Hammer Factor – Episode 39, ‘The Last Show, Tao Berman and Giant Cats’ from The Hammer Factor

“Now a huge shout out to our top of the show sponsor, Canoe and Kayak. C and K has been leading the paddlesports media hustle for 45 years, reaching an unprecedented audience of nearly a half million people. With in-depth articles like the one discussing Pushing the Limits of the 9-foot Kayak, which I will link to in the show notes, there is no more compelling way to get your paddlesports beta than C and K. Check em out at canoekayak.com”

. Read more at https://www.canoekayak.com/whitewater-kayak/need-for-speed/ #bMSHwTH3I8skK4gt.99

I’m just gonna put this out there. The 9 foot race rule is dumb. Every justification for it can easily be proven wrong. It’s good to milk speed out of a hull, but I created the 9 foot rule and I can get rid of it.

#EVERYTHINGISFUCKED

Please set the record straight here. A great email from: Fred Morrison & Nelson Jones

Gentlemen and Weld,

After listening to yesterday’s episode of HF I really wanted to hear Louis do a myth busters on this whole land deal in the west. I really appreciated Louis’ honesty in calling out the hyperbole with Patagonia’s message on their web page. Living in rural Colorado our local friends have shared a variety of views, from siding wholly with Patagonia as well as some sharing this lovely feature from the illustrious Glenn Beck This may hurt your head .

We feel like a comprehensive shake down of: 1) what this act will and will not do, 2) what it could become and evolve into years down the road, and 3) The likelihood of this litigation going through and doing what Trump is expecting this to do. Would be an excellent listen for Hammer Factor community.

Thank you for all that you guys do in spreading information for Outdoor Alliance and spreading the stoke of kayaking. Looking forward to the next episode, and we still hope you all might come to Paddlefest in Buena Vista . Grace we have T shirts ready to ship.

Sincerely two concerned Coloradans Fred Morrison & Nelson Jones Clean Teeth, Clean Lines

NEW YEAR COMING – Let’s do some predictions and look backs.

What is going to happen to the hammer factor? Could this be the final episode?

What will happen with WW SUP next year?

Will paddle length and offset finally balance itself out amongst the market or will people still use 194s

Who will win Smalls To The Walls, NF Championship, Sickline, Attainment World Championships and Green Race?

What was the biggest trend you saw in 2017?

What are your predictions for next year?

Finally what are our hosts new years resolutions?

Viewer Mail

From Evan Shaw

If you put up the Zinke Supps T-shirts I’ll order 2. Current boring T-shirt does not live up to the great pod. Also why the hashtag on the front of that no hashtag on the next shirt please people know how to prefix a hashtag in the off chance that they ever need to.

From Robert Fleishel

A few things: 1) tell Shane to rant on himself for not even having a production playboat. 2) Louis is sponsoring electrical tape on paddles, but condeming duct tape? Let him know his double speak has been noticed. 3) Episode 38 returned the Hamer factor to its old glory. Honestly, the high fi, slugishness, and sponsors kind of take away from it. Maybe it’s been something else on the past few episodes, but they didn’t resonate with me as much as the others. But 38 is good, thank you.

From Jordan Yaruss

So, a topic suggestion then: clarify their thoughts on playboating. Is it that they’re not into the modern holebait boats, just generally not into playboating etc

Love the show by the way. Thanks for making it.

From Rahul Subramanian

Questions for HF specifically Mr. Grace

1. How can a east coast whitewater kayaker prepare for running big water rivers on the west coast, i.e. NF Payette, Little White Salmon, Lochsa?

2. Can you talk about how you prepared for the Stikine?

2a. If possible talk about the 1 day descent that you did. (cause that blew my mind)

From Simon Wyndham

Close grip… Too wide is just as bad. Let’s take one aspect such as reach. You can actually get the paddle blade much further forward using body rotation alone to the front of the boat ready for the catch with a closer grip. Too wide a grip and I think people can be forced to lean rather than using body rotation. It’s a simple thing to measure, but if you stay upright and use only your torso rotation, you can get that paddle reached forward much further for the same paddle length than with a wide grip.

So, okay, that will then lead on to paddle length. however a difference of a few cm of paddle length doesn’t make up for the vastly increased reach you get from a slightly narrower grip.

I’ve actually found I can use my body rotation more and put less strain on my shoulders using a ‘natural’ grip width rather than forcing myself to go wider to the point that a lot of people ‘think’ is the right width. Make no mistake, I don’t paddle as narrow as, say, Evan Garcia used to, but I don’t hold it as wide as many others do either. I just hold the paddle where it feels ‘right’ for the body mechanics I want to use.

A slightly closer grip allows more reach using rotation for the same paddle length, lets you keep the arms safer, and I have found actually forces you to use body rotation much more than a wider grip, which disconnects your arm alignment from the body rotation ‘vector’. As soon as your hands go wider than your shoulders you are progressively making yourself more reliant on local arm muscle, and hence contrary what was said on the show makes for less fatigue not more

Try this in a push-up/press-up position. Make your arms as wide as possible and see how long you can support yourself for compared to having your arms closer together. Another thing to try is to attempt to push a heavy object using wide arms compared to narrower.

Also, compare a wild haymaker punch thrown by an amateur compared to a tight hook delivered by a pro boxer. The boxer keeps things tight, not just not to telegraph, but because having the punch closer and tighter to the body allows them to use everything from their feet, through the hips and waist, to the shoulders all to add power, explosiveness and power to the punch in a chain. This is also the same as Wing Chun, where it’s the body being used to reinforce what the arms are doing. Operating a paddle is no different. But then having done Wing Chun for the last 23 odd years, I’m used to using the body to help delivery power and speed through the arms being closer to the body.

So when you guys are discussing this stuff, the conversation doesn’t hold much meaning unless you define what a narrow grip actually is (at which point does it get classed as a narrow grip, and case you explain in scientific terms why having a wider grip is better given the info above?), or by addressing the body mechanics mentioned above. One persons narrow is another persons wide, and vice versa. But body mechanics are pure physics.

From Sam Bernstein

This is a somewhat embarrassing question for me to be asking but the curiosity is killing me. I and a couple of my other kayaking-social-media-addicted boater friends have noticed that Ben Marr tags Lululemon Men in a bunch of his Instagram posts. Do they actually sponsor him? Is he trying to get sponsored by them? If he is–have they used his media in any of their campaigns ? Cause that would be pretty funny/awesome to see one of our own break out so to speak.

BOOOM SHAKE THE ROOM – we got a mid show sponsor. Calleva.

“Join Calleva in Mexico for week long whitewater kayaking trips.

· Awesome trips for all levels of boaters

· Come down and see whats beyond the imaginary “big beautiful wall”

· Lead by Tom McEwan whom has been exploring Mexico for 30 years. He is supported by one of our other instructors like Dagger Team member Bobby Miller, Liquidlogic team member Steve-O, and Tom’s nephew, ladies man, and Waka bro Eric Hanson.

· Explore jungles, deep canyons, legendary waterfalls

· Trips on class II to IV+ rivers

· Most trips are based at the Mexican run eco-resort Aventurec know for it’s great food, orange groves, and proximity to the best whitewater in Mexico.

· Come for the waterfalls, stay for the tacos

· Check out the website at Calleva (C-A-L-L-E-V-A) dot Org”

Athlete/Celebrity Interview TAO BERMAN

Rants and Raves

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