If you’ve been paddling a while you’ve undoubtedly heard that you shouldn’t paddle past your feet. Both the Hawaiian and Tahitian stroke build on that reality. But why is it so? Well now that we’ve got the basics of how a paddle works down we can explain it. Wait… …you didn’t read that? Get outta here and go read that article, you need it to fully understand what we’re talking about.
Ah, you’re back, so now we know that the momentum applied to our board is equal to the momentum applied to the mass of water our paddle catches. Now we’re going to look at how the force is applied to accelerate our board and us. Don’t worry, no equations, just some simple mental diagrams aided by the immensely helpful stroke analysis video from Jim Terrell of QuickBlade.
It’s helpful to think of your boards motion as it truly is–acceleration when stroke power is applied and deceleration as the board glides. You never really glide, the board is always either accelerating or decelerating because drag is always slowing the board. It’s only when you apply power that you overcome the drag and accelerate back to the velocity you had during the last stroke. During the stroke recovery the board slows. If you want to maintain a “constant” speed you have to add enough power with each stroke to overcome the drag and accelerate the board to the previously achieved max speed.
When we reach out with our paddle and catch the water and pull we’re applying force to accelerate the board and everything on it. At the maximum reach our paddle is slanted towards the bow and our musculature is fully extended. We’ve put ourselves into a position that we instinctively know gives us the best leverage. If you try to pull something heavy across a floor you extend yourself the same way–so you can engage your core, arms, and legs. You’re braced and balanced to pull as hard as you can.
Initially the paddle is applying that force to the water both rearwards and down (in reference to the board). The downward force is caused by the angle of the blade in the water. That translates to a forward and upward force applied to the board. The nose lifts a little, lessening drag, and the board accelerates forward.
When the paddle gets close to your body your leverage and ability to apply power decreases quickly. As the paddle goes past your feet the angle shifts so the blade is angled upwards. The force is applied to the water upward and rearward which means a component of the force is pressing the board down, increasing drag. A major part of the energy goes to lifting water and pressing your board down. Depending on your paddle, board and stroke length you may actually get to a point where you are actually slowing the board by paddling, even though it feels like you are still working hard to push the board forward.
Here’s the complete video. Excellent stuff. I need to do this for myself either here in Hood River or in Maui.
