Foot plates and pedals

Just a silly question from one who has bigger than average feet.
Why don't ski manufacturers angle the footplate adjustment rails upward at the front so that big paddlers are not forced to have the ball off their foot on the moving rudder portions and smaller feet type people can reach the pedals with more than just the tips off their toes?

This would also help with positioning the foot strap for all foot sizes if it is part of the footplate assembly.
I've had to elongate the holes in the footstrap and angle it upwards somewhat to be able to slip my feet into it.

Yeah, I've also wondered about that.

When I was in Spain in May, I paddled a Nelo ski and was interested to see that they offer several options on their footplates. You can modify the angle of the footplate (see below) as well as the length and you can choose between a half- and full-plate.



(The half-plate seems bizarre to me - it basically means you have nothing to push your heels against, but apparently K1 paddlers are used to that.)

That's it, I'm taking a drill to mine.
As long as it doesn't mess up the steering cable run, I'm gonna make a second set of holes to lift the plate higher.

The half plate seems fine to me.
My ankles are not that flexible anyways and because my feet are too long for the plate I pull my heels back a bit and that allows me to get the ball of my foot down lower onto the plate instead of being on the pedals.

Very cool!

Take some pics and let us know how it goes...

Just having a quick look, the only problem I foresee is maybe the pedals being higher and getting into paddle strike zone.
I shall go for paddle in the morning and see how much of a clearance problem there really is.

So a week ago I sent off an email to Epic asking if there were any structural problems with doing this.
No reply.
How hard is it to reply and say 'hey we are running it past our engineer' or 'no we don't recommend it'?

There, it took me all of twenty seconds.

If I get no reply within the next week, I'll just go ahead and do it and strengthen the footplate with some more carbon epoxy and have a good look at whether there would be a consideration of rotational forces on the mounting at all before I do, although that shouldn't be a problem if the force in on the ball of my foot and not the heel.

As a bonus, it would stop the footplate scratching the footwell when smaller paddlers move the plate backwards to suit them.

The footplate can be moved up, but you must consider the following.

1. The bottom must be shimmed so it still rests on the bottom of the footwell - it needs this bottom contact for support.

2. The back of the footplate is thicker towards the top. If drilling holes outside of the thick area, it will be significantly weaker (and screw likely to pull through the footplate). The thick portion is reinforced on both sides to accept holes.

3. Not as much of an issue with our V10 series, but on the V12, moving the pedals up will cause interference with the cowling (if it is used) and could result in pedals getting hit by the paddle stroke (potentially capsizing) if the cowling is not used.

Good luck!

Epic Kayaks

Thank you for replying and especially in such a comprehensive manner.

I must also mention that upon seeing this last post, I checked my email and there was the reply as stated.
It still would have been nicer to get an earlier reply from anybody Epic, saying that you would respond as soon as you returned.

Mine is a V10.
My intention was only to lift it up the distance that the mounting holes are apart, as that only requires the drilling of one hole on each side which may even be possible without removing it from the boat. This is less than 1.5cm.

The steering paddles would then remain inside the angle formed by the deck cutaway to clear paddle strike.

If the footplate definitely requires bracing to the floor, then this will be a problem as it now means that the boat would be set up for big feet people only and may be difficult for a shorter foot to operate. Not that big of a problem I suppose.

Is there any reason why it could not be incorporated into the basic design to have a central rib, or small outer ribs, or both, that rises to the front, to support the footplate as it moves, if the footplate rails were angled upwards to automatically adjust for foot length?

Does nobody else have this problem?

With the balls of my feet constantly on the paddles, it is difficult to get full rudder as the only way to do this is pull my heels back to allow my toes to point further forward.
It also places a lot of undue strain on the steering cord as it sometimes has to take full force of the paddle stroke when my heels are not on the footplate and the only way not to steer as I paddle is to balance this force with the other foot also on the steering paddle.

There is a sweet spot where I can get the balls of my feet to rest on the pivot point of the steering paddles and therefore not interfere too much with the steering, but my heels are then not contacting the footplate.

This is fine except that it is easy for my feet to move a little bit and accidentally press the rudder and give a similar threatened capsize as striking the rudder pedal would.

It would be much nicer if big people were taken into account in the first place.
After all the V10 is the choice for larger people as the V12 is just too short in the legs.