Hah, Hah fooled you, I'm a Submarine!

The next paddle trip was at Edisto Beach in South Carolina on a tidal creek. My friend Rose took a quick what-am-I-supposed-to-do paddling class from me giving word descriptions from the forward position in the kayak. The aluminum "gripper" brackets on my paddle were bent just enough to allow my hands to slip out from under the pads as before.

The really cool part of that tidal creek experience was observing a dolphin surfacing about 150 yards away. It surfaced perhaps a dozen times at that distance and then disappeared. Approximately 10 minutes after the distance sightings that curious mammal having swum directly beneath my kayak reappeared at a 1 o'clock position five feet off the bow. It was swimming in the same direction we were paddling but far more efficient with its mobility than we were managing. That dolphin was every bit as big but probably bigger than the kayak. Thankfully dolphins are friendly. I was hoping one would surface with its nose by our side so we could reach out and greet each other. Not to be this time because he never surfaced again within our site after leaving us rather in a hurry.

The pressure on the grips apparently proved to be too much stress on the plastic shields because they ended up cracking and eventually breaking the entire width of my hand.

The next prototype is on the drawing board and being produced at the machine shop. I'm hoping to field test these new grips before the weather turns cold.

The theory behind these new grips is for hand placement to remain in place because of at least but not limited to 4 factors.

1. Forward slippage is supposed to be prevented by "grasping" a T-post with my fingers. The grip handle that my fingers wrap around is 15 degrees at an inward tilt from vertical, bringing my thumbs closer together at the top in an ergonomic position.
2. A lightweight padded plate made from 3/16 inch aluminum is the foundation of this grip to which everything is attached. This plate also provides a "wall" for the palms of my hands to press against for allowing "grip" to be maintained via adduction (inward towards the center) motion from the shoulders through the arms.
3. The forward power stroke of paddling is accomplished by keeping my wrists held in place at the bottom with a padded "wrist shelf" and at the top with an adjustable pin that is also padded.
4. The left and right grips are fastened to the paddle shaft with a pin that couples down to a clamp housing fastened to the paddle shaft. This pin will allow the grips to pivot on the paddle shaft such that I won't have to paddle in an arms held out starch in the deodorant stiffness.

One of these days you will hear the familiar tune "Row, row, row your boat gently down ..." echoing between the river banks once I have this gripper thing working for me. Hopefully the second line won't be "Hah, hah fooled you, I'm a submarine." Stay tuned for progress as it unfurls.