I have 1/2 of a season 'switch hitting.' I have a strong preference for my right side, as does my better half/tandem partner, who was at the time just getting started. She agreed to paddle left, then claimed to get more tired as a result . . . to keep the peace, I went left. I am also the stern paddler
Now that I think about it, this could work long-term. In the rear, I won't be going offside. All I really need is a strong forward stroke, draw, and pry. If we try to roll the thing, then I switch hands during the setup and we both come up on our true "on-sides". Plus, the stronger paddler (me) is slightly handicapped and the weaker paddler more comfortable . . .
Are there other folks who do similar things? Or is this a fool's errand?
I totally agree with you, Walsh. I'm a diehard left side paddler, controlling the T-grip with my right hand. When I paddle on my right I still control the paddle with my right hand. This makes it very hard for me to do crossover strokes so I never paddle on my right in the bow. In the stern it's a different story because I don't have to do crossover strokes so I usually let the bow paddler choose their paddling side.
I spent the 1st 15 years paddlin on my right side, I switched to my left due to shoulder issues when I started taking on bigger runs and smaller boats a couple of years ago. I could never get my roll on the right, and picked it up quickly on my left. Nowadays I have a roll both sides and can paddle both. I do stick with the left mostly now and only switch up when needed.
Even though I'm right handed and roll right handed, It feels strange for me to paddle on the right now. Unfortunately, this means that I have to switch my grip to roll. Someday I'll have to learn to roll on the left.
I'm pretty ambidextirous, for a certain move or surf I'll happily paddle on either side, as long as I'm within my comfort zone. When looking at slalom gates, I'm never certain which side I should paddle on.
However, I've grown to prefer paddling on my left in hard (for me) ww - but my roll on my "good side" (left) feels horrible and isn't trustworthy, in fact, I've kinda given up on it.
So, I also have to choose to paddle either on my strong paddling side, or on my strong rolling side.
Fortunately, just as for the rest of it, switching hands to roll is starting to come pretty naturally with muscle memory etc. Especially when I go over to my offside on my left anyway. Sometimes to remember whether I switched hands, I really have to think about what side I was paddling on, how I flipped and how I rolled.
If I ever decide that I have to change that, I think it would be easier for me to paddle on more on my right than it would be to improve my roll on my left.
I've always paddled ambi. Not an issue. Write and throw lefty. Swing a club/bat righty. Use a right hand control paddle when I kayak. Genetics? Environment? How I learned? Go figure.
I started out wilderness tripping in OC-2, so I can paddle on either side. However, five years of twice a day slalom training, mainly in C-2M, left me decidedly a lefty in decked canoes. I find that my stroke mechanics are still reasonably good when I paddle righty, but that I'm uncomfortable with leans and edging the boat on that side, and don't even ask about righty pivots.
My younger kids generally paddle kayak so its not a problem for them to paddle bow right when teaming up with me in C-2. However, my oldest started paddling in C-1 (I only had C-boats at that point) and left felt most natural to him too. It has made it a little more difficult for us to race C-2 together. We tried with me paddling right stern so that he could be on his natural side, but my difficulties in getting the edging right unnerved him. Now he switches to the right, which feels unnatural for him, but leaves me more solidly in control. However, as we both naturally roll left, we've got a bomber roll!! We've only tried it in the pool so far, but it is really effortless - the easiest rolls I've ever performed, as my wife and I used to roll without anyone switching sides (i.e. one of us did a cross-roll).
P.S. What was more of a pain than switching sides was switching ends of the boat. I'm perfectly comfortable paddling either end, but our old slalom C-2s were set-up for bow left & 5 lbs. heavier. Paddling in a right stern cockpit which is 90 lbs. out of balance (because its only one of my kids in the bow and not an adult) has been the real challenge. I eventually widened the stern cockpit and centered the seat, but until then I had to paddle over the wide side (left in the stern) in order to maintain some semblance of balance.
