New to surfski- Sore butt, Lots of questions

With regards to the OP's questions on pedal angle relative to the foot plate , I suspect that 30deg angled toward you is too much. I've been lucky enough to have lessons from some of the very best in the business and without fail they all say toe pedals in line with foot plate in one smooth line. Sean R does vary a bit from that depending on wind conditions but I'd suggest moving the toe pedals back a bit , neutral with footplate and see how that goes.

Thanks again for the input. I cut up a ~1cm thick camping pad yesterday and duct taped it into the bucket as a poor-man's seat pad. Also taped a little strip of the pad on the under-knee hump where I balance the ski on my head when I carry it to the river. Both the pieces of padding made a big difference in terms of comfort, and I think I avoided re-aggravating my mostly-healed sores.

I also fiddled with the rudder string to change the foot pedal angle to just slightly less than neutral with the foot plate. Thanks for the tip on that, jazzman.

I moved the foot plate forward a little, but I think I'll move it back a notch again for next time, because I don't think I had enough bend in my legs to press against the foot plate properly.

I felt unstable, but somewhat improved from my first sessions a week ago. At least I didn't feel like I was going all the way back to the drawing board in terms of speed. I paddled 6.5 km and just fell once. I'm going very slow by surfski standards, but getting closer to my paddleboard race speeds of around 9 kph average. The water in the slow river where I'm paddling is quite flat.

My right wrist didn't bother me much when I was paddling, but it is a sore now. I'm not quite comfortable with my hand position and grip on the slippery paddle relative to the electrical tape position guides that the previous owner put on it. I might also be doing weird things with the wrist in the stroke. I just watched most of the videos that Robin posted and I think I might be bending my elbows and wrists when I shouldn't be. I'll work on that next time.

Oh, a minor thing I mean to ask about was if the base of the rudder should be snug against the hull of the ski, or if there should be a little gap. There's a mm or two gap between mine and the hull and I worry that leaves or pine needles or something might get stuck in there when I'm paddling in the river. Thanks.

Look up "weed deflector"

Look up "weed deflector"

As in: www.epickayaks.com/product/product/weed-deflectors

Also, I forgot to mention that a defense against chaffing is also to use something to waterproof your skin eg vaseline.

I have a V10 Double that I paddled this weeken. The seat tends to rub my coccyx but I avoid damaging the skin by applying vaseline before paddling...

Sounds like you are making good progress! As far as your wrist go. Be sure not to have a "death grip" on your paddle shaft.
Good luck.

I probably will need to get a weedless rudder for where I paddle. It looks kind of goofy to have the glue-on wedge in front of a square-bottomed fin, though. Do they make weedless rudders that are just one piece with more rake angle? Are rudders interchangeable among brands or does Epic have it's own proprietary system so I can only order a rudder through them? Thanks.

You have to order one from Epic. The weedless rudder is much smaller than a surf or all around rudder. You might find that going with a surf rudder or all around rudder even in your circumstance, makes your boat feel a lot more stable. You can still epoxy the weed defector to the hull in front of any rudder, just make sure the rudder clears it when steering for pretty good weed protection. Surprised you been to Epics web site. If you do order from them, be prepared to wait a couple weeks. Don’t worry about how the rudder set up looks, no one will see it if you stay upright.

Hey James: I make custom rudders, for all brands.
Don
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I tried making some short upwind/downwind forays into the choppy Gulf of Mexico today. It was very difficult for me and I got a lot of practice re-mounting the surfski.

Paddling downwind was especially tricky. I'm pretty good at downwinding on my 14' SUP, but on the surfski I couldn't quite figure out the mix of rudder steering, bracing, etc. to hold a line on the wave. If I tried to go at any angle other than straight with the wave I would usually hit some point of no return where I would lose the ability to steer and get rounded up parallel to the wave and rolled over. Are you supposed to lean way back in the seat as soon as you catch a bump to make it steer better, like when you step back on a surfboard? What about leaning to either side- does that have a steering effect one way or another? Is there an instructional video for extreme basic rough-water and downwind surfski skills?

Thanks.

Here’s one of many you tubes out there

You are not setting yourself up for quick success by learning on a tippy ski, but it is still possible.

Loss of steering is usually caused by having the bow of the boat stuck in the tough of the wave. If you ride further back on the wave the bow will be out if the water and you will be able to turn the boat using the rudder. Stay on top of the wave and resist the temptation to surf down into the trough.

The epic weedless rudder with the glue on weed deflector is not dorky. It is awesome. It is the most weed free rudder I have come across, and compared to the usual weedless rudders has a much more balanced feel and steeper angle of attack, leading to easier and quicker turn initiation. If you glue on the weed deflector for the weedless rudder it can be left in place when you change to the surf rudder. You want about 1/8 or 1/4 inch gap between the front of the rudder and the back of the weed deflector.

Good luck, have fun, stay safe.