Paddling Solo: Double or Single Blade

[pico23]

Ok, I've never paddled a canoe with a double blade, but it would seem more effecient when going solo. I've seen quite a few people going this route and it seems to work well.

For what it's worth, while I prefer canoes to kayaks, I'm not a traditionalist. For instance I do a stern pry rather than a traditional J stroke when in tandem. And we frequently do a minnesota hut stroke to cover ground quickly. But I do for the most part know my strokes with a single paddle (c's, j's pry's, sweeps, draws, braces, etc). My goal though is the paddle as effeciently as possible rather than please paddling traditionalist.

Are specific canoes more suited for double blade? or can all canoes work equally well.

Are there situations where I single blade is better, or better suited?

What I'd most likely do is carry a single blade as a spare. Just as a guess, I'd think a single blade would be better for moving water and mild whitewater where it might be easier to high brace into turns.

BTW, my solo boat is a old town penobscot 15. It's fairly straight tracking, sea worthy on big lakes, and fast (for a 15 footer), and it has no rocker but still turns pretty well on moving water.

Thanks for any help.

[Wldrns]

Ok, I've never paddled a canoe with a double blade, but it would seem more effecient when going solo. I've seen quite a few people going this route and it seems to work well.

For what it's worth, while I prefer canoes to kayaks, I'm not a traditionalist. For instance I do a stern pry rather than a traditional J stroke when in tandem. And we frequently do a minnesota hut stroke to cover ground quickly. But I do for the most part know my strokes with a single paddle (c's, j's pry's, sweeps, draws, braces, etc). My goal though is the paddle as effeciently as possible rather than please paddling traditionalist.

Are specific canoes more suited for double blade? or can all canoes work equally well.

Are there situations where I single blade is better, or better suited?

What I'd most likely do is carry a single blade as a spare. Just as a guess, I'd think a single blade would be better for moving water and mild whitewater where it might be easier to high brace into turns.

BTW, my solo boat is a old town penobscot 15. It's fairly straight tracking, sea worthy on big lakes, and fast (for a 15 footer), and it has no rocker but still turns pretty well on moving water.

Thanks for any help.

A lot of us might chime in here, but this question just cries out for the vastness of Charlie's expertise from PlacidBoats.

I prefer the feel of a single blade that seems to connect me on a personal level with water and boat. The fine control of a well made single blade paddle with practiced strokes is absolute. With a double blade it's pretty tough to make a canoe move and behave with the precision of using a single blade. Certainly some boats (generally bottom sitters as a class) are designed from the outset to be better double blade paddled than single blade. Hornbecks, for sure, though I know someone who likes to use a short single stick on his. Placidboats are generally made to be paddled double, but I still prefer the touch of a wood ottertail blade in my RapidFire. It's marginally slower when cruising (with a non-hesitating J or variant), but far more pleasant and precise when I want to enjoy paddling. I feel I get much more personally involved being connected to water, boat, and myself with a single. A double is a workhorse on open water without much internal character or feeling for me. Into a gale I'll opt for the double blade simply for the application of power. I guess I do things the opposite of some - the double blade is stowed as my spare.

Hopefully Charlie will be here soon.

[Bill I.]

Most of my paddling is done solo, and a few years ago I converted to a double paddle. My main solo canoe has a bit of a rocker and doesn't track well with a single paddle, but with a double paddle I have pretty good control, both on lakes and winding rivers. I have to admit I like the graceful strokes of a double-blade, it feels perfectly natural to me. Sometimes I'll bring a spare single-blade paddle for pushing off of obstacles or for those really tight streams where the double-blade doesn't fit. I've paddled solo for so long that I feel clumsy in a tandem, with only one blade to work with.

[Diane]

Most of my paddling is done solo in a Hemlock Peregrine. I generally prefer to single blade, using J and C strokes to make adjustments while maintaining speed. I carry a double blade as a back-up paddle for very heavy wind conditions. That paddle is feathered and I make much better time into a headwind with it than with the single blade. I like using both but would not choose to use the double on small streams or when coming into or leaving a launch site.

[charlie wilson]

Pico;

The hardest, most satisfying and best game on the water is solo, single blade canoe. The simplest game is solo anything with a double blade.

Tandem canoe falls somewhere in between; often causing divorce, but no-where, as Dukka, in the Buddhist vernacular, as Tandem Kayak, which mostly doesn't work.

That said, lots of folks in the BWCA sit in/on the seats provided and use a double blade stick in Bell and Wenonah solo cruisers. Unsightly, perhaps an open admission of scant talent, but damn effective.

With a double stick, one eliminates all directional issues, increases cadence which increases forward speed and, with practice, has an immediate draw/brace/pry on either side as needed.

Downsides include the flash of the high blade which warns motorboats and otters, and less effective draws/prys/braces/slices due to the smaller blade, which is often cupped with the ribs fared poorly into the blade faces. Double blades are also harder on the paddler for two reasons; unless a vertical stroke is used, the paddler is holding the high blade in the air, and while exertion is balanced, there is little rest compared to a single blade.

Once dedicated to a double paddle, the user can sit lower, the hull can be shallower, narrower and shorter. All good if one carries much, as, all other things equal, smaller means lighter. It should be tumblehomed to improve reach across the rail and more efficient vertical forward strokes, but that is true of any solo boat - canoe or kayak.

Another way of looking at this is avocations. My dad was a geology professor who fished. That was his second passion. He was good enough at it to turn me off on the practice, but he didn't mind the long, steep learning curve. He enjoyed his apprenticeship.

Modern Americans of our ilk have multiple outdoor avocations. We downhill ski, X-C ski, paddle, fish, hunt birds, deer, photograph wildlife, etc. Too many projects to allow multiple long, steep, learning curves.

I've dedicated the last few years of my life to providing efficient double stick solos to a public that bores with apprenticships. But when I slip out alone, or with S.O. for a paddle/picnic/whatever, I'm with wilderness; generally on my knees with a Quimby straightshaft in a boat with more rocker than would work with a double blade stick.

The single blade is drier, less obtrusive to wildlife, offers more finite control due to bigger and better shaped blade, and more restful too, as the blade always floats the paddle.

This is America. For a few more years we get to make our own choices. How long an apprenticeship to the paddle will you serve? The longer the more satisfying, I think, but also accept others who don't have the time.

charlie

[Rich Lockwood]

bravo!

The best single-dubble paddle answer I have seen-I have to meet you one day!
Turtle

[Bob K]

Single & Double

I have found double blade to be most efficient. Note that with most "normal" canoes - typical seats and no tumblehome, you will need a very long paddle to reach. In my Penobscot 16, I use a 230 take-apart with an 18" extension. When solo, I sit in the front seat but with the boat turned around to be closer to the middle. Even when tandem I will often use the double blade to keep course corrections easy and to have a long lever for a rudder at times. When I go with an inexperienced paddler or one who can't keep it up for long, having the double is extremely valuable.

I also have one of Charlie's solo canoes (Rapidfire). I almost always use a double but carry a lightweight single as a spare. The double is what I would always use to make time and in rough/windy conditions. I do like the single when I am into cruizing along the shoreline or just enjoying the ride with no.

[pico23]

so basically, if I were to narrow this down to the basics it would be fair to say my initial post and feelings were pretty accurate.

Double is faster, better on open water with wind or need to make up time.

Single better on smaller water, rapids, shorelines, and when you just want to feel more at peace with your canoe.

We'll I'm going to add a double for my long distance solo trip next month. Should be great in the Penobscot 15 which is fast to begin with.

[Wldrns]

Double is faster, better on open water with wind or need to make up time.

Single better on smaller water, rapids, shorelines, and when you just want to feel more at peace with your canoe.

Perfect.

[Grayelve]

so basically, if I were to narrow this down to the basics it would be fair to say my initial post and feelings were pretty accurate.

Double is faster, better on open water with wind or need to make up time.

Single better on smaller water, rapids, shorelines, and when you just want to feel more at peace with your canoe.

We'll I'm going to add a double for my long distance solo trip next month. Should be great in the Penobscot 15 which is fast to begin with.

I use a double blade in my new old mohawk as a carryover from my kayak which I altered to be a sailing rig also, I'm on Lake Erie. Well when my kayak is not rigged for sailing I would stoe a large clear plastic bag, about 4 feet square and a couple hollow broom handles which makes a great wind catch when the wind is to your back and you have a long haul. From this I have made a tee handle to convert the double blade to a single blade or just hold up the seperated blades in that plastic bag for a restful senic ride, a little lean here and there for course correction. I remember sitting at a great camp dock talking in a warm group about the beauty and oneness of this young woman omerring her canoe nearby. Thoughts ... Enjoy the solo

[thuja]

generally on my knees with a Quimby straightshaft in a boat with more rocker than would work with a double blade stick.

I´m not sure I follow you here. Leaving aside tandem canoes (where I see no argument for double paddles except total lack of skill) I would have thought that the strongest argument for a double paddle rather than a single is that for a given degree of rocker the boat tracks better, that is, you are expending less of your (finite) energy on correction and more on propulsion. I have spent a good deal of time paddling whitewater kayaks, and they have, how shall I say it, rocker up the yazoo. They want to turn, and they don´t particularly want to track straight. After a time, keeping them docile with a kayak paddle is second nature. So I don´t see that hull rocker implies unsuitability for double blades. Quite the opposite. Perhaps you are arguing that a typical double-paddle stroke is flatter and more sweep-like than a typical single-paddle stroke, and so, without a good tracking hull (flat keel line, say), the stroke will impart too much turn. To respond to that argument, I guess I would fall back on what I know about kayak paddling. A *good* kayak paddler paddling a squirrely hull, trying to go straight, will keep his stroke fairly high-angle, if not in as vertical an orientation as a good single-bladed paddler. He will also tend to keep a fairly short stroke and a fairly high cadence, which keeps the stroke in the sweet spot out of really "turny" regions and affords quick correction opportunities with alternating -side strokes. Put that all together and you have pretty efficient propulsion, even in a highly rockered hull. More efficient, I would have thought, than with a single-bladded paddle.

The only "solo" canoes, either open or decked, which I have ever paddled have been whitewater boats, with a lot of rocker. They were, frankly, pretty effortful boats on flat water, and as an alternative to a "C" highly skilled boaters in those craft seem to use a lot of crossover forward strokes to move the boat forward. Sort of a "minnesota switch" without switching hand positions. My strong suspicion is that forward propulsion in those highly rockered hulls with a double paddle would have been more efficient (and considerably less skill-demanding) than the single-bladed techniques.

I've dedicated the last few years of my life to providing efficient double stick solos to a public that bores with apprenticships.

Perhaps this is the heart of the matter. A well-rockered hull, whether propelled with a single- or a double-bladed paddle, is a more skill-demanding hull. And so should be avoided by those with limited energy, time, or interest. In your local context, you may associate double paddles with less skilled, less dedicated, etc., because it is a more forgiving technique, and and thus you arrive at the conclusion that hulls designed for double paddles should not be rockered. But somebody with as long an apprenticeship with a double paddle as your dedicated single-bladed paddler is not going to agree with you (assuming he values the maneuverability that comes with hull rocker).

[Wldrns]

I´m not sure I follow you here. Leaving aside tandem canoes (where I see no argument for double paddles except total lack of skill) I would have thought that the strongest argument for a double paddle rather than a single is that for a given degree of rocker the boat tracks better, that is, you are expending less of your (finite) energy on correction and more on propulsion.

You might enjoy picking up a copy of Freestyle Canoeing: Contemporary Paddling Technique by a noted author. Another excellent resource is Traditional Flatwater Canoeing with Caleb Davis, also available here.

[charlie wilson]

The average WW kayak is 23-24 inches wide with excessive tumblehome - the widest part of the hull roughly fitting the paddlers thighs. It's easy to use a vertical stroke which induces little yaw.

Most solo canoes are 30 inches wide. Yeah, a few are 29, and fewer yet, four from two manufacturers, Hemlock and Placid, are narrower than that, but still 27.5-28". It takes some effort to present a paddle shaft dead nuts vertical to the world.

Without tumblehome and with low, bent shaft, seating, a double paddle is usually engaged at ~ 45dg. With pack canoe, very low, seating, most hulls require a 250-260cm paddle to reach the water at a very low angle. Low angle strokes induce lots of yaw, with resultant loss of laminar flow along the hull and loss of efficiency as drag increases. Of course low angle strokes are more tiresome. With a high angle stroke the in-water blade floats the paddle mass. Low angle paddlers are carrying that stick in front of their bodies all day long. Ugh!

So in real life, most solo canoeists use 45dg or worse paddle angles, which induce serial yaw and are somewhat inefficient. Yeah, my partner, Joe Moore used a perfectly vertical stroke, which is why he won his class in the 90 miler by more than two hours, but most don't, which explains the two hours.

The main benefit of a double paddle for most paddlers is the elimination of directional control issues. For advanced paddlers the benefit is increased cadence - less speed drop between strokes. That's why they're better in wind if feathered - the hull never drops back to zero.

But the folks who have boat control down usually single stick. It's a harder game.

[love2paddlemore]

single vs double blade

I write this reply with nothing but humility and deference to Charlie's knowledge and experience, but I wonder if there are ways to make low angle double blade paddling work reasonably well. My rotator cuff problems have impeded my use of single blade paddles and also, but to a lesser degree, my use of a high angle technique with double blade paddles. First with a 10' rec kayak and a Bell Bucktail, and then with 10.5' Hornbeck Lost Pond and Black Jack boats, I have fallen upon two low angle styles that allow me to paddle for hours and hours and that allow me to keep pace with many tandem canoes and kayaks. In one style, I grip the shaft of my 250cm unfeathered paddle with hands no more than shoulder width apart, and I give a short push with the higher hand [the shaft being at 30 degrees or less] as the lower hand acts as a fulcrum, barely moving posteriorly. Mostly elbow flexion and extension. This is for quick sprints. Breaks all the rules but the boat flies. The boat yaws 5-10 degrees but so does a fish as it swims. In the other style, for the long haul, handgrip is wider than shoulders. Elbows slightly bent, at fixed angle; no elbow flexion-extension. My shoulder blades, arms, and paddle approximate a single trapezoidal structure, which arcs left and right, as each blade alternately dips into the water and pulls the boat forward. I'm not sure about this but it seems that at the end of the stroke the blade pushes water against the hull, tending to correct the mild yaw. [Can sprint this way too, by adding waist rotation.] Wonder if others paddle either of these ways?

[charlie wilson]

To paddle well, beyond getting in shape we need to do three things: keep the paddle working where it is square to the stroke, use our larger muscles, and keep the hull quiet in the water.

The best blade information comes from John Winters' "The Shape of the Canoe". If more then ten degrees off square to the stroke, paddles loose purchase dramatically.

The more horizontal the stroke, the less of the arc is square to forward motion. Vertical strokes allow the paddler to "chicken wing"; carry the blade aft squarely over greater distance. This is true for both single and double blade paddlers. Please note how wider boats and flare, or lack of tumblehome , adversely affects paddle effectiveness.

Forward extension improves everything; the paddle can be squared up longer, and control portions of the stroke, before the knee, tend to improve tracking.
Carrying the blade past mid thigh always results in a partial sweep, which induces yaw.

The second key is using our bodies effectively. In a perfect world, our arms become struts, and we use triceps, latts and adducters, vulgarly referred to as rib eyes, to power the forward stroke. By locking your arms and using torso rotation you are on the right track for effective body use. To top off body use, lean forward a little and finish each stroke off with a little pelvic thrust. [I got arrested in Boston the last time I mentioned that.]

Which brings us to keeping the hull quiet in the water. Too much forward lean will make the hull pitch; dive bowward. This is fine when inducing a hot turn, but death to forward speed, as it upsets water flow along the hull.

A too wide hull, or one with flare, causes the paddle to lean sideways to get the blade into the water. This causes cyclical heeling, or rolling, which upsets water flow along the hull and also induces yaw, because hulls almost always turn away from a heel.

Back to bio-mechanics. Carrying the blade past mid thigh brings sweeping components into the stroke and induces yaw, or fishtailing, which also upsets water flow along the hull and forces correction which wastes energy.

Upsetting waterflow along the hull means the paddler has decided to obviate the designers concepts - which seldom works well.


You've done a good job accommodating a sports injury. The only thing I might suggest is ending the forward stroke sooner, which will reduce that energy scrubbing yaw.

charlie