Summer 2019 – Inside Outdoor Magazine

Inside Outdoor | SUMMER 2019 40 In-Season W hile each kayak paddle company has its own inter- nal tests and standards for product devel- opment, retail sales staffers who must match paddles to customers’ intended usage are pretty much reliant on the manufacturer’s word. “In the industry, there is no set stan- dard for testing stress placed on the paddles,” said Henry Chang, lead de- signer and co-founder at Gearlab. That soon may change, according to Chang. Gearlab, for its part, is working toward establishing a universal stan- dard that will allow paddle retailers and consumers to compare the strength of paddles manufactured by different com- panies, the strength of various lengths and widths of paddles, and even com- pare the strength of different types of paddles (such as Euro blades versus Greenland paddles). As the first step to establishing such a standard, Gearlab recently created a method to calculate the stress on a paddle. Gearlab partnered with engineer Declan Nowak, who found a way to measure the force on a carbon fiber Greenland-style paddle in the water. Using an Arduino-powered sensor, Nowak was able to record the force exerted by a paddler’s hands. An Ardu- ino is a small, open source lightweight microcontroller that’s great at recording data. The idea for this project arose when Gearlab engineers realized that they didn’t know exactly how much force is applied to the paddles during various water and stroke conditions. “The goal of the sensor is to measure the force of water on the blade of the paddle,” Nowak explained. “Initially, I tested under ‘ideal paddling conditions,’ which would be a kayaker performing a standard Greenland stroke in calm weather/water conditions. This measure- ment under ideal conditions will act as a control value to compare the stress on a paddle during rougher water conditions and more strenuous strokes.” Gearlab applied Nowak’s results in developing the new Kalleq paddle (from the Inuit word for lightning) to be released this spring. The new Kalleq paddle offers a sharper edge that im- proves paddle efficiency in the water, as well as paddling stability. It has a redesigned internal carbon fiber structure that offers greater strength and durabil- ity in harsh conditions than previous models. And Gearlab’s signature exchangeable tips are smaller and the blade slightly wider than previ- ous models. With these innovations, the user can go farther and faster, with less stress to the shoulder and arm joints, said the company. The tests ensure that as the paddles become lighter, they maintain durability standards. Moving forward Gearlab will use Nowak’s system to test more paddles, and Nowak said the company plans to continue refining the testing apparatus so the data is easier to analyze. One modi- fication will be to program the Arduino to assign a time to each data point. This will allow Gearlab to sync the data to a video clip to see how the paddle reacts to different strokes. Future tests also will include using the paddle in a variety of dif- ferent weather conditions to calculate how the forces on the paddle change. m By Gerald Baldino Standard Issue Gearlab takes steps toward paddle testing standardization Gearlab’s Arduino device in the lab Nowak testing on the water