Paddles for Swimrun

<p>Welcome to Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke from <a href="https://swimrunlabs.com/">Swimrun Labs</a>.</p><p>In this episode, we do a deep dive into Swim Paddles for Swimrun. If you’re new to <a href="https://lowtideboyz.com/">Swimrun </a>you’ve probably seen photos or videos of races with folks wearing giant paddles, and other <a href="https://lowtideboyz.com/swimrun-gear-a-complete-guide">swimrun gear</a>, as part of the race kit. We discuss why paddles are so ubiquitous in Swimrun, how to minimize your risk of injury in using paddles, and we have a discussion of what paddles we’ve used, and why. </p><p><strong>Gear Updates/First Impressions</strong></p><p>The Ark Sports <a href="https://lowtideboyz.com/gear-reviews/ark-sports-orn-swimrun-wetsuit-review">ORNÖ 02</a> sagas continue with Chipper developing a hole in the sleeve area of his suit. He applied a patch kit. He got some advice from Annie on how to fix it and reached out to Ark Sports for more advice on how to patch the hole. We shall see how that holds up and report back.</p><p>Main Discussion: Swim Paddles</p><p>History of Using Swim Paddles in Swimrun</p><p>As the sport of Swimrun has evolved over the last 15 years, the ability of teams to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible (while wearing a full kit) has resulted in a lot of optimization for forwarding propulsion during the swim legs. Over the years the pattern that emerged was using a big pull buoy (such as the <a href="https://lowtideboyz.com/gear-reviews/ark-sports-keel-swimrun-pull-buoy-review">Ark Sports Keel</a>) coupled with a large set of swim paddles as the established method for most speed. </p><p>As you will see below, the answer to whether swimming with giant paddles makes you faster is that “it depends.” It depends on a lot of factors that we will discuss below.</p><p><strong>Swim Paddle Education </strong></p><p>We chatted with Coach John Stevens for his advice on paddles.</p><p>Legend has it that John was actually born with paddles on his hands. He is the only Swimrunne