Paddling Question; More Power or Faster Cadence?

Thanks everyone for all the information on this subject, I'm learning a lot so it's very helpful

That's a good idea to learn this stability ball exercise

If You really want to paddle long time and well, the best way is to prepare for the stability a little and then go to a kayak club and take some sprint kayak lessons for a month or two. After paddling a sprint kayak, ANY super-unstable ski would seem easy to You. I personally believe that going to a sprint kayak coach was the cleverest thing to do to really manage paddling a surf ski. Apart from the technique, the advantages are that You can try different boats, without having to buy them. There is some cost of coaching for sure, but it is completely worth it when You later sit on an unstable ski and feel like it's a fat touring kayak

Aurelius wrote: Later I found this video of Knut Holman, using exactly the technique I tried. Notice how he keeps his arms almost straight throughout the stroke, and how the blade moves away from the hull at a pretty steep angle. It looks a bit strange, and I would never have thought this technique would work well if I hadn't seen the results myself.

Incorrect. He doesn't keep a straight arm through the stroke, and this is one of the most common mistakes in technique description.

Aurelius wrote:

Newbflat wrote: Be carful with "twisting"

Be aware that it's not really that much "twisting your torso" in Knut's stroke, or any other good sprint paddler. It is full torso rotation from the hips created threw leg drive. Very little twisting going on except a little on release and setup for the next stroke, but not in the power phase. As he goes threw a stroke draw a mental line from his shoulder to his hip. Now watch thrueout the stroke and notice how they stay in line. This is why the majority of power in a solid stroke is from your legs.

Unfortunately these videos are a bit deceptive because the amount of hip swivel is made possible by a rotating seat. It's physically impossible for me to move my hips that far in my ski because it has a fixed seat. What little hip rotation I do get is made possible by the elasticity of my skin, which allows me to rotate my pelvis without sliding around. I would love to be able to better utilize my legs for the drive because I have very strong legs from years of cycling, but without a swiveling seat, it just isn't possible.

Very few sprint paddlers are using rotating seats. In the video above, Jo does use one, but very few do these days.

Even on a ski you should be able to rotate your hips. If you can't, your bucket is too narrow, your leg length incorrect, or your ski is too unstable to allow you to do so.

SurfskiEstonia wrote: That's a good idea to learn this stability ball exercise

I just ordered one. It should arrive on Friday.

@Kiwi Dave, thanks for posting the link to that video analyzer,
www.surfski.info/forum/2-announcements/1....html?start=20#26883
helps to pinpoint asymmetric paddling, not as motionize, as one would only use shorter sequences in 2D and not e.g. claculate averages over a distance (btw. nice review on expeditionkayaks.blogspot.de/2016/07/rev...ize-paddle-edge.html ), but hey it's for free

here an inverted still with split left and right tracks of paddle move > track points follow the paddle edges and white tape grips of my paddle and a spot on my PFD ... as one can see, my left hand move moves away from the boat earlier as my right hand ... exit symmetry was not as bad though as I thought.



some tips:
- camera has to be mounted centered on the boat, advantageous w.b. an action cam with bluetooth connection to a smart phone or with an integrated display for setting it up symetrically and centred, black/white tapes on the boat can be used for reference
- I would not set the camera on wide angle (or fish eye etc.)
- one could additionally attach white stickers on the paddel/shoulders/bakc of hands etc. for better tracking
- use higher frame rates
- frist tests seem best on flat water after a warming up paddle and then choose some seqences at the beginning, middle and end of a short 10km course