What's your preferred paddle length for racing?

[robcasey]

What's your preferred paddle length for racing?

[pdxmike]

86" or have used 84" for bearing down heading upwind.  This is flatwater on fairly thick board.  I'm about 6'-1", so 13" or 11" over head.  Use same lengths, or sometimes 88" for flatwater non-racing (adjustable paddle). 

Would also be interested if anyone knows what top racers (who aren't on this board) are using, and if people have changed over time towards longer or shorter.  If you look at threads from only a year or two ago, people were generally using/recommending shorter paddles than now--your question might help answer if this is still true or not.

[Mitchell]

83.5 i think. I am around 5'11 and weigh around 175. I use a Shaka Puu.

I only race and have never gone wave riding at all.

[Six Feet and Glassy]

Currently using a paddle 16" overhead.  Yikes, I know. 

Not to muddy the waters, but length seems to be affected by blade size and style of paddling too.  A larger blade and shorter shaft might be better for shorter, sprint-type races (larger blade grabs more water; but shorter shaft gets you closer to the water and lets you pull easier).  For longer distances, you might want to be more upright and want a longer shaft. But this will put you farther from the water and require more muscle; so you might decide to grab less water with a smaller blade, thus evening out the effort with both paddles. 

So that messy paragraph means longer shaft/smaller blade should require same effort as shorter shaft/bigger blade.  But unless you increase your stroke rate with the smaller blade, you will go slower.  So what does that mean?  I confuse myself...

Hmm... Dangit.  Now I gotta get a quiver of paddles too?   

[SouthbaySUP]

I asked Jamie Mitchell at BOP 2011; he said his paddle is 11" overhead.  Of course, I went out and bought a paddle at 11" over head (was at 13" over).  I have found that 11" over gives me a sore lower back.  I think 12"-13" might be the right call for me. 

[DavidJohn]

For me it's half way between my normal flat water paddle and my suring paddle... About 10" over.

DJ

[Muskoka SUP]

The longer the paddle, the longer the paddle.
My distance paddle is 83" - which is 14" over head for my 5'-9" height (and 6" thick board)
My downwind/shorter distance paddle is 81".

David S.

[headmount]

I'd echo what Six Feet posted.  If I was bent over for even 10 miles, I'd be toast.  Added to that, on DW runs, the water surface is dropping away in front of you when you're catching glides and  it's really great to have that extra reach when you need it without having to bend forward too much to get it.    I think most DW paddlers around here go longer and just choke down when they have to do the occasional beat into the wind.

I'm 6' and go 12" over to 84" on a Bullet which I think is 6"

[juandoe]

85"  I am just under 5'11" so around 14 overhead.  Flatwater on a Bark Dominator. 

[JF808]

I'm 5'7" and my paddle is 81"... so that's 14" overhead, riding a SIC Bullet which Is about 6" thick.... downwind paddling only!

previous paddle was 11" overhead, and my lower back takes most of the beating, leaning over/forward too much always threw off my center of balance, and couldn't really engage larger muscle groups. loving the longer paddle so much better.

[Salish Salt]

82" (100 sq in area blade) QB paddle for 5'8" paddler = 14" over which I may reduce a tad as I choke down about 20% of the time (or more during occasional racing).  A sprint or into a wind would be choked down 80%+ to ~78 or 79" equivalent = 10.5" over.

Kind of like a bike race, the last 5k might be chin to the handlebars but not the previous 150 k unless your Eddy Merckx.

I have a larger 110 sq in blade paddle that's 80" = 12" over, mostly to mix things up.

Once "mistakenly" {Someone switched bags on me} took my wife's small blade (90 sq in) at about 9.5" overhead for a nine mile paddle. Like being in a granny gear going downhill.  No fatigue at all but took awhile for my back to straighten up. 

When board design progression slows paddle quivers will be more normal (Bill was ahead of the curve on light adjustable length).

[supguy35]

i'm 5'9 on a Naish 14 glide 5-1/2 thick i use a 84in.  paddle same paddle for my 12'6 as well full carbon fixed with a 9in blade.

[shankfoo]

So that messy paragraph means longer shaft/smaller blade should require same effort as shorter shaft/bigger blade.  But unless you increase your stroke rate with the smaller blade, you will go slower.  So what does that mean?  I confuse myself...

Is that the logic behind that X-wing paddle?  92" long, 7" wide...

[Newcastle]

83" inches. 13" inches overhead. Went to a race yesterday. REI who's getting into the SUP world had a booth. They had some paddles. I asked the girl how long the paddle was (they had a contest to guess the length as well) she told me the length in CM's. I said "WTF". Then she told me that SUP paddles are always measured in CM's. I asked her how long she'd been sup paddling. Made me think though that we may end up with "Four Meter class boats" instead of 12' 6" boards.

[DavidJohn]

Ha.. We are metric here in Oz and yet we tend to use inches.. 

I find when racing that a slightly shorter paddle is better for a quicker cadence and also quicker swapping sides.. But if it's a long race it does get harder to keep bending to fully dip the blade (training can help with this) so maybe a normal length may be best.. I can not see a need to go longer than normal for racing.

DJ