Why Do I Offset My Paddles??

what's up everybody welcome back to another video today I'm going to answer one of the most talked-about questions on my channel which is why do I use an offset on my pal blades or why would somebody want to use an offset so what is an offset let's start with that most paddles have the ability to come apart in two pieces right so you've got a two-piece paddle when you set them together most of the time people use a zero Degree offset which means the blades are in a line but you'll sometimes see myself included an offset where the paddles are not straight and people ask what's the deal why would you want to do that and there's no right or wrong answer to this the answer I was always given was the top blade can slice through the wind if you're taking a pallet struck so when I started paddling I was seven years old and it was a boy scout kayak called the Kiwi kayak and when I got in that kayak the Stairmaster handed me a paddle and that pedal had a 60 degree offset like this so when you kayak you took a stroke from this paddle we're kind of open and kind of slip underneath the boat so you had to get used to rotating with your stroke and having this natural kind of kick to your stroke so part of the reasons not even offset it's simply because that's what I'm used to that's what I started off with but as I got more into paddling I started playing with my offset I started to take it a little bit more seriously I want to know like you know why do I use this or why should I use that and what I came up with is this I really found myself gravity to a thirty degree offset the reasoning behind that is as I was taking a stroke I'm right-handed this is kind of my control in it now as I take a stroke I'm naturally kind of lifting my paddle blade up out of the water I'm lifting it so it slices out of the water and it doesn't lift out of water so make sense so I'm paddle stroking and I'm lifting that a water slicing as I lift this hand up there's a natural rotation of my paddle blade okay so rotate take my next trip so the more that I rotate the more I have that kick to my stroke and I really tried a bunch of different ways and I really got the sat on a 30-degree offset and fast forward for a couple years I started doing more sea kayaking and started eating a little bit more high angle with my stroke a little bit more aggressive with my stroke more rotation trying to reach for catch that paddle off of my toes rotate through my stroke and what I found is actually a 45-degree offset was the sweetest spot for me so nowadays I paddle a 45-degree offset not necessarily because of the wind but because that's what feels most neutral to me I'm not saying you should go out and use a 45-degree offset but you should play with it most kayak paddles nowadays have this right here which is an adjustable ferrule so you can dial in so it's just thirty sixty right hand thirty sixty left hand and then there's 15 degree increments in between so if you have a paddle girl play with it start with zero and if you're taking a stroke you can notice you're lifting up water or if this paddles kind of wanting to dive in at a funny angle as opposed to catching nice and straight give yourself an offset see how it feels so if you're right-handed and you're taking a stroke and you notice a bunch of bubbles coming off your left hand or your left paddle blade chances are you could probably use to offset your paddle a little bit more so that's kind of how I can look at somebody paddling and say hey man you ought to try and offset because as you're taking your stroke your left paddles not getting as much traction if bubbles are coming off your blade that means you're losing traction it's sort of like burning out in the car it feels good but it's not really moving you forward so hopefully that gives you guys something to play with something to try at home and if your paddle has a building you're all set check it out so not all paddles do that let me show you this most entry level paddles will only have two offsets it'll either be zero like you see here or a push button it allows you to offset to 45 degrees this is another reason that I kind of gravitated towards the 45-degree offset because anytime I pick up a rental paddle or I would trade with somebody else I I can't really do a zero zero just felt so weird but forty five was close enough to my thirty that I could make it work and then the more I got rotating with that the more started to feel more and more natural more and more catch so again if you have an offset if you have the been to offset your paddle and it's something you want to play with go out there check it out these are just toys there's no wrong way to paddle there's only you the experiences you have and learning from those experiences so thank you guys so much for watching thanks for participating in those comment sections it helps give me ideas helped inspire this video so thank you guys again until next time this is Dan wishing you happy paddling we'll see on the next one

Channel: Headwaters Kayak

Views: 19,859

Rating: 4.9887428 out of 5

Keywords: headwaters, kayak, paddle, offset, education, how to, feather angle, feathering, paddling, forward stroke, kayaking, sea kayaking, instruction, happy paddlin, headwaters kayak, paddle video, aquabound paddle, how to paddle, how to choose a paddle, the right paddle

Id: 6ga5UwxXIok

Length: 4min 46sec (286 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 02 2020