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  1. yknpdlr

    The efficiency of bent vs. straight shaft paddles

    If there is no significant speed advantage, someone has to please tell me why in every one of hundreds of canoe races I have been in or seen, 95% of canoe racers adopt using bent shaft carbon paddles and will finish well ahead of 95% of (mainly first time racing beginners or "tourist paddlers"...
  2. yknpdlr

    Quiet Blade Shape

    Caleb's Tremolo paddles (at least at one time with the several that I have) at the very thin tip were carefully thin sawed split and a spline was inserted and glued in place to prevent damage of splitting and chipping. I have no evidence of any damage on tip or edges after more than 20 years.
  3. yknpdlr

    Must have medical items?

    Oh, I see, it is really the compression bandage that I have seen demonstrated in a previous training. Not to be confused with the israeli version of the Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT), of which it is also designed to be self applied. I do carry one of those, since one was demonstrated in...
  4. yknpdlr

    Must have medical items?

    Pack a kotex pad or two, very useful for dressing open wounds and stopping bleeding. A side benefit is if you travel with a lady who forgot to pack what she may need, you could (temporarily) become her best friend.
  5. yknpdlr

    Must have medical items?

    Did you ever watch a war movie where the medic tears open a packet with his teeth and dumps a powder on a wonded soldier's bleeding wound? That is a clotting powder, likely what is impregnated in the Israeli bandage and other similar dressings you can buy from medical supply.
  6. yknpdlr

    Quiet Blade Shape

    A blade that tapers to a very thin edge all around the blade is important for quiet and in-water recovery. We've all seen such as the Feather brand big box store clunky paddles and their ilk that go for ~$20. Thick rounded edges, Might as well use a 2x4. It will drag down air on the catch and...
  7. yknpdlr

    Quiet Blade Shape

    For regular power strokes, be sure to match the entry catch with the relative rearward velocity of the water for a smooth noise-less and cavitation-less entry that does not drag air down with it. At the end of the stroke, unless doing the Indian or box stroke, slice the exit straight out in the...
  8. yknpdlr

    Quiet Blade Shape

    Good choice, but the Indian (or box) stroke can only be accomplished very awkwardly with a bent paddle. It will not be a complete Indian stroke, whiich when properly done, reverses the power face and the back face on each recovery by a palm roll of the grip as the blade is sliced foward in...
  9. yknpdlr

    Improve your boat control techniques to enhance all types of canoeing

    During the Yukon River races, in a voyageur canoe paddling at an average "flat water speed" of 6-7mph, added to an average 6+mph current pushing us along, I have averaged or on some days or even exceeded 160 miles/day, completing 1000 miles in just six days. Five Yukon races plus a local...
  10. yknpdlr

    Improve your boat control techniques to enhance all types of canoeing

    "A meander is the pleasantest distance between two points" -origiinal quote attributed to Paul Jamieson and favored often spoken by my friend "just john" Baumann, both wilderness canoe guides and mentors in the Adirondacks
  11. yknpdlr

    Bent vs. straight paddle - direct comparison plus bonus footage

    While in Canberra on a business trip, after a brief chat about my recent Yukon 1000 mile race, I was invited by the Australian National Dragon Boat Team head coach to take an unocupied seat during a traning session. Yes, straight blade wood paddles. Very command driven specific action orders...
  12. yknpdlr

    Improve your boat control techniques to enhance all types of canoeing

    After I had been mainly self-taught for many years, I met Caleb Davis. born a Canadian, Moved to USA, became a guide and BSA High adventure instructor, a canoe builder and well known Traditional American Freestyle Flatwater Program Instructor and museum demonstator in the Notheast. Caleb tuned...
  13. yknpdlr

    Must have medical items?

    My canoe racing career has tended to attract a number of varied medical professionals. My Adirondack and Yukon race partners have been combinations of: a pathologist, an active current combat experienced field medic, a husband/wife team of a PA becoming a cardiologist and a hospital surgical...
  14. yknpdlr

    Single sided correction strokes - Does your paddle touch the hull?

    In my earliest racing days as bow paddler in a heavy woodstrip voyageur canoe, I self-discovered the bow jam, I carried a spare very sturdy wood paddle and in the extremely twisty narrow Brown's Tract, I would lean my body far out to the offside of the turn and jam the paddle as I stuck the...
  15. yknpdlr

    2025 Canadian Wildfires

    My brother toured Nova Scotia last summer. I have long been thinkig about planning a trip soon, maybe this fall after the '90. I keep getting tourism emails from there after I inquired last year. Guess I am glad I did not commit quite yet.
  16. yknpdlr

    Single sided correction strokes - Does your paddle touch the hull?

    Nothing hard about using an efficient method of paddling, clearly the easy way for me and many others. . I fully realize that one can pry off the gunwales all day long if. you wish. I simply have a different very workable experienced method that has nothing to do with "just showing that I can"...
  17. yknpdlr

    Single sided correction strokes - Does your paddle touch the hull?

    We each year have a single loon family residing on our small private no motors allowed lake. Early in the season they are skittish, as expected, and I understand they are very frightened of low flying large birds overhead (e.g., bald eagles that we may have around here). For that reason, they...
  18. yknpdlr

    Doing non-racing things with a racing boat?

    I remember well in the earlier days of the Adirondack 90 mile classic canoe race, especially when rounding a particular highly wind exposed point on afternoon windy Raquette Lake, a number of pro boats would be seen having capsized. Thankfully the prime track was close to shore, so no real...
  19. yknpdlr

    What are your current solo canoes and how do you like them?

    A 10.5 foot Hornbeck has taken me on frequent trips well off trail to many remote Adirondack ponds, and on a 185 mile cross-Adirondack SW to NE diagonal trek from one side to the other and beyond with all gear and food I needed for a full week. Wind and waves on the larger lakes (including...
  20. yknpdlr

    Single sided correction strokes - Does your paddle touch the hull?

    Unless in a crowded space, a draw on the opposite side is usually preferable to a pry. Rather than a direct paddle to on hull pry, an onside “push away” stroke can be done with a push-away figure-8 stroke when necessary, without touching the hull, similar to a figue-8 draw in reverse. in close...
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