Tripping paddle build higher leverage/higher cadence?

[Steve in Idaho]

Like I said in an earlier post, the easiest way I have found to determine the area for an odd shape ... such as paddles, is to just take a piece of paper that is big enough to draw the shape on.
1. Measure the length/width to get the area of that piece, and then fold the paper up and weigh it
2. Draw the blade shape and cut it out
3 fold the cut out and weight it

So as an example, you have a rectangular paper piece that is 10" x 36" and it weighs 2 oz
The area is 360 square inches and the weigh/squareInch is 2 /360 or .00555 oz/squareInch

Your cutout blade shape weighs .56 oz .. the area is .56/.000555 = 100.9 squareInches

This is all predicated on the fact that paper usually has a very uniform thickness and composition. If you have a stack of the same paper, you just measure once to get that weight per square inch, then you can easily determine the area of any shape pretty fast and easy.


Brian

It seemed like more bother than it is the first time I read it. I wonder if I can fold it small enough for my little digital powder scale. I know what you're going to say..... thinner paper.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I wonder if I can fold it small enough for my little digital powder scale. I know what you're going to say..... thinner paper.

Someone might alternatively suggest a bigger scale. Some postal scales are very inexpensive. I'd be inclined to trace on cardboard to get more weight than thin paper.

A different but rough suggestion is to trace the paddle blade on graph paper that has one inch squares. Count all the full squares inside the tracing. Then add your best estimate of how many squares the partials around the edge would add up to. You can buy one inch graph paper or even download a template to a printer for free.

https://www.freeprintablepdf.eu/en-one-inch-graph-paper

 

[yknpdlr]

It seemed like more bother than it is the first time I read it. I wonder if I can fold it small enough for my little digital powder scale. I know what you're going to say..... thinner paper.

A long time ago, I saw somewhere that no matter how thin the paper, it is dificult if not impossible to fold a sheet more than 7 times. Try it.

 

[sailsman63]

So, Some stuff went crazy. I had to rush to get the bent blade into an interim "testable" finished state:


Please forgive the nasty (temporary) t-handle. I ran out of time to get a proper one shaped, and this worked for the moment.

The rush was due to a family fishing trip. Mostly boat fishing, but I got to do three shortish daytrips with the paddle. Some things I learned:

• Shaft is currently far too long for seated paddling. This is expected: I prefer to start long and then work down once I've tested. (It's harder to add length than remove it.) Currently 41" of shaft, I think I need to take off 8"-10".
• The shaft is just about right for kneeling, however I've found that the blade is far too much blade for me when kneeling. My knelt stance has a significant class 3 lever. Some basic geometry decomposition gives me about 80 square inches of blade.
• When seated, I found that I had an easier time using a goon stroke for correction than a J. I've never before used goon stroke in my life. I'm not sure if this is partly due to the over-length shaft.
• This paddle does like to push water. I think once shortened that it will be my go-to utility moving paddle.

Thoughts or insights?

 

[clemency]

Someone might alternatively suggest a bigger scale. Some postal scales are very inexpensive. I'd be inclined to trace on cardboard to get more weight than thin paper.

A different but rough suggestion is to trace the paddle blade on graph paper that has one inch squares. Count all the full squares inside the tracing. Then add your best estimate of how many squares the partials around the edge would add up to. You can buy one inch graph paper or even download a template to a printer for free.

https://www.freeprintablepdf.eu/en-one-inch-graph-paper

This is about how I was trained to measure areas on maps. We had a piece of plastic with a grid scaled to 1:24k. Count all the squares completely in the shape. Then count all the squares that only partially overlap the shape and divide by two. Add the two numbers together for the full area.

https://www.maptools.com/images/products/UTMGrid24/UTMGrid24=1=big.png