Hi everyone,
Yesterday I went to Fort DeSoto to play with Painendias and had a blast. When I was on the water, I finally felt the power of using my back and side muscles to drive the paddle rather than my arms. By rotating from the waste, I was able to develop more power than I could with my arms over a sustained period of time but the problem is, I tire quicker than by using my arms. I think it might be that I;m ust not used to using those muscle-groups and just need a lot more time doing it. The other possibility is that I;m simply doing it wrong. I filmed myself paddling using a Go-Pro Hero on the bow with a suction-cup mount. The page address to my facebook is:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202795259467538&set=vb.1382160516&type=2&theater
I would appreciate any feedback on technique you might have. I know it looks like I;m cruising along at 10-knots but I'm not. I didn;t have my GPS with me but if I were to guess my actual speed, I put it at around 4.5 knots, upping it to 6-knots when I was getting on it, which is still a lot faster than my SOT. I know it doesn't show a side-profile and it looks like I'm not rotating but I am. Whether I'm rotating enough is the question.
I paddled for maybe 10-miles and felt pretty beat-up from rotating constantly. While it definitely relieves my arms, it does seem to take more energy. I tried both the high and low postures and like the low better, simply because it seems to take less energy. If I were sprinting, I would go to the high posture, as I did when chasing down a tandem, yesterday. This morning, while I'm not sore, I can definitely tell I used those muscles.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can provide.