Exciting new arrival!

What could it be?

 Today I my Joe O' Greenland paddle arrived from Mike at Poole Bay Canoes!

After a great deal of measuring and checking with both Mike and Joe who have shown much patience with all my queries I ended up with a non-shouldered 205.

I could have waited until Spring to get a 210 - BUT  I COULDN'T WAIT!!!

A bit nervous that it would be too short - all the other dimensions turned out just right as far as I can tell.

With my shoulders square my fingers curl over the top but I can comfortably extend my reach by another hands length at least, so I'd say its probably on the short side of a range which would suit my height.



first stick strokes

I have read Qajaq USA pages foresically and peered at you tube videos, so it was with some trepidation I set off to try out my own stick. Of course I wanted to go straight to the canted stroke and fairly quickly got the hang of it on one side (my right handed side) while on the other the blade consistently entered the water with a stubborn 'plop!'. I slowed down, I focussed, I paddled on one side only, I looked for the tell tale vortex of water leaving the blade and tried to make it point to the bow...'plop! plop! plop!'



No flutter but persistent plopping..

I thought about cadence and tried a faster pace of paddling - the plop disappeared. I couldn't keep it up! It was a good work out, like crunching elbow to opposite knee, but I had no idea if the rest of my body was working correctly - all the usual flags and markers meant nothing. Clearly this is going to take a while...

If only I had a mentor who could tell me what to work on!

static brace worked nicely

Sculling for support was different and I will practice that in the pool soon.

In the meantime it seems amazing that I have a Joe O' Blenis paddle of my very own!