Paddling fundamentals

Just curious how important paddling skills are to a Hobie Mirage equipped kayaker?  That is the type of kayak I would like to get.

Fins do break from time to time. How comfortable would you feel paddling home if your fins were to break?

When kayaking in a Hobie on lakes, you normally only need to use the paddle for a few feet when launching and landing, to get across the water which is too shallow for the Mirage Drive. This takes little or no paddling skill. 

When launching and landing a Hobie through surf, some whitewater paddling skills come in handy.  Although few Hobie owners have those paddling skills, they mostly manage to survive surf launches and landings. Those who don't survive surf launches and landings can be seen in many entertaining YouTube videos.

You are pretty unlikely to break your drive when out on the water, but if you do, you'll either need to paddle back to your launch site, or call 911 and beg for a rescue.  If you own a Pro Angler, you might as well dig out your phone.  If you own an Outback or (better yet) a Revolution, I'd give the paddle a try.  View it as a opportunity to finally start acquiring some paddling skills and muscles.

Having a GF who used to be an instructor, we had more than a few  heated discussions about paddling technique.  In the end I adopted to her style, and it is a more efficient method.  I also bumped up my paddle length to a 240 now and I find it works better than a 230 did.  Using your core muscle as opposed to your arm muscles makes a huge difference in several key areas.  The distance you can paddle, the effort needed to perform it, and the amount of reserve available to you should you drift towards an area you prefer not to be in.  I have on few occasions watched guys leave the old pier some times five minutes ahead of me, only pass them later once they get out past the wall.  You can watch, the bad form, it is easy to spot, if that paddle is over your head, your digging, and not paddling.  Your using biceps and not using your abs/core muscles to pull you through your strokes.  How do you think some of our compatriots can go for mile after mile of trolling day after day (Hobies, and Native Propels aside)?

 I wanted to add one last contribution to this thread and consider it complete.
If you look hard enough it holds some good information for those who enjoy paddling and the confidence gained in practice and education.  Yes, you have to delve beyond a bit of the erroneous, but its not a bad paddling resource for a fishing site. Even after choosing to follow other interests in 2015, I still enjoyed returning to the thread occasionally to add something that I found that was helpful.
Anyway,
I gained some knowledge and really enjoyed EJs explanations in this blog moment from Jackson.
His 5 points regarding kayak characteristics and the roll, helped me realize why rolling the big SOTs is so difficult for me.
Ive learned a lot from this guy and continue to learn whenever I check out his work.
His "critic" was also entertaining.

http://jacksonkayak.com/blog/2006/07/26/rolling-debate-continues-check-out-the-question-and-ejs-answer/


I also recently came across a definition that reminded me of one of PolePole's comment's about ability grading.
While I would consider myself a C- paddler, I found this agreeable.
"Intermediate paddlers use climbing blade angles as appropriate."
Not super useful but seems accurate to me.

Thats it on this one. I do plan on refocusing on documenting adventures in 2016 and hope to share some of them locally again.

Thanks for the contributions. Interesting reading that ej blog. I actually have a 4 fun and it is one if the worst handling boats I've ever paddled. But it is easy to roll. After a 9 year hiatus (was a IV+ boater) I got all of his videos to tune up and it was quite a bit different than what I learned from world surf kayak champ dick wold. In fact I've had to forget all the stuff on Ejs videos and go back to the basics that worked for me. Interesting the idiosynchracies of kayaking, and the different styles. Got to learn the fundamentals and style that works for you.