Eventful Paddle Round Ubin

Went round Ubin with Kevin again. Quite an eventful paddle.
He used a Bandit this time while I switched from a wooden paddle to a wing paddle. So I was way ahead of him.

Looking for a workout

He mananged to paddle 22km in a whitewater boat within 4hours. Quite an achievement I'd say.

East Nenas Beacon

It was the 1st time I used a wing paddle since January and the stronger catch of those blades wreak havoc on my shoulder for longer distances. Was paddling quite leisurely, so my shoulders didnt really hurt. But I could feel the strain.

Sea snake!

On our way back to Pasir Ris we paddled past a group in open deck kayaks. I think it was led by Jessica with Addison at the back. Looked like them.
Then we saw a group of SMU paddlers launching when we finally reached Pasir Ris beach.

Got Kevin to help me take some videos, so here they are!

Top Hat Roll


Balance Brace

Slowpoke

Went for a paddle today and my speed was much slower! I took 59.31min to complete my round :(
Should be a few seconds faster because I forgot which button to press haha. But 59 minutes is just unacceptable! I expereinced some discomfort in my left shoulder which contributed to the slower timing. But that means my technique is not correct!
Argh...

Tried to do more skills with a wing paddle after that horrible session.

1. Cross-over hanging draw
2. Stern Rudder
3. Forward ending Sweep roll
4. C to C roll
5. Cross bow draw

The C to C roll was abit hard cos if the blade angle is slightly off, the blade would just dive. The cross bow draw felt abit odd, but then I havent tried it with a normal paddle.
And oh, cross-over hanging draw is MUCH easier!

Tunnel vision

Forgot to add in my previous post that after my experimentation session with the wing paddle, I bumped into Charles while washing the kayak. I was washing my touring kayak and he noticed the wing on the ground. He asked who's it was and I pointed to myself. He then replied in a mocking, yet shocked tone, "you use brac 4 with slalom?!"

Yet another coach with a one track mind. To my readers, here's a link to Freya Hoffmeister's blog. She has circumnavigated Iceland and used an Epic wing paddle with her sea kayak for that trip.
Or jump straight to the article written by Freya here
She is sponsored by Epic, but she still chooses to use a wing instead of their euro blades for her expeditions.

Went for my 3rd SIM canoeing training. This time I felt that we were doing it right. Although warm up, still not really warm up. There was a good mix of cardio and strength training. There were 2 newbies this time but fewer people showed up. They're finally starting sea trainings and I will be joining them for the first one this Saturday!
Hoho...

Quite shocked to find out during dinner that they use Bracsa I and II. Those have a bigger blade area and stronger catch compared to the Bracsa IV I use.

Winging it

Used a wing paddle to do my usualy 8km route and it took me 56.22 min, 1 second shy of my fastest recorded time. However, I was trying to adapt to the new technique required to paddle with a wing.

I've heard that wings are one-trick ponies and can't do much other than paddle forward and low brace. But I managed to perform the following strokes:

1. Rolling
2. J-Draw
3. Classical Draw
4. Sculling Draw
5. Sweep stroke
6. Low Brace
7. High Brace
8. Bow Rudder
9. Hanging Draw

Doing a sweep roll was especially easy due to the lift of the wing. The paddle felt like it was stuck in concrete. On the other hand sculling for support was impossible to do with the blade constantly diving down.

I switched to a regular paddle after paddling 8km with the wing and something funny happened. The blade would "pop" out of the water during the exit phase as if there was no resistance. Can understand why people say using a standard paddle after getting used to a wing is like paddling with a wet noodle.

Borrowed Sam's paddle at 0 degree feather angle and it feels odd. Low angle paddling is fine but when I switched to high angle paddling, I just couldnt get it.