Has anyone had trouble with their wrist on their control hand (usually right). I got stuck paddling with a 90 offset (cause I still wont swim with one while others in the group will) and ever since paddling with it my control hand wrist has killed. I work at a shop so tried a bent shaft on the floor and that stopped the pain entirerly even though it was still a 45. A straight 45 still hurt though. I was wondering if someone has had the same problem and new of some exercises to do to strengthen the wrist.

sell what you need to sell to get a bent shaft

Both me and sylvie (my wife) switched to bent shafts and the pain is gone!
I used a 90 degree straight shaft (left twist) since 1983 The as I got older it started hurting a lot. Strengthening excersises were not helping..
Sylvie had wrist pain since the first time she got in a boat a few years back.
The bent shafts (H2O team paddles with 12 degree twist) solved it for us.

Ergonomics make a difference.

Good luck

seven two paddles are supposed to mimic the bent shaft wrist correction thing. i dont know how well it works but it might be worth looking into.

being new to paddling i can't really comment on the difference between straight and bent shafts, but i can reccomend the purchase of a powerball for strengthening your wrists and forearms, which may help relieve the pain.

Have a power ball. My other hoby is climbing so I do many different wrist exercises that I have learned from climbing. I was hoping that there was one I didn't know. I have tried to paddle with a bent shaft just on the floor at the shop and there was not pain. When I picked up a straight shaft next I could feel discomfort in my wrist. I will buy a bent shaft as soon as I can afford it. Until then continuing the wrist exercises I know will be the course of the day.

Ergo shafts are a matter of taste I think (personally, I can't get used to them, also because they may be more ergonomic when pulling on them, but I think they are equally _less_ ergonomic when you have to push on them, e.g. in reverse strokes and braces etc...)

What makes a much bigger difference is the feather. I also had severe wrist problems when I started paddling with a 90° paddle. Those problems never came back after I switched to using 30° paddles...

Interesting notion.

When I changed from my striaght shaft to the bent shaft I also made the transition from 90 degrees to 12.......

Both important on the stresses tothe wrist....

Which one helped more?

I know this is a little off topic and has nothing to do with paddles but

I messed up my left wrist a couple years ago skiing. Still bothers me - you said you knew some wrist strengthening exercises. Is there a site where I can find them. Or can you describe them to me? It doesn't bother me when I paddle like it does for you but it is a killer when I carry my boat.

first take a long object, like an axe, and choke up on the shaft with one hand. Then rotate the axe, or whatever, slowly from one extreme in motion to the other. You should keep your elbow close to your side and do not bounce the weight back up. Slow and conrtolled is the name of the game.

I also use a flexable training ring for hand strength. You can find it here www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?P...;bmUID=1183527640425
although I am sure you can buy them elsewhere. I use this almost everyday to help hand strength and the connective tissues through the forearm and wrist.

Finally take a light weight, a few pounds often not more than 10, and do wrist curls. Start with the back of your hand facing you and curl the weight from the lowest position to the upper limit of your curl. Do not place your thumb around the weight but make sure that it is besid the rest of your hand. Then with your palm facing you place the weight balanced in your hand and let it roll to your finger tips. Do not bend your fingers. If you do this last one right you will most likely drop the weight a few times. That is what I have done for years after a recurring injury and have had very few problems. My wrists really only start to hurt when I have neglected my exercises for a while.

Cool, thanks for the exercises. Hopefully they will help with the problem.
Hope that the ergo paddle works for you, paddling with painful wrists always suck.

Everyone's asking for excercises for your wrist? I could think of a few, but I won't mention them here

Also I definately won't be giving you any links to websites on here either

I'm sorry but you left the door right open, somebody had to say it

taliesin38 wrote:

Has anyone had trouble with their wrist on their control hand (usually right). I got stuck paddling with a 90 offset (cause I still wont swim with one while others in the group will) and ever since paddling with it my control hand wrist has killed. I work at a shop so tried a bent shaft on the floor and that stopped the pain entirerly even though it was still a 45. A straight 45 still hurt though. I was wondering if someone has had the same problem and new of some exercises to do to strengthen the wrist.

Sounds to me like you flex the wrist to rotate the paddle. This is poor technique, you should flex the elbow (when raising the paddle). Basically move your control (right in this case) hand to your shoulder, keep your wrist straight and you should be fine.

I have a rough stuff bent shaft but like Jeroen I am not fully convinced of the system. I've paddled for 25-something years with a straight shaft and never had any problems. The reason I got a bent shaft when my previous paddle snapped was because I was developing a \"ganglion\" (injury to the tendon of my right hand wrist), probably from weight-training excercises or something.

Anyway, as I have different paddles for different types of paddling I still mix straight and bent shafts and I seem to have no problems with either design. My current poloblades are 70 degrees or something, although I paddled with 85 degrees for a very long time.

Just my 2 cents,

Michiel

Every time someone complains about a sore wrist there are tons of replies re:buying a new ( cranked) paddle or lots of time consuming excercises. There often a much simpler answer - shaft size. shaft size is quite often the cause of wrist problems when paddling, either because it is too big or too small. Therefore, the first thing i would try is to add some tape to the shaft, to make it larger and see if this helps. If not, try and borrow a paddle with a smaller diameter.
Another thing that often helps is surf wax. Slippery paddle shafts require a lot of muscle effort to grip and control, paddle wax sorted my problems out very quickly.
Hope this helps,
Oz