: I have a friend who would like very much to try kayaking. She is young and in
: good physical condition, but has one problem that has me asking for help.

: Born with a birth defect, she has the first joint of the right thumb, and the
: first joint of the right pinkie, but no other fingers on the right hand.
: The palm is otherwise normal, and there is no atrophy of the arm muscles.
: She is strong enough to paddle, but gripping the paddle is the issue. The
: digits are not long enough to touch in opposition. Furthermore, she
: doesn't want to invest in a paddle unless she can actually use it, so
: permanent modifications are problematic.

: I was thinking about a pogie or something like it, or a glove with velcro on
: the palm and temporarily attached to the paddle. Any other ideas?

Here's my idea. I have seen a glove advertised as the gripper that has precurved fingers. I would make a paddle with a smaller dia where the hand fits and velcro it. Then vecro the palm and fingers of the glove, wrap it around the paddle shaft and pour two part polyurthane that is stiff flexible,(I have samples that go from very hard to very soft rubber like)into the three fingers and just enough for the extra digits for the thumb and pinky. When this sets up you have stiff flexible and always curved just right fingers to help grip. Then I would add a velcro wrist band to help keep the glove on and to take fitgue off of her thumb and pinky.

John