Hi Shawn,

I am still debating what I do best about knee/thigh braces in my Return. I am not the most agile person, but I like the idea of more control. I don't understand how the height of the deck makes it a knee or thigh brace. I thought that the location along you leg decides what flavour it turns into. How close should I go to the knee? How far should the brace go around your leg?

Thanks for your help?

Andreas

PS. Any other good references than sitting in a sea kayak. I didn't find much useful info on the net.

: Hi John,

: Like John said, fit is a personal thing. I highly recommend sitting in some
: commercial whitewater kayaks and see how they fit you. Most commercial sea
: kayaks IMHO don't have "aggressive" enough knee/thigh braces,
: and really don't contribute to edging that much.

: Both Pete and John are definitely on the right track with the shape of their
: CF braces.

: What's the difference between a knee hook and a thigh brace? Where it hits
: you. This mostly has to do with the lenght of your legs in relation to the
: height of the deck. With a relatively high deck, they become knee hooks.
: With a lower, flatter deck, they are thigh braces. I used to think a high
: deck was nice, especially with my long legs, but you get more control and
: torque with a lower deck and "thigh braces".

: The more I learn, the less I know.

: Anyway, another thing that isn't intuitively obvious is that the
: "vault" (a knee hook is the same shape as an architectural
: barrel vault!) runs exactly parallel to the centerline of the boat. Your
: legs come off the seat, splayed outward at an angle, so you'd think the
: length of this vault would be somewhat aligned with your leg. Nope. Don't
: ask me how I found that out the hard way. It even looks like the knee
: hooks are angled in commercial boats, but they really aren't.

: WaveSport has some amazing looking knee hooks and hip pad systems in this
: year's boats.

: So...sit in some whitewater boats (ones that have a similar hull profile at
: the cockpit to your sea kayak) and go for it! If you go for really deep
: knee hooks, you'll gain amazing control, but make sure you check with a
: wet exit that you can clear your legs quickly enough.

: Shawn