I need help deciding on a correct diameter sculling handle. I've been sculling for 16 years, but recently I've been putting in more time on the water, and my hands are complaining. I suspect my old wooden sculls have handles that are too small in diameter (36mm). I was just reading Mike Spracklen's great document on sculling technique(on the internet), and this part caught my eye. "The oar handles should be held in the fingers, not the palms." This suggests to me that increasing the diameter of my handles above the present 36mm would possibly help. Croker Oars has a handle sizing diagram on their website, and this diagram suggests that my big hands would need a 45mm diameter handle. That seems huge, but it could be correct. My guess is that by getting the handle diameter right, I would be able to feather more easily, and reduce blistering and joint pain. After I figure out the best diameter, I plan to wrap the handles in Durham's synthetic suede grip material. Any suggestions would be quite appreciated.

-- Don Deese (deese@shaw.ca), September 24, 2002

Answers

you're right that does seem like a huge change.....so I went to the croker site to check... the 45 mm dia was for sweep rowing (one oar/person... not sculling. the largest listed size they have for sculling was 37mm... So i'd say you're already in the right ball park.

Am also sitting here @ my desk simulating and measuring my sculling grip with a short metric ruler... using the bottom of the "pad?" at the base of my forefinger as zero ..and am getting measursurements of 35 mm plus to the middle pad on my index finger... my hand measures 155 mm via croker's guide...so they recommend their large 37mm grips. SO that matches up well...

but you could try a wrap or two of something temporay to try a larger size but i think you're gonna find the opposite... it'll be harder to feather cause you'll need to use more of a range of motion to get to the halfway point where you can allow the blade to fall into the proper feathered or squared positon.... you might find yourself using your wrists more and you may also may end up squeesing the handle harder to keep your grip suring your drive.... this might lead to problems with your wrists. You just want to be able to hook you fingers around the handle.. which should be easier with the size ranges that they've recommended.

sorry... all this "help" leaves us right back where you started.

Mike

-- Mike Reiner (reiners@silk.net), September 26, 2002.