DIY Kayak Hand Paddles

Whitewater hand paddlers cannot accelerate at the same rate nor reach the same top-end speed as kayakers with paddles, but hand paddlers can do every kayak trick. Hand paddling is popular among those missing fingers and thumbs. Even those missing hands can participate and excel in whitewater kayaking. However, the vast majority of hand paddlers are people who realize kayaking is about body position, not leverage. Hand paddling teaches a boater where to place his center of gravity.

Things You'll Need

  • 2 1 by 1-foot, 1/4-inch polyethylene plastic pieces
  • Marker
  • Tape measure
  • Jigsaw
  • Grinder
  • Heat gun
  • 5-gallon bucket
  • Tin foil
  • 1 1/2-inch putty knife with wooden handle
  • Leather work gloves
  • 1 1/2-inch by 6-inch velcro elastic straps
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Trace both of your hands with the marker. Trace one hand on each plastic piece. Lay your wrists at the edge of the pieces before you trace your hands. Do not put your hands in the middle of the plastic and trace. Measure four inches beyond each finger tip of your traces. Put a dots with your marker. Do the same for each thumb. Add four inches to each side of the span of your palm and put dots on the plastic. Put dots four inches from either side of your wrists.

    • 2

      Connect the dots with your marker: wrist dot to end of thumb dot to span of palm dot to end of index, across the rest of your fingers' dots, down to the opposite side palm dot, down to your second wrist dot. The result will be a mitten shape spanning around the trace of your hand.

    • 3

      Cut the mitten shapes out of the plastic pieces with your jigsaw. Grind the edges of your plastic smooth. Lay the five-gallon plastic bucket on its side. Lay tinfoil on the side of the bucket, with the side now facing up. Lay one plastic piece on the tinfoil, the fingers wrapping around the curve, not pointing towards the open end of the bucket or the bottom. The outline of your hand must face up. This is critical. If it does not, the concave shape you form into your hand paddles will be convex and bend your fingers backwards rather than create cupped hands.

    • 4

      Run the heat gun back and forth over the plastic until it melts and shapes around the form of the bucket. Do not hold the heat gun over one spot on the plastic for more than two seconds or you will blister and burn it. Move the gun back and forth over the hand paddle until it forms around the bucket. Allow it to cure for 10 minutes. Shape your other paddle the same way.

    • 5

      Make eyelets for your straps velcro straps.You will need four eyelets for every strap, two on each side of your appendage. You need four for each wrist, palm, thumb, middle finger and little finger. Heat the putty knife until it is hot but not red-hot. Hold the knife perpendicular and force two slits through the paddle at each point. Use the trace of your hand as a guide. You want half of the eyelets inside the hand trace and half on the lines. For your thumb for example, put the eyelets parallel to the lines, one on the outside and one on the inside of the trace.

    • 6

      Thread the velcro straps through the eyelets. Your hand rests inside the trace and the straps tighten over the back of your hands, wrists and fingers. Snug the velcro over your hand tightly against the paddle with one hand, then use your teeth to tighten the second hand paddle's straps.