Tips & Techniques

"There is no good reason to use feather angle on your paddle," said Oscar Chalupsky (in his usual assertive manner.)  The surfski.info forum has seen something of a debate raging on this topic in the last couple of weeks; I knew that Oscar had been encouraging beginners to use zero feather, so I called him to ask for his views.

[Editor: Brett McDonald wrote this from a marathon paddler's perspective, but it applies equally to the surfski world - when racing on flat water or upwind.  As you'll see, wash (or slip) riding helps an enormous amount.  Thanks Brett for letting us use this article!]

“CAUTION – EXTRA GEEKY PADDLE POST,” read the introduction to Roei’s posts on Facebook. Roei is a geek – but he’s also been an Olympic grade paddler, a professional coach and is now sales director for Motionize, the world’s first affordable paddle tracking system. The posts caused plenty of interest so I’ve consolidated them and publish them here with Roei’s kind permission.

Chasing 3m breaking waves in 35kt gusts is the best fun you can have outside of tangled sheets – but gear failure can be a much bigger issue.  You have to be mentally and physically prepared for things to go wrong…