Hip pads...

[truckeeboater]

Just wondering what your thoughts on installing (or NOT installing) hip pads in your open boat were. I'm considering them in my Option to help fit me a bit tighter especially for rolling, and being ridiculously skinny (6'3 170#) I figure I could benefit from filling a little more space in the boat. Though, I also would think that depending on how they were installed they might interfere with entering/exiting (swimming) from the boat. Thanks!

[jakke]

I've added hip pads recently to my L'Edge, and I'm wondering why I've been paddling without for such a long time! I used to have hip pads in my prelude, but they weren't snug enough.

Hip pads don't necessarily make rolling easier, but it sure improves your boat contact.

I've solved the wet exit issue by attaching the hip pads with elastics, according to a setup I've seen in one of James Weirs boats. Drill 2 holes through the hull, pvc pipe through the hip pad. Elastic through the hull and the pvc pipe, and off you go. A bit of foam glued to the foam sidings to provide some positioning and that's it. In case of a wet exit, the hip pads can an will move, but in normal use, they stay well in place.

The best change in my outfitting I've done so far!

[burly]

Do it, installed hip pads and thigh wedges in my option, much better.

[Creeker]

primary goal: stay upright
Hip pads defeat that goal in my opinion for hard creeking so I refuse to install them.

[burly]

hip pads flip you over?

[canotrouge]

I have them in two of my boat and I think they make a big difference on boat control.

[ezwater]

I sense an underlying difference in how people manage the boats under them. And I think it has partly to do with the size of the boat and the size of the paddler.

The traditional situation was that the paddler was "small" relative to the boat. When you're solo paddling an Old Town Tripper or a Blue Hole OCA, tying yourself tight to the boat with thigh straps, hip pads, knee wedges, etc., doesn't necessarily help, because you're a small jockey on a big horse. Instead, old school paddlers on such craft preferred to stay loose in the boat, so they could shift their weight over a wide range to control the boat. A friend of mine, in a Blue Hole OCA, devoid of outfitting other than a simple pedestal seat and a padded center thwart, entered the medium slalom class in the Nationals and came in third, ahead of several regular racers in specialized slalom canoes. (This was back about 1980.) His lack of tight outfitting helped rather than hurt him. The same paddler won the cruising class of the only Middle Ocoee downriver race, in a Blue Hole OCA with loose outfitting. Essentially, he set the Ocoee open canoe downriver record, because there weren't any championship downriver boats entered.

Though I'm large and tall, my outfitting on my usual OC-1 cruiser, my 15' Mad River Synergy, is fairly "loose". I find that I benefit from being able to shift my weight from side to side on the pedestal seat. The center thwart is padded, and I've installed knee wedges, but my knees are free to shift (no thigh straps). Even on my newer 13' Millbrook Big Boy, designed by Connolly for his Grand Canyon run, the outfitting is "loose" because the boat is sort of a giant Ocoee, fairly stable, and it helps for me to be able to shift my butt from side to side without being locked in with hip pads. There are knee wedges, and my thighs are constrained by a sort of open bulkhead. I have never needed toe blocks in any boat, OC-1 or c-1. My long legs are in very good contact with the bottom of the boat.

Toward the opposite extreme, when the paddler is large relative to the canoe, "tight" outfitting may be necessary so that the paddler can effectively wrench the hull around to counteract all the upsetting river forces acting on the canoe. While my Dagger Zealot is nominally 13' long and 28" wide, in fact its water footprint is much smaller. So I glassed in the usual hip pad uprights, I added very substantial knee wedges, and the thigh straps are carefully placed so they run diagonally over my thighs. There is just enough looseness that I can pull either knee back to add to my body twist for certain maneuvers. Obviously the outfitting helps rolling.

I imagine that the smaller the open boat, the more that a paddler will benefit from tight outfitting. But for the few retro guys who are solo paddling 14' Captions, I question whether tight outfitting is beneficial. The smaller the solo paddler of a Caption, the more loose outfitting might benefit. Not many are going to roll Synergys or Captions anyway, much less Blue Hole OCAs or OT Trippers.

The break point may be somewhere around 12 or 13 feet, with almost everyone opting for tight outfitting for short boats, and most accepting loose outfitting for long boats. For borderline cases, the size and weight of the paddler comes into play.

I recall an internet OC-1 paddler who insisted that I could never properly control my OC-1 unless I had toe blocks or toe braces. The fellow seemed unable to understand that when the legs of a 6' 5" paddler are folded under him, with the knees held down by a padded thwart, that the paddler's feet were not in need of any added control, and would not shift except with conscious effort. Small people need tighter outfitting. That's their problem, not mine.

[burly]

constant state of learning. its interesting looking at the different outfitting and paddling styles. makes sense in a bigger boat everything is more dramatic,and you would want to move around more.
i have gradually tightened the outfitting in my option over the last two yrs. i like my lower body locked in tight as a unit with the boat. the hip pads are not engaged all the time, but are right there when i want them and the leverage they afford....?

[Creeker]

onside hip pads directly relate to many offside flips forcing your balance over the tipping point. They limit your adjustments to that rotational flipping force. I rarely offside flip for a reason and I believe no hip pads to be one of the big contributing factors.

[burly]

hmmm... saying the shift in weight over the axis is greater than the mechanical leverage of the hip pad... so maybe a close fitting but not snug hip pad allows for a combination of the two?

[TheKrikkitWars]

primary goal: stay upright
Hip pads defeat that goal in my opinion for hard creeking so I refuse to install them.

For the same reasoning, I like to have loose hip-pads, enough to give me extra support if I'm leaning right over... But not in contact till I'm at the limit of my range of motion (as controlled by the thigh straps and bulkhead)... Thigh straps are IMO a better method of achieving the same goal, without limiting your range of motion as much.

In my CU-Fly however, I have nice tight hip-pads, as I wouldn't be able to cartwheel it without them.

[kslund]

To expand on what I think Creeker is saying. I outfitted really tight hip pads right at the gunnels in my prelude when I first got it. Worked great in deeper water runs with lots of wavetrains, holes and few FU rocks. On low water rivers and creeks, hitting rocks - the impacts are instantly transferred to your hips, and pretty high up on your center of gravity in an open boat. I flipped a lot until I removed those dam things...

not sure if this would apply for C1 where the pads may be placed lower.