Paddling my small "Sit On Top" and touring "Sit In" Kayaks
by Ross C.
Just about anybody can paddle a Kayak well enough to partake in a fishing outing however I enjoyed reading several books and searching for Internet articles that addressed paddling technique and now always try to remember at least the following:
- Hold the paddle with hands about shoulder width apart and equidistant from each end. The hands should be relaxed and the right hand fixed to the shaft without rotating. The right wrist is kept straight for a stroke on the right and the shaft must rotate in the left hand.
- Sit up straight, with a slight forward lean then reach forward and as close to the hull as possible, plant one blade squarely in the water and draw the Kayak to it whilst rotating the upper body towards that side. Pull with the lower arm and push forward with a relaxed top arm at about eye level. While rotating use as much power as possible from the body muscles rather than the arms and push on the footrest with the foot on the stroke side to transfer the force to the Kayak and propel it forward. The paddle blade should be lifted out of the water once the hand passes the hip and then the procedure can be repeated on alternate sides. For the most efficient and straightest paddling keep the blade close to the hull and don't angle the paddle wide at the end of the stroke or it will waste energy as the Kayak will tend to yaw. Even though a short stroke at the rate of about 25 per side per minute is supposed to be the most efficient when paddling longer distances, I feel more comfortable in the Tidemark-XP when I take a longish stoke at a rate of around 20 per minute.
- Use wider shallower (sweep) strokes to turn the Kayak when it is stationary or moving slowly by describing a wide arc with power coming from twisting the body. Sweep strokes can be occasionally incorporated into forward or reverse paddling to keep the kayak tracking straight if a rudder is not fitted.
- Use reverse sweep strokes (paddling backwards with the back of the blade) and draw strokes (pulling the boat sideways using just one paddle blade) to assist manoeuvring in tight areas.
- Use brace strokes (pushing the flat of the blade hard down on the water surface) to counter imminent capsize. In case capsize does occur I always use a tethering strap from the middle of the shaft to the deck-lines as I don't want to be stuck up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
One thing I discovered while testing various Kayaks was that it was important for me that the paddle was of the correct length to properly control the craft I was paddling. For example, when renting an Ocean Kayaks Malibu Two the paddle supplied felt too short to properly clear the sides of this 34 inches (86.4cm) wide craft. I think for a very wide Kayak like this one that a slightly longer paddle would have allowed me to execute a deeper and more controlled stroke. On another occasion I was paddling a Viking Pacer with a rather long shafted paddle and found it was causing me to place the paddle further away from the hull than normal and the levering effect made it difficult to keep the Kayak tracking straight. It was because of experiences such as this that I sought a lot of advice from the dealer when I chose a paddle for my Tidemark-XP "Sit In" touring Kayak (and had him agree to exchange paddles until I got one that I felt completely comfortable with).
Feathered Kayak paddles can be set up for left handed or right-handed paddlers and have the blades usually offset between 80-90°. For a right-handed paddler with the paddle held in front of the body, the right hand blade will be vertical and the left hand blade will be face up.
One way that is often used to estimate "correct" paddle length for recreational paddlers is to stand the paddle vertically and if the paddler can curl the fingers over the top blade then the paddle is said to be approximately the right length. A bit of searching on the Internet, however, revealed that "sitting height" of paddlers varies significantly from person to person and is particularly influenced by racial background with the "sitting height ratio" ranging between 45% and 55% of overall standing height. Sitting height is the height of the trunk plus neck and head and in my case (at 1.755 metres tall but with relatively short legs and a longish trunk) the ratio works out to be 52.6%. This probably explains why I sit a bit taller in my Kayak and feel more comfortable with a 2.25 metre paddle (Canoe Sports 2000/160 model) rather than a paddle closer to the 2.17 metre length that was indicated for me when using the "fingers curled over the top" selection method. For interest, using the ratios given above, I calculated that a 1.7 metre tall person with long legs and a "sitting height ratio" of 45% would have a "sitting height" of 76.5cm whereas a 1.7 metre tall person with short legs and a "sitting height ratio" of 55% would have a "sitting height" of 93.5 cm. With these figures, there is a difference in "sitting height" of 17cm (almost 7 inches). Similarly, people's arm lengths differ significantly and it is for these reasons that I believe, for serious paddling, the comfortable paddle length should be determined by physical trial rather than by estimation.
So that I can work out approximate travel times to reach distant fishing spots and to estimate possible trolling speeds I timed both my craft over the same measured distance of 500 metres without strong wind or fast tide-run and paddling at a brisk rate that I could maintain for at least an hour if I had to.
Multiply Knots by 1.852 to get kph
Multiply Knots by 1.151 to get mph
Multiply kph by 0.540 to get Knots
Multiply kph by 0.621 to get mph
Multiply mph by 0.869 to get Knots
Multiply mph by 1.609 to get kph
The Splash took 6 minutes which calculates to 5kph which is 2.7 Knots or 3.1mph while the Tidemark XP took 4 minutes which calculates to 7.5kph which is 4 Knots or 4.6mph. (I'm obviously no athlete as a local canoe club holds monthly Kayak races on the Brisbane River and a Tidemark entered in that event averaged over 9kph for a 6km return trip whilst a K1 averaged over 14kph.)
I have since confirmed my own Tidemark XP speed by paddling a return trip on a stretch of the North Pine River near my home that is slightly over 6km (it is 3km from the road bridge at Petrie to the "yellow cross" marking the pipe outfall from Bickle Road wastewater plant). By keeping at a brisk pace I can do it in 46 minutes and this works out at 7.8kph. After completing this paddle on several different occasions I find it much more comfortable when I take an hour and I reckon I could paddle for a lot further at this pace which is 6kph or 3.2 Knots or 3.7mph.
This more relaxed speed also ties in quite closely to a Sea Kayaking book I have read that recommends using 3 Knots to estimate average paddling times over long distance journeys.
The Splash's speed was checked by paddling a one-way trip of 1.5km from Dohles Rocks to Shelly Beach. By keeping at a comfortable pace I did it in 20 minutes and this works out at 4.5kph which is 2.4 Knots or 2.8mph.
I was supplied a large bladed aluminium shafted paddle with the Splash and chose a medium bladed glass fibre shafted touring paddle with the Tidemark XP.
I concluded that whilst the larger bladed paddle should give me better sprint speed its slightly extra weight (1.3kg compared to 1.1kg) would be a disadvantage if I was paddling long distances therefore my preferred combination for easy paddling is the Tidemark XP using the lighter and more ergonomically designed touring paddle.
From what I have read the short and wide Splash is probably one of the slower and harder to paddle Kayaks around whereas the longer and narrower Tidemark XP is probably one of the faster and easier to paddle touring Kayaks around.
The results I saw after doing the above tests confirmed a considerable difference in straight-line speed between the two types of craft, although I was a bit surprised, as the Tidemark XP feels much smoother and quicker than the results showed.
Apart from the speed difference, the longer craft tracks better than the shorter one and is much more enjoyable to use as it has a more comfortable adjustable plastic moulded seat and is fitted with a foot operated rudder.
As I always seem to be more tired after an outing in the Splash I decided to count the number of paddle strokes I make in each craft. Over exactly the same distance and with exactly the same prevailing conditions during consecutive tests paddling at a brisk touring speed the Splash required 163 strokes compared to 122 for the Tidemark.
This confirms that the Splash needs a third more paddling effort than the Tidemark or to put it another way the Tidemark requires only 75% of the effort to propel it the same distance as the Splash.
I try to plan my trips to travel in the same direction as the tide when paddling in saltwater. When travelling against the tide, however, I keep out of the main channels where the tide is strongest and this often means I paddle in shallow water and near the edges of rivers. Of course wind directions and strengths also need to be considered because it is possible to actually end up progressing embarrassingly backwards when fast opposing tides and strong headwinds are encountered.
If there is no wind or current effect (such as in still lakes) I work on the theory that Kayak paddling is more efficient when in deep water than when in shallow water.
On a couple of occasions during freshwater trips I have been paddling the Tidemark XP at my normal comfortable pace and have effortlessly passed small electric powered tinnies heading back to the ramp. I don't know whether these were low powered electric motors but it felt good to be an older bloke doing something active instead of a young bloke just sitting in his boat holding firmly on to his tiller and getting left way behind. I subsequently read that small aluminium boats, even with the bigger electric motors attached, have a maximum speed of 3-5mph (5-8kph) which means that many models of Kayaks would be faster than them.