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TOPIC: How to paddle with both hands on the shaft

How to paddle with both hands on the shaft 10 years 10 months ago #32938

  • Jeroen
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There are situations where you want both hands on the paddle shaft, e.g. when kneeling, or during fast transitions, when you don't even have time to reach for a proper grip. Coming from kayaking, I instinctively always use a kayak paddling grip, i.e. with both hand palms facing down, as I feel this gives me much better control and makes it easy to transfer the power to the blade.

Yet I see many people, not only beginners, who have the palm of their top hand facing up. This is probably a natural thing to do when climbing a pole, but I doubt if this makes sense with a SUP paddle. I find it really hard to control the paddle this way, and it feels weird on the upper wrist when trying to put power on the blade. The only reason I can think of is that a SUP paddle is typically more vertical (sometimes even past vertical) than a kayak paddle, although that doesn't really make a difference when kneeling.

What do you think? Are their other reasons to use that pole climbing grip that I didn't think of? Are these just my old kayaking habits, which don't make any sense on a SUP? :)
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Re: How to paddle with both hands on the shaft 10 years 10 months ago #32942

  • corran
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I see people gripping the shaft below the T grip all the time and it never made any sense to me - it's as easy to grab the T grip as the shaft, and the angle/position gives you far more control over blade angle and power transfer - in my opinion.

I never grab the shaft at the top. But that's me.
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Re: How to paddle with both hands on the shaft 10 years 10 months ago #32945

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Well I think it does make sense when kneeling. Then again, real men don't kneel I guess :D
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Re: How to paddle with both hands on the shaft 10 years 10 months ago #32946

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So Corran, suppose you WERE kneeling or DID want to have both hands on the shaft for any other reason - how would you hold it?
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Re: How to paddle with both hands on the shaft 10 years 9 months ago #32955

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Look at the photos in this article:
supconnect.mylocallineup.com/SUP-Races/c...itles-in-europe.html
Both guys leading the race are not your average Joe the SUPpers, and they both hold the paddle guitar style, during the race...
I don't get it.
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Re: How to paddle with both hands on the shaft 10 years 9 months ago #32956

  • corran
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I don't get it either

we see neither C1 sprinters nor Outrigger doing that.... it makes no sense.
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