C-Forum

Hi everyone,

I am having problems with my H2O paddle, standard shape.

It seems to flutter as I am doing my onside forward power stroke.

Is that normal for all paddles? or do the plastic moulded blades break down or loose rigidity over time, as it is a few years old.

cheers
Hippostan

You're probably just getting stronger.

Seriously, though , plastic will fatigue over time just like all structural materials (and old men). If the blade has a foam core, when it breaks down, it will allow more flex too.

I had that problem with my Mitchell spoon blade when I first got it. I found with practice and slight angle change on the offside stroke this went away.

Jim

most of the stiffer paddles don't flutter, but sometime they do breakdown after a while... but with the H20 it is the fact that it's plastic molded. i paddled one for about 10 miles, and coming from a racing background where everything is (suppposed to be) crisp, and stiff, I couldn't handle the play in the blade.
one thing that can help you is to think more about a steady pull, and perhaps shortening your stroke. more of a plant/lunge versus a normal canoe stroke. cheers man
hope that helps a little
-isaac

Bearboater is right. Get the power on at the catch, shorten your stroke, and the paddle won't have time to flutter.

Thank you for the suggestions, I will try them today.

cheers
Hippostan

oops, I just reread the post, I had the flutter on the underwater recovery, not the power stroke.

Jim

That is just the blade shape. So stop your inwater recovery... Werner's have the same problem too... It just happens.
Cheers
-isaac

In water recoveries are part of the offside stroke. It is un-natural not to do so. The underwater recovery on your offside serves as the inverse of the J stroke on your on side. The stroke should be short and forward of your knees, though I don't practice as well as I preach.

Jim

Try to lift the blade a bit on the recovery to lessen the inwater recovery. Also play with the angle/pitch of the blade during the recovery to see if you can lessen the flutter.

Well so far the shorter stroke has helped, except the annoying fact that I am doing more strokes. There is still a little bit of flutter. Very little compared to the full stroke.

Turning the blade slightly has also helped, but I have been falling into my same stroke technique and then comes the flutter.

So I have talked to my lovely wife who has agreed that I can get a few new paddles. I am looking at Rochfort paddles from New Zealand or Galasport.

Thanks for all the help

cheers
Hippostan

It is the spine of the blade. The more pronounced the spine running down the middle of the blade the more flutter on the "in-water recovery". Also, the angle of the blade on recovery and how hard and fast you are pushing it forward will affect the flutter. I hate that flutter. Get a Galasport Carbon Elite shaft with a TE5 blade, No More Flutter as there is virtually no spine!

i just checked out the website for the rochfort paddles, interesting, I had never heard of them before... one thing to think about too, is that you are going to be going from the large blade of the H2O to a tiny blade for the rochfort, it is 2 inches shorter than every galasport slalom paddle, I had a magnum from gala, which had a little inwater recovery, but i don't often do an inwater reccovery because it is slower than just taking it out, and replanting the blade... anyway. the magnum and the demon both will have some flutter, the standard blade from gala that is mort popular for general paddling, and my creekstick is the 3M, Maxi, it has a catch more like what you are used to, the TE5 which i use for racing, is a different beast completely, and is flexier, and is a bent blade, so it is a mix between a flatwater sprint paddle, and a spoon blade, it is awesome, but you should know that it is unlike anything you have felt unless you have a CRC from France that came out in the last 3 months...
cheers
-isaac

CRC from France? Can you provide an Internet address?

so here are a few companies that more than likely, no one here knows about...or at least very few. they are all foreign racing companies. caiman is actually not a paddle manufacturer, they simply use andrej raabs paddles with an extra sticker.

CRC- http://www.crc-competition.com/entreprise.php
it's in french, but a good site, takes a little while to navigate.

RAAB- http://www.raabpaddles.com/new_e_index.htm
czech company, not very good for actual padddling, but amazing feel for racing.

Kober- http://www.highnmighty.co.uk/kober-moll.htm
german, this is a english website because their website pertains no info on their better C1 paddles. I use oone of their kayak slalom paddles.

Lettmann- http://www.lettmann.de/catalog/index.php/cPath/23_48
this is their store site. the bottom 6 are theirs, the top couple are aquabound. the one that is 259 euros is the only one I have paddled, it's a huge blade, and a heavy set-up. but a great feel.

cheers
-isaac