Understanding how paddles are built and why they are built a certain way can greatly help with a deeper understanding of stroke efficiency. Building your own paddle will give you a greater appreciation and respect for paddles.

Not everyone is capable or interested in woodworking, but I will leave that part to you. I learned by building my own that any paddle should always be treated with respect for the craftsmanship that created it and it should never be used as a tool for anything other than paddling. The following article describes making wooden paddles in a makeshift wood shop that was formerly called a garage.

This article details how to build your own double bend outrigger canoe paddle. When complete, this paddle weighed 17 ounces (1 to 2 ounces heavier than a Kialoa carbon fiber hybrid paddle. This article was originally published in April 2009 at http://learning.vivaa.ca

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How long should the cord be cut for OC6 canoe rigging?

A common rule of thumb practiced by the Keauhou Club, for one, and probably a great many others is the 7 - 11 rule of thumb. Having nothing to do with a chain fast food convenience stores other than its easy to remember. of course there are as many rules of thumb in rigging outrigger canoes as products sold in a 7-11 store. As Nappy Napoleon is reported to have said, "As long as the buggah doesn't come off", being the premise of good lashing to hold a canoe together.

For the iaku-to-canoe wae lashing, 66 feet of cord works well. So where does 7-11 come in?

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To Bail or Not to Bail:

• An average depth of 1 inch of water 8 inches wide for 20 feet long in an OC6 canoe is 1.15 cubic feet or 75 lbs.
• An average depth of 2 inch of water 10 wide by 25 feet in an OC6 canoe is 3.33 cubic feet or 206 lbs.
• An average depth of 3 inches of water 12" wide in 30 feet of an OC6 canoe is 7.5 cubic feet and weighs 465 lb, more than the empty weight of an empty OC6 canoe without its occupants.

Weight of Water

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There are several blog references to the importance of creating bubble free paddle strokes related to kayaks. The Outrigger community does not seem to have the same written information. There is no doubt that paddles generating bubbles in the water are inefficient.

When looking at the water behind very skilled paddlers, there are almost no bubbles. Often with more powerful but novice paddlers there are lots of bubbles and in the beginning I thought, “My, they are so strong they are cavitating the water.“  That is not the case.

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When tiredness sets in, paddlers often start to look down, shoulders hunch, the stroke moves back in the water and the ‘catch’ portion of the stroke disappears, the breathing becomes slightly more restricted and timing goes out. It’s the beginning of the body trying to transfer or shut down the painful / difficult part of paddling or even the mental fatigue from the discipline required. Even before fatigue, we sometimes only have to lose our focus and it happens.

I wondered why this occurs, asked others and this is what I came up with...

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