Comparing speed and efficiency of single vs. double blade paddle

[Alan Gage]

I thought it would be fun to do a head to head comparison between a single and double blade to see just how much faster and more efficient, if at all, a double blade is. I decided to maintain the same target heart rate for both paddles during all testing. While heart rate is not perfect I can't think of a better way to estimate amount of exertion put forth by the paddler. This way the paddler (me) should be working the same amount with both paddles.

For my test I chose a local lake on a beautiful evening with a nearly dead calm wind. I paddled 1.1 miles down the lake before turning around and paddling back to the start for a total distance of 2.2 miles (3.54 km) for each paddle. I did the tests for single and double blade back to back on the same night.

I wore a chest strap heart rate monitor for the tests and tried to keep my heart rate at 120 bpm. For me this is a zone 2 heart rate and it's a pace I could keep for hours. It's the pace I would use if I was paddling extended distances into a head wind or if I was trying to reach camp, which was still miles away, before incoming weather. This is harder than my normal tripping pace but still easily doable for a long period of time.

After I finished the 2.2 mile runs with both paddles I then paddled .5 miles (.8 km) with each paddle with a heart rate of 100 bpm. This would be my normal tripping pace. It feels nearly effortless and takes no mental effort to maintain the pace. It's like being on autopilot. For reference 100 bpm is where I would be on a brisk walk.

My single blade paddle was a 49" ZRE medium that weighs 11.5 ounces. I paddled hit and switch.

My double blade was a 220cm Onno full carbon at 25 ounces. Onno was a small paddle manufacturer at the cutting edge of the industry around 20 years ago. This was one of the first infinitely adjustable length and feather angle paddles.



The canoe was a cedar strip Barracuda designed by John Winters. It's 17.25' long and weighs 30 pounds with a 28" max width and quite a bit of tumblehome. It's a shallow boat with only 10" of depth in the center and the seat is relatively low. It has 2" of bow rocker and 1.3" in the stern. I chose this canoe because the shallow depth and narrowness would make it easier to paddle with my relatively short 220cm double blade.

20140802_013 by Alan, on Flickr



I started with a 15 minute warm up paddle with the double blade to get used to it again. After some trial and error I settled on a 30 degree feather angle. Paddling with the double felt pretty good right off the bat. I haven't paddled with a double in over a decade but I feel like the mechanics were still there.

After the warmup I came to a complete stop, let my heart rate settle down and began my 2.2 mile paddle with the double blade at a 120 bpm heart rate.

Once I was finished with the double blade I again came to complete stop, rested about 2 minutes for a drink of water and to let my heart rate drop and then repeated the same course and heart rate with the single blade. Conditions were nearly dead calm.

After I finished the run with the single blade I came to a complete stop, allowed my heart rate to drop, and paddled .5 mile with the double blade at 100 bpm heart rate to simulate my all day tripping pace

After that I came to a complete stop and continued another .5 mile at 100 bpm with the single blade.

And the, to top off the night, I did a full effort 1 minute sprint with the double blade, rested for about 5 minutes, and repeated the 1 minute full effort with the single blade.

And now, finally, the results are below.

Double blade - 2.2 miles

• Average heart rate - 120 bpm
• Average speed - 4.7 mph (7.6 kph)
• Time - 28:14

Single blade - 2.2 miles

• Average heart rate - 119 bpm
• Average speed - 5 mph (8 kph)
• Time - 26:27

Double blade - .5 mile

• Average heart rate - 99
• Average speed - 3.9 mph (6.3 kph)
• Time - 7:36

Single blade - .5 mile

• Average heart rate - 99
• Average speed - 4.1 mph (6.6 kph)
• Time - 7:15

Double blade - 1 minute all out sprint

• Max speed - 6.7 mph (10.8 kph)
• Average speed - 6.4 mph (10.3 kph)
• Max heart rate - 164 bpm

Single blade - 1 minute all out sprint

• Max speed - 6.6 mph (10.6 kph)
• Average speed - 6.4 mph (10.3 kph)
• Max heart rate - 169 bpm

I'll follow up with some of my thoughts and feelings in a little bit. Let me know what you think of the test criteria and the results. Was it a fair test? Was anything missed/overlooked? Were you surprised at the results?

Alan

 

[Alasgun]

If i were that good with a single i’d not have bought a double! In my case im either in a 16ft composite weighing 50 lbs or an old town with heavy fish gear. This one will approach 400 lbs with me included and both of them are easily moved with the double and with a whole lot less effort.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I'm a little surprised. My initial thought was that the test is biased to the double, since you're sitting low in that shallow canoe. You were sitting with both paddles, right? Am I misjudging the seat hight?

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Alan, I find this very interesting and am somewhat surprised that the single blade won in everything but the one minute sprint, in which there was an average speed tie. I probably would have bet on the double blade in all the tests.

You set your Onno double to quite a short length for a canoe, 220 cm. Canoeists typically use 240-260 cm or even more. I used to use a 275 cm double (9 feet) when I was experimenting with doubles in whitewater 45 years ago. I'm guessing that if you lengthened your double blade, it would induce more yaw per stroke and perform even worse in resultant forward vector velocity. But now I don't trust my instincts. Maybe you could repeat your test at the maximum length of your Onno.

 

[yknpdlr]

Alan, thank you for the extreme effort in collecting that detailed paddling data. Do you have any idea of your stroke rate single and double? I assume you are also very accomplished using a single blade while rapidly correcting single side paddling, not hit and switch. Do you have any comparison data in that mode? Thanks again.

A most beautiful boat for the test, by the way. Reminds me of a similarly shaped GRB strip voyageur I have raced, dubbed "Slenda Glenda".

 

[memaquay]

Very interesting, glad you had some pics. Your efforts will no doubt stir up some controversy. My observations from years of traveling with a gps is that tripping speed is often fairly standard despite conditions. The variable is effort. For instance, with a moderate head wind, I will paddle harder. My average speed, tripping with a full load, and paddling from one side only is between 5 and 6 kph. That is of course, the one area of your test that is missing. Single side with correction strokes will no doubt fall behind the switch hit and the DDB. However, in terms of tripping, I think over the course of a day, speeds between all three will be similar.

 

[yknpdlr]

It is amazing that with almost any moderate velociity of headwind, your paddling speed will drop off by an average of .5mph. I think this perception and increased effort maintains the average to only .5mph, unless the headwind is very high, and then the increasingly wetted hull surface friction and from wave pressure drops your speed significantly even more.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Very interesting, glad you had some pics. Your efforts will no doubt stir up some controversy. My observations from years of traveling with a gps is that tripping speed is often fairly standard despite conditions. The variable is effort. For instance, with a moderate head wind, I will paddle harder. My average speed, tripping with a full load, and paddling from one side only is between 5 and 6 kph. That is of course, the one area of your test that is missing. Single side with correction strokes will no doubt fall behind the switch hit and the DDB. However, in terms of tripping, I think over the course of a day, speeds between all three will be similar.

Does this suggest that it's ultimately the boat that determines your tripping speed?

 

[tketcham]

Were you surprised at the results?

I'm not surprised based on my experience paddling a Clipper Sea-1 decked canoe with a carbon bent shaft paddle. I bought the Sea-1 canoe because most of my paddling friends at the time owned sea kayaks but I prefer sitting in a canoe vs a kayak and prefer single blade vs double blade.

Although anecdotal, my experience paddling many miles with my sea kayak friends is that it's more about the paddler than the paddle. I found that I could comfortably keep up (using hit-and-switch) with the more accomplished and athletic sea kayak paddlers on long day trips or multi-day excursions. In a few instances, where one or two of them would push the pace, I could stay right with them. In fact, they'd comment that they were impressed that a canoe and single blade paddler would be able to do so. I was a bit surprised myself at the time, but not any more. So in my experience, a sleek canoe or kayak is a sleek canoe or kayak, regardless of the number of paddle blades. Now, if you're talking about specialized racing boats, that's another topic.

 

[memaquay]

Does this suggest that it's ultimately the boat that determines your tripping speed?

To some extent this is true, although a competent paddler should be able to make similar hulls go at roughly the same speed. For instance, in tripping situations, I think most dedicated solo canoe hulls paddled by the same tripping paddler over the course of a day will give roughly similar results. For a racer, the hull will be more important.
.
Alan's Barracuda is a unique hull. I built one, paddled it once and gave it away. It would have been hard for me to keep up an average speed if most of my time had been spent swimming, lol.

 

[Benson Gray]

This is an interesting test and a sharp departure from the Olympic results last year shown below. These are different paddlers, positions, boats, and days but they provide an indication of what top athletes can do over the same distance with single and double paddles.

Benson

 

[stripperguy]

Alan,
Very, very interesting...
Heart rate seems the best way to compare for sure, I'm a cyclist and heart rate is the easiest way to track performance for sure.
I do wonder how much energy is wasted by the yaw from the double blade. If only you could also track your course for both paddle types, with sufficient precision, to see how each blade provided the best velocity made good.
Also of note, your all out sprint speed looks to be the hull speed...my DY Special (16'8" and about 25" @ 3" WL) would reach 7.1 mph on an all out sprint.

Great stuff, Alan.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

This is an interesting test and very different from the Olympic results last year shown below. These are different paddlers, positions, boats, and days but they provide an indication of what top athletes can do over the same distance with single and double paddles.

Benson


View attachment 148080


View attachment 148081

Now, I would like to see their boats. (I don't follow the Olympics).

 

[Benson Gray]

Now, I would like to see their boats.

The links below should give you an idea about their boats.

Benson

 

[GeoBoy]

What I found when I switched from a narrow pack canoe to a wider pack canoe that the 230 cm paddle I use to use was not in the water very long and I had lost efficiency. When I switched to a 250 cm paddle with the wider canoe my speed increased significantly.

 

[Alan Gage]

You were sitting with both paddles, right? Am I misjudging the seat hight?

Yes, seated with both. I didn't measure the seat but I'd say it's 5-6" above the floor.

You set your Onno double to quite a short length for a canoe, 220 cm.

Unfortunately 220 is the longest setting for this paddle (210-220)

Do you have any idea of your stroke rate single and double?

Yes, I counted stroke rate with both paddles a little past the halfway point. The single blade was 60 spm and the double was 61 spm. That was kind of my 'ah ha' moment when it suddenly made sense that the same stroke rate and same exertion (heart rate) is probably going to result in very similar performance.

I assume you are also very accomplished using a single blade while rapidly correcting single side paddling, not hit and switch. Do you have any comparison data in that mode?

No, I am not very accomplished in that. While single sided correction is my 'sight seeing' stroke it tends to fall apart under harder efforts. I think I will do a comparison though because I have been curious and it will be good practice.

This was a fun little test. I admit to being a die hard single blade paddler but I went into it with an open mind and tried to give every advantage I could to the double blade because I'm less familiar with it; those advantages being a boat more suited to the 220cm length and being the first paddle used in the test to eliminate fatigue from entering the equation. That being said I used to unsuccessfully race kayaks in a former life and I feel I have pretty good mechanics for the stroke.

I'm a little rusty with the single blade as well. Since 2018 canoeing has taken a back seat in my interests and I've only paddled a handful of times, all of them being short day trips. I don't think I paddled at all last year. This year I've been trying to get back into it and have been out a few times.

I think I'll do this test with single sided correction strokes too but I feel that sit and switch is the best for comparing the single vs the double. It seems that by far the biggest reason given for using the double blade is that it's faster and more efficient. So if we're talking speed and efficiency then the obvious answer for the single blade would be the sit and switch stroke.

I'm guessing that if this same test was run by someone who only uses a double that the results would be reversed simply due to their comfort with the double and unfamiliarity of good sit and switch technique with the single. Different hulls could greatly impact the results as well (a short and turny boat could very well be faster with the double for lake paddling).

I, obviously, found the single blade to be an easier and more comfortable stroke. The double did not feel difficult or awkward but it did feel like marginally more work than the single. It felt like there was more movement involved with the double from fully switching sides every stroke and the increased weight was noticeable as well. The single blade stroke feels more compact with less motion.

I didn't come away from this thinking the single blade was better* but rather that it just comes down to your personal choices and preferences. In terms of straight ahead propulsion you're probably going to get pretty similar results from both of them so just pick what you like.

Alan

* That isn't quite true. I went into it already knowing the single was better.

 

[Alan Gage]

My observations from years of traveling with a gps is that tripping speed is often fairly standard despite conditions. The variable is effort.

That does seem to be the case. Portages really seem to even things out over the course of a day too. Just because you spend 8 hours between camps doesn't mean you spend 8 hours paddling.

For tripping a "slower" boat could make you much faster if it's able to run rapids the quick boat can't. If the slow boat saves a 1 hour portage it would take a lot of lake paddling to make that time back up in the quick boat.

Alan

 

[Tsuga8]

Alan, thank you for the well thought-out and executed test. I appreciate your approach and effort.

Different hulls could greatly impact the results as well (a short and turny boat could very well be faster with the double for lake paddling).

To me, this is the crux of it. When I switch to double is when I'm trying to make miles across a lake in my Phoenix during a trip (though I'm confident I don't have your skill or form with a single or double).

Seems like your Barracuda minimizes the need for correction, and to me a key advantage of the double is also minimizing the need for correction.

Care to repeat your experiment in a shorter boat with more rocker and poorer tracking?

 

[Alan Gage]

Care to repeat your experiment in a shorter boat with more rocker and poorer tracking?

Yes, I've been thinking of doing just that. I'm hoping someone will volunteer to send me a longer carbon double for the test.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

The paddler in me would appreciate it if you'd also include one run kneeling.

The engineer in me would appreciate it if you'd repeat everything 5 more times and also find 5 more people to run the same tests. Then we can actually interpret the data and draw hard conclusions.

Ok. I'll count on you as 1 of the other 5 people to run the same test. Maybe Steve can be another participant after he finishes his back to back 15 mile test paddles.

I think I will try a kneeling test. Might have to do some practice first to brush up on it.

Alan