Were you surprised by the results or not?

Hi, this reminds me of a Quick Blade video from several years back - their conclusion was that 70% of the power in each stroke was delivered in the first 50% of the stroke length, so a shorter, higher cadence would put more power into the water …

Mind blown 🤯 great/ straightforward info!!

Thx for the informations. 😊👍

My observation on this experiment is that Ethan's short stroke is not actually that short..the blade is exiting at his feet. He is more efficient because his timing is better. His long stroke does not look natural and he is labouring .His so called shorter stroke has better timing allowing him to push the board forward with his legs with a good rhythm. A successful stroke occurs when everything works together. A short stroke in my mind occurs when the blade exits at least a foot in front of the feet. It creates high cadence and is tiring but useful in certain conditions ..such as darting around rebounds close to cliffs.

Great result, Ethan, I expected it in the short paddle, obviously. You manage to reduce friction with the sea and glide more at the same time. You've made an excellent comparison, very useful.

This is great. Interesting stuff. I think to paint a clearer statistical picture we need to run the test with many individuals to eliminate variables caused by physiques and stroke mechanical variation.

I was surprised! But now that I know, it makes sense :)

Ethan, great tests. You acknowledged that there are other things to consider in testing. I use much of the same testing techniques and I’m also fascinated by various paddle stroke mechanics. Your form is great and as a life time athlete in endurance I’m going to implement what I’m observing in your form. Cycling has some great crossover to paddling. Based on some slightly different form then I’m currently using I’m going to reconsider , paddle length. Thank you!!

Continued from comment below Endurance and mental strength will determine the outcome. Thank u your videos help us all . Rock on 🎸 Tahoe sept 2024

Excellent test and results!!! Moving the blade beyond your feet just pushes water up and the nose of the board down, slowing you down. Excellent drone side footage, very enligheting! Some ergonomic tips, watching your side footage. Try to "rush" your hips more up and forward during recovery for more forward momentum (it's like ...."exploding" upward and forward, then in the end there is almost no weight on your heels). Try to lean more forward before the catch (more ankle flex), it's like a mountain skier stance. This way your hips must come over or even in front of your ankles (if you are very flexible). Doing so you will have the best distance for your hips to travel (or "pull") backwards during power phase. If you start your power phase with your hips behind your ankles, there is not enough room for your hips to travel back, they are already back at the beginning! With all the above you engage your core more and your arms muscles are more relaxed. Keep up the good job, you create very good context! Thank you!!!

Hey Ethan! Great data! But you also have to take fatigue into account. Your first tests are always faster. I always repeat tests a second day and reverse the order of the tests. I don't think that would change your results. Short strokes are better. However, when testing boards, you have to repeat tests a second day. But glad you are testing because not many people do this.

in a hypothetical scenario... if there was a sup that was longer and maybe the paddler had to be positioned a bit more forward and thus changing the geometry of the sup (alongside all the parameters allowed for a racing sup..but anyways...) and its center weight the longer stroke actually might make sense and be faster

I just did my own experiment on a short paddle. I was going on 30 second bursts executing short higher cadence strokes and longer more powerful strokes. After each burst I took a glance at my watch to see where my pace was. Every time without fail my pace was significantly higher with the short strokes. And my cadence for the short stroke bursts was 55-60. The longer more powerful strokes was 45-50. Currently I'm kind of cooked from pushing myself for all hours worth over a 4 Mile stretch late last night so I don't have much in the tank right now. Tomorrow my plan is to go out for a 4-mile paddle executing the shorter High cadence strategy for the duration and see what I wind up with for an average beth at the end.

Id be curious how this would compare with doing long first as Im wondering if fatigue can be a factor? I think it would take more sessions to really see a definitive result

Good video

can you compare the stroke cadence on a next comparable test like this next time too?

Hi Ethan! a big fan of your content, do you think it could be possible to sum up some kind of how deep the Padel could go in order to achieve more speed?

High cadence is the key to be faster

Great video! I also just try to figure out why I have higher speed by my left side stroke, and slower by right side (e.g 11 vs 10 km/h in the same river conditions). My therory is that years ago I started to SUP by only right side paddling (as this is my stronger side), which generates relative long strokes due to keeping the board straight. And only after the first season I started to use my left side, which is with little bit shorter stroke...Maybe this could be the reason for the speed difference. Unfortunately to redesign my right hand strokes is very difficult:)

This test may be inaccurate result because you can see in first test(short stroke) always faster so probably you already consumed your energy for the second test(Long stroke) which means you get tired, that's why longer stroke is slower in the result. Try to test long stroke first then short stroke for second test so we can if there really is a difference

While I suppose the results are expected, the video of you doing the long strokes looks kind of awkward - almost as if the paddle length was too short causing you to bend over a lot to make a long stroke.

will you race in the icf world championship this year? cause it seems like you could actually do really well against the biggest names in this sport

Не удивительно. В движении весла дальше уровня ног... Нет смысла. Разница может быть от того как далеко опускать весло Длинный ход... Максимально близко к носу, как на видео Короткий ход... Как на спринте.

All that you actually proved here is that your natural stroke is the higher cadence one. It's very clear from watching the footage that your idea of how a longer stroke should work is way off; you're dragging the back and putting the brakes on. I've done exactly the same experiment, and 'proved' the opposite. My natural stroke is longer, so when I try and paddle faster cadence it isn't playing to my strengths, and I found I travelled less distance at the higher cadence. Neither of us is wrong in our findings. You're a young athletic lean mesomorph guy, the faster cadence stroke is natural to you. As you get older you may well find that your natural cadence slows down. I certainly found that. Now I'm in my 60s my body really doesn't enjoy the faster cadence stuff; it spikes my HR. Whereas I can generate much better sustained power at a lower cadence. Or if you were a different shape you'd have a more powerful long stroke. We don't all operate at the same cadence. Plenty of examples of this in sport, just look at cycling and the classic battles up the hills between Lance Armstrong (high cadence) and Jan Ullrich (low cadence). As said, what you have learned from your experiment though is what your body is best at. Which is well worth doing. But it's not necessarily transferrable info to other paddlers. There is no one right way to paddle.

Hi, this reminds me of a Quick Blade video from several years back - their conclusion was was that 70% of the power in each stroke was delivered in the first 50% of the stroke length, so a shorter, higher cadence would put more power into the water …