As I believe I have stated before, I very much like my paddlesports canoe paddle attachment on a Concept 2 erg machine. Before I found that machine at the Syracuse canoe nationals, I had a Waterrower machine that I used as a paddler rather than a straight pull grip. I got it in the fall to train on during the winter before my first Yukon River race the following June. The experienced Yukon voyageur canoe team I joined recommended everyone train the equivalent of 500 miles before the race, with a combination of on water and/or machine use before the race, even through solid water winter time. Which I did until ice-out and we were able to train near home on the water together.
As designated team navigator (and bow paddler), I developed a Google Earth based best guess at an efficient GPS race route around bends and the hundreds of islands and gravel shoals. With Post-race route experience, I modified and improved the route before the next Yukon race we traveled to. G.E allows you to "fly" the route you create at any altitude you set. I would train on my Waterrower in front of a wide screen TV monitor as I "flew" my route at a couple of hundred feed up as I listened to my favorite and appropriate "Epic" genre music. With hours and hours of that, I largely memorized the entire route, especially in the critical complex areas. It all surprisingly came to mind during the actual race.
Unfortunately, after a couple of years, the water tank developed a leak that I was unable to completely repair. My wife did not appreciate a wet floor. Then I found the paddlesports machine, which with a full-size paddle grip and shaft, is better suited to simulate actually using a real canoe paddle.
I liked the Waterrower because the catch felt the most realistic of any of the kinds of available machines that I found to try out at the time (in 2007). And there was the real sound of paddling through real water. With either machine, I don't often go through the full erg training menu routine. Most times I just use it for maintaining pace (normally at 60+spm), muscle tone and muscle memory of a vertical paddle stroke and where I apply the most force and power (first 18 inches after the "catch"). I do not bring paddle beyond my hip in any case. At paddle "exit", I flip the grip horizontal to simulate feathering the blade into the wind. I can experiment to some extent with where I pace the catch, along with how I bend and use back and torso to see how it affects my comfort and efficiency on the machine. Overall, that muscle training works well for normal strength paddling, whether I am training in that mode for paddling a big boat, or solo. I'll take that with its limitations as an overall positive.
However, as a primary bow paddler when other than solo, setting a constant team comfortable cadence for the race and water conditions is important to me. Having forward vision on the water, surface and subsurface, I also provide minor direction control with forward moving draws, occasionally a bow rudder, or major hard turning draws when necessary for current or navigation. My strong stern paddler knows how to follow when He or she sees me initiating making other than straight power strokes. A paddling machine lacks that ability to simulate those strokes other than the straight power stroke. Especially when I paddle solo, I use heeling to enhance correction to straight line travel or to make significant turn action. In may canoe, I can adjust my seat position, or tripping gear for different conditions, "Paddling" on a machine does not respond to any of that.
