn but she was coming into it with less preparation. Sorry to be so late about this - I missed the postings the first time around. Lisa

Oops, sorry, Anne, I wasn't signing up - just noticed the lack of a date and was trying to help. Can't go on Saturday :-( Lisa

May 31st on the Calendar :-)

I thought a topic for people to post actual measured surface temperatures might be helpful for others trying to plan. Please not that water temps vary according to tide, time of day, and location. With that in mind... Temps off of Singing Beach and near Misery yesterday early afternoon (5/20/2014): 52-53 deg. Tide was incoming. Lisa

I do want to make it clear that none of those people are Sid or Lisa :-)

This was a blast. Takes you back to when you were first starting. The participants seemed to enjoy it and expressed much appreciation. My photos were a little disappointing, but they give you the basic idea. I took one video, here... Lisa

No idea, Josko, I had to look up "dihedral" :-) But here's an article from Sea Kayaker magazine that seems to fit the bill (search for "dihedral"). At least it gathers all the disparate opinions onto one page. Lisa (PS my only input is that if flutter is the problem a wing paddle is a possiblity. Never get any flutter with the wing.).

Thanks, Beth! I have to admit, I never knew it :-( How did your team do? Lisa

(Previous replies crossed). Yes, of course. We are talking about what the feather angle should be if you feather. But of course there are other reasons not to feather that are unrelated. Lisa

I like the second article better. Different things for different people. Different strokes for different folks :-) When I sit on the edge of a chair with an unfeathered paddle, torso straight forward and just move arms up and down like a whirlygig, I can see where the first guy gets his theory. He's only looking at one portion of the stroke, when the rotation has gone partially back (or he's not rotating at all, hard to tell, he never mentions it). When I do the chair experiment I can clearly see that the higher the paddle angle goes the more "off" the left blade is with respect to the plane of the "boat". That is, not facing straight back. Due, presumably, to mechanics of my arm and shoulder. It's a simple movement, so probably it's pretty much like that for everybody. BUT, if you put some rotation to that "stroke", and measure the angle of the paddle to the plane of the boat when it enters the "water", everything changes. When I do it, a 0 degree feather works best. I assume it's because something in the torso rotation is compensating for the other stuff. In real life there are even more variables. For example, the upper elbow is probably bent at least a little, which makes a big difference (Brent Reitz recommends using a high elbow he calls the "chicken wing" to get a good angle and avoid cocking the wrist). In real life I use a bigger feather angle, but I'm not sure why, which bothers me. This discussion makes me want to do some more experimentation - I'm thinking that maybe my blade angle is is off during parts of the stroke. That would be a big efficiency problem. Hmm.... So I go back to saying, to determine feather angle first see if your wrist is cocking and fix the feather angle to deal with that. One good technique is to hold the paddle tight in both hands. If it's trying to slip in your off hand, you are probably cocking the other wrist. Unless you're doing the chicken wing :-) That's all I got. It's a good summer project to work on.

Questions are always good - this is a hard one. This discussion had me out there today (in the rain) experimenting with feather angle, trying to figure it out. It's pretty subtle!

Well... I don't think the paddle should be turning at all. There is a real goal for you - get it so the paddle hits the water at the right angle on both sides, symmetrically, without turning the paddle. Because to get the paddle to turn you are probably cocking the right wrist, which is a risk factor for overuse injury. To get there, you experiment with your stroke, freezing it as the right and then the left paddle is suspended over the water, without cocking the wrist. If the angle of paddle-to-boat is wrong (not facing squarely back), adjust the feather angle to compensate. For most people I think the correct feather angle is 0 deg., but slight differences in the angle of your elbows and other things can change it. If you hold your hands in front of you and imitate the cocking motion, you will see that it is exactly the same thing as feathering the paddle. It happens on every stroke, so why not set the paddle up that way permanently? Now, as to why the upper hand does the plant, I couldn't figure it out, so I just tried it. It took a whole 9 mile river run to get the knack of it, and still often I forget. But there is no question that it helps with efficiency. One thing is that it loosens the lower hand, allowing it to extend the fingers a little into a hook. It also uses your biceps to do the plant, rather than triceps. I feel that it gives me better control of the angle of the catch (the first part of the stroke). But between getting the top hand to do the plant and getting the wrist not to cock, the latter is probably much more important. Well, yes, the position of the hand in space is certainly the thing. You aren't going to control the angle of the paddle with your hand muscles (either hand). The goal for efficiency is to get the paddle in there as quickly as possible. You don't really "pull" or "push", you just get it into the water at the right angle and then rotate at the core, transmitting the rotation through both hands. The bottom part of that can be done with the fingers, which allows the paddle to go in just a tiny bit more forward. "Stabbing" it in with the top hand is just a little quicker, I think (because of the muscles used). Try this with your stroke. Try to do whatever is necessary so that you see your upper fist going across in front of your face, right along the horizon. If your upper hand is diving as you paddle, it's because you're not getting the whole paddle in before rotating. To see that hand going across levelly (is that a word?), you have to get the whole blade in before you start rotating back. Lisa

I think you can get your feather angle just right so it matches your core rotation and the paddle shaft does not have to turn in your hands at all. As pointed out in the thread that Leon pointed to, typically, the paddle turns in the lower hand when the upper wrist is cocking. Why is the wrist cocking? To get the paddle face aligned against the water. Set the feather angle to whatever gets the alignment without cocking. Saves your wrists and forearms, not to mention your gloves! Now that I've worked with it a little more, I'm beginning to think that one other variable (besides how vertical your paddle is) is the width of your boat where the paddle goes into the water. The narrower the foredeck, the more you can rotate your core before the catch, so the higher your feather angle should be. Once you get rid of the cocking you can get rid of the control hand. Concentrate on using the top hand to plant the blade into the water, keeping the lower hand relatively loose, then switch as you go. Oh, and "just" 20 miles of paddling on Sunday? Way to go! Lisa

Thanks, all! It was, um, cold and wet, no, I mean, fun!

Hi, Dave, and welcome! Just wanted to point out, in case you missed it, the "New to Sea Kayaking Workshop" coming up soon. Besides the sea kayaking basics we will have an array of different types of gear and the camping guys are going to set up, too, which is why I thought of it when reading your post. Lisa