There were so many fantastic responses on the surfing technique question, I wanted to add a few more technical questions for everyone's sage input. (Ok, some people's sage input and some people's wise-a$$ snarky comments! ;)
- How does your stroke technique change between OC1 and OC6?
- How does your style change when doing a long distance ocean endurance event versus a short flatwater sprint?
This question was in part inspired by watching Karel talk about how he doesn't use his legs much to drive stroke, he does use his legs to steer and adapt the line of the boat. He feels it isn't very efficient to drive stroke with his legs - of course, he is a master at harnessing the power of waves and that is his priority in open ocean racing settings, and he seems to be conserving energy for getting on the waves he picks.
Flatwater sprint coaches are always talking about how 70% of your power comes from the legs, and experientially, I do feel that leg drive is key in driving power in flatter conditions - and the video footage of Dubois winning world sprints seems to back this up, his leg pumping is off the hook and he is crazy fast.
And regardless of whether leg drive is critical to effective open ocean distance paddling, wouldn't you want a different style for unstable ocean conditions than for flatwater? I learned on flatwater primarily focused on sprints, in a river and am working on learning to adapt now that I have ocean access.
It seems that it would make sense to evolve two styles if you raced both types of races, assuming you could keep them straight... one style that yields efficient, ergonomic, economy of motion for a distance event, and one that might be less efficient and sustainable long term but brought down the full hammer of your power and speed for the short sprint.
And if you agree different styles are appropriate, how should the styles differ?
