I contend that the only difference a left, right or no feather paddle should make to your stroke technique is when during the stroke you switch which hand grips the paddle shaft. And knowing this I can switch between left, right and no feather with just a few minutes of adjustment. I also contend the degree of feather you should use is determined by the height of your stroke. Some time ago I wrote my observations on this for several of my www.ckf.org paddling friends so here it is. Have fun picking it apart. I am not a trained kayak racer so I would enjoy some of your perspectives on my observations.

I have very stiff wrists, always have. I find I have had to adopt a paddling style that limits wrist flexure or I suffer both wrist pain and elbow tendonitis. I also have one of those engineering minds that over analyses everything. So here is what works for me. Sit down on an armless chair with your heels straight out on another chair with your paddle in hand while I talk through this.

A right-feathered paddle indexes with your right hand. Which means the paddle shaft never needs to rotate in your right hand during the complete stroke cycle. With a right 60-degree-feathered paddle you will find that both the right and left hand will align with the shaft oval cross-sections at the same time only when the paddle is in the power stroke portion of the stroke on the left side of the kayak with the paddle in a high stroke position. If you have a really high (near vertical) stroke you will need a feather angle greater than 60 degrees, maybe 70 or 75 degrees (and a short paddle say 215 or 220 cm). If you have a low stroke you will need less feather maybe 45 degrees (and a long paddle say 220 to 230 cm, some even use 240 cm go figure). 60 degrees (220 cm) is pretty good for most people. Now to avoid bending the wrists up or down in relation to your forearm you will have to let the shaft rotate in your left hand when the oval cross-section of the shaft does not align with your hand, which is everywhere during the stroke except during the left power stroke. So for a quick summary thus far the right hand can grip the paddle shaft all of the time and the left hand can grip the shaft only during the left power stroke. During the left power stroke the right hand can be totally relaxed or even opened and the shaft could just be pushed with the open right palm, a good method for occasional relaxation of the right fingers. And of course the left hand needs to be relaxed when not power stroking and can be opened for a palm push during the right power stroke. Now try a complete high stroke cycle keeping the right hand gripped and note where in the stroke the left hand can also be gripped. See what I mean.

Now unfeather your paddle to 0 degrees and try a high stroke. The only place during the entire stroke both hands align with the shaft at the same time is when the paddle is in front of you square to your shoulders. So to paddle a high stroke with an unfeathered paddle without bending your wrists (up and down in relation to your forearms) you must transfer your indexing grip when your paddle crosses in front of you. This allows the paddle to spin in your right hand during the left power stroke and spin in your left hand during the right power stroke. Guess what most people do. That is right, they grip the paddle all of the time with both hands and use a low inefficient stroke or bend their wrists.

Now not to let you off easy with this discussion lets talk about side flexure of the wrists. Which is even more important in preventing tendonitis. If the paddle shaft is always at right angles to your forearms there would be no side flexing of the wrists, but it is not. Now grip the paddle with your right hand and reach forward on the right side for the catch of the right power stroke and hold it. Now look at your right wrist. If you have a tight grip and a good reach there will be a lot of side flexure in your right wrist (the wrist you are about to pull hard with). Now do a full right power stroke and hold it at the exit. Now look at your right wrist. If you have a tight grip, do not have a high chicken wing elbow (shoulder high elbow after paddle exit) and do not have a full torso rotation (shoulders parallel to the paddle shaft) you will have some side flexure in your right wrist in the other direction. There are two ways to reduce side flexure of your wrist. First take really short strokes a good way to go nowhere slow. Second, and much better, use a loose grip on the power stroke hand. During the reach grip the shaft with just the thumb and forefinger using the ok-hand-sign configuration, this allows the shaft to shift sideways in your hand away from your palm without bending your wrist sideways. Now as you pull back in the power stroke add one finger at a time to the grip around the shaft. At the exit do a full torso rotation so your arm can follow the shaft back, keep the elbow high and also loosen your pinkie fingers to allow the shaft to shift sideways in your hand this time toward your palm. So as a quick summary the ok finger grip allows a longer reach without sideways wrist flexure and an exit without sideways wrist flexure. I find I keep up with most other paddlers while I am using a slower cadence. Typically I do about 50 strokes per minute while they are doing 55 to 60 strokes per minute mainly because I have a longer reach (a big paddle blade also helps). Most paddlers give away 6 to 12 inches of reach because of a tight grip.

So to summarize, I use a 70-degree-feathered short paddle, a high stroke, a loose grip, a long reach and strive for good rotation all with stiff wrists and no pain. The high stroke also consistently produces higher indicated speeds on my GPS. Works for me.