I was really getting tired of not being able to pull off a smooth blended forward stroke into a hanging draw on my offside. Say that twice! (Sorry to the new folks, you won’t have to worry about this for little while.) Anyway, it seemed like every time I would go to turn my big Lendal Kinetic blade into position, the blade would catch and run like spawning salmon right under my boat. On the “On side” or my right side, I did not have that problem.

With our trip to Georgia coming up and a 4* Assessment (which I don’t plan to pass, mind you), I was getting panicked over this stupid single stroke. I could imagine the assessor saying. “Ok, great job navigating in these tides and thick fog but your hanging draw really sucks so go back to Wisconsin where you belong!!”. (and with perfect diction mind you) The fixation started when I was on the phone with Dale Williams working on my schedule, I made some quip about a crappy hanging draw and was met with few seconds of silence. Then ” you could do the 3*. . .” Arggg! I’m not going to go backwards over one stupid stroke!

Now to get back to this story, I was asking everyone for advice. The butcher, the green grocer, the baker, the guy at the liquor store, and they all had a suggestion. It was almost always that my Lendal Kinetic Blade was a bit like a wing paddle, and I was just asking the wrong thing of the blade. I needed a new blade! Ok, so I was going to have to run to Rutabaga and drop almost $300 for new “normal” blades.

At the last minute, I thought i’d I zip out a quick email to my friend across the sea and ask if she had an opinion. Her suggestion which started off like one of mine, “I’m no expert, but. . .”, was basically that my paddle shaft may be too long. Yeah, but isn’t that what the British always say? “Maybe just going from my 215cm to a 210 would help?”, she suggested. I couldn’t imagine that. 5cm killing my blade control? So standing in Rutabaga staring at the Lendal display I had to make a choice. Nice normal Nordkapp blades or a 5 cm shorter paddle shaft. Suddenly, I had visions of the Joker from the original Batman “Whodoyatrust????”.

So, the next evening, there I am on the lake. My shiny new 210 shaft holding my faithful old grey, chipped and epoxied Kinetic blades. . .The very first try and right out of the forward stoke, flip the blade, and there I go screaming off sideways with almost no drop in speed. I just bursted out in laughter. Come on, it can’t be that easy?!!! Can it?

Now in reality, I’m still fiddling to find that “sweet spot” right off on every go. But that will come. The shorter shaft is a god-send. Thanks, Justine!