sunday wind-down, blech-ie weather

Been one of those days where all ya want to do is nap.   Just ask the Katz,,,   Even Mama-kat, who usually gives no attention to weather has been astride the porch all day, looking bored and more than a little put off.  (there is good reason we all, and I do mean ALL of us boys, call her GRUMPY-Kat.).

And I am doing some healing today too.  I am not used to “Euro-blade” paddles anymore.  I use Greenland paddles for all my long boats, but yesterday I paddled somewhere between 12 and 15 miles on a river, using that 197cm Euro blade.   Different muscle combinations, not just due to the blade, but the paddling NEEDS: lots of bracing strokes, lots of hard digging, and bow and stern rudder strokes, very little propulsion strokes needed since the water does most of your moving for you.  You end up doing a lot of navigation to make sure you are where you want to be when the water starts getting ‘gnarly’.   And today, I am most defintely feeling that difference.   Not so much the shoulders, as the upper arms, both biceps and triceps.  Seeing how I use the core and shoulders more with the ‘skinny stick’ paddles, that makes sense.  And the Euro has a wider ‘stance’ than the GP: hip width for the GP, elbow to elbow width for the Euro. ( That changes ‘angle of moment’ on all of the joints in use, and of course, the attached muscles.   

Usual course, a couple OTC pain relievers, and some added alcohol, and if I am still hurting before beds,,,   Tigerbalm extreme and some Capzasin rub.  That combination works flat wonders to sore old dudes abused joints and connecting tissues.

Spent part of today being frivolous: making a new paddle.   An Aleutian paddle this time.  Yet another wonder of the Arctic circle qajaq world.   A bit longer, different profile, but wouldn’t look much different from a distance for the untrained.   Only one set of power faces where the GP is so universal in that you have only profiles, not faces.   (the profile ‘bites’ or it doesn’t, and it doesn’t matter how you grab it; its that symmetrical.).  And that craptastic weather even slowed THAT little project down some.   My shop(porch) is so damp from the weeks of wet we have been having, that glue-up time is extended.   How long? I’m sure I don’t know right now.   So I have a wet sticky wood sandwich in clamps on the horses waiting for the next step.    May be this week, next weekend, or sometime well into August.    I’m ok with that though since I have found the longer the cure time for Tite-bond, the better the joint is.   And a triple lamination of wood, as I have set up, needs that strength.   Its one 4″x1/4″x 96″ slab of Hickory, a slab of RWC that is 1″ thick same width and length, and coffee wood that is 1/2″ thick, 1″ wide and that covers two feet long down the center line.   That section is the loom where you grip the paddle the most.  (all arctic paddles are intended to be ‘swept’ as needed to extend the blade for better leverage.  Thats why they are so slim along the paddle face: so the paddler can grab it anywhere without straining the hand.)

And I found out not too long ago, that the width of the blade means far less than I thought.   Three paddles, all similar length but three different profiles and widths.   My surf blade, my Carbon Fiber GP, and Bruces first paddle of his making.   C was in the Carolina with the surf blade, me in BJ with my GP and Bruce in Ghost with his ‘stick’.   The only REAL difference I saw was in Acceleration, not top end.   The surf blade was able to accelerate faster, but once it hit hull speed, it seemed like it took even MORE to get over that hump.   And I was able to catch up to C with my GP just by shifting my stroke from the shoulders to the core muscles.   Bruce had the GPS and saw hull speed in Ghost with only a couple extra strokes than if he had been using the surf blade (his usual paddle these days if in long boats).  I started thinking the whole thing is like the difference between a Chevy small block and big block.  One will get you down the quarter mile faster, but they both top out about the same place, speed-wise.    The only REAL difference is how much fuel you are going to burn to get there.  And its not intuitive.   That these paddles grab the water as well as they do, ALWAYS catches the die-hard Euro paddle users off guard.     

and with that in mind, I am trying something a little different with the Aleutian paddle.  Instead of going the full spread of my palm (arctic paddles are made using anthropomorphic measurements), I am using the thumb web to first knuckle.  its still larger than what the Aleut would have, but thinner than I am used to.   With the entire blade being 10cm longer than my GP, I will have more blade in the water, DEEPER, where the water is denser, so a little better bite, and with a flat power face. wing shaped back face, a sliding stroke should be more even more efficient.   (but these paddles aren’t intuitive,,,,    The GP has a hydrofoil shape that works, even being symmetrical, not by wing efficiency, but by blade angle.  I guess I’m gonna find out, eh?)

Its back to the grind tomorrow,,, at least I was able to get some seat time in this weekend.   Had one thing on the to-do list, that didn’t get done, but it’s not a priority thing.   And Dad dropped another potential small Bomb in my lap today.   Won’t delve into it here, since I haven’t been able to confirm or deny what he passed to me, and until I do, I ain’t gonna stress over it: just keep it on the back burner until I can get a confirmation/denial, then start making plans accordingly.   Its not like the world isn’t trying to blow itself up these days or anything.  What one person plans to do may be shot to hell tomorrow when the dollar crashes, and EVERY ONES plans get changed.

Just go with the flow, like you do with running a river in a small spud boat.