- Joined
- Jun 27, 2016
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- 17
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I started canoe tripping in 1972 and until 2008 lived under the illusion that I actually new what I was doing. At which point a butterfly pointed out that my J stroke was actually the Goon stroke. It seems that if I pointed my thumb in the other direction I'd achieve the J stroke and so paddling perfection. Problem is after 25 years of living in a fantasy its hard to come back to reality. When I read about the perfect paddling form I discover how very far from grace I fall.So I decided to embrace the goon stroke after all, most of my time tripping was spent under the canoe. Even with my scow of a whitewater alumacraft I was just far enough back to be relieved of navigation and fire starting for lunch. Indeed the only real downside seems to be camp site selection.If I ever decide its time to get to front of the camp site selection line I figure a nice light Bell prospector or its equivalent will get me there. Indeed when I read about biomechanic and the physic's of the canoe stroke their seem to be a disconnect from the basic Newtonian law of force in relationship to mass times acceleration so the weight of the canoe as part of the calculation. My poor old canoe has hit enough rocks that drag also comes into play. I guess if you want to use an accelerometer you can but inherently we all sense the quantum of force we apply in anything we do. So by deduction as we paddle on a particularly boring piece of water we should be able to get a fairly good idea of what's working and whats not. Ergonomically our level of comfort is also defined and we can make adjustments to improve our level of enjoyment. So more by way of justification a goon I remain.