Welcome, Guest blogger, Luke Vollmerhaus.
Luke works for Aquabatics Calgary a proud Kokatat Watersports Wear and Werner Paddles Dealer. He is also a member of the Nikki Rekman Sales Team.
Smooth.
For a paddle that might seem like
an odd descriptor but for the Werner Paddles Stinger it fits perfectly.
With each stroke this
blade eases into and out of the water without the slightest suggestion of a
catch. This enables the paddler to take more confident strokes in the complex
balance situations presented by White water SUP boarding. In a sport as
progressive as this you don’t want anything holding you back and the Stinger
does just the opposite, accelerating your skills better than ever!
Here’s the physics behind the feeling: Your
classic wedge shaped blade delivers a powerful forward stroke and is by far the
most commonly used style as SUP boarding started on flat water and ocean
environments. The down side to this design is that as soon as you get the tip in
the water you immediately have a very significant portion of the blade in the
water. This can cause something called a ‘catch’ where you suddenly have a
large amount of resistance against the blade. If this resistance isn’t
perfectly in line with your intended stroke (due to something like say… river
currents) then it can pull you off balance and land you in the water.
Werner
has conquered this issue by inverting the wedge shape of the paddle so if you
only put a little of the blade in the water you only get a little bit of
resistance. The angle of the wedge also makes sculling braces much easier as it
doesn’t bury the blade in the water as easily so your paddle stays high and
utilizes maximum leverage and surface tension.
I got in a September surf session on Harvie
passage in Calgary to test out this hot new blade and it was all it was that
Werner promised and more!
This paddle is
a huge step in the progression of white water SUP.
Keep a paddle in the water!
Luke
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