Its great to see exciting new innovation in the SUP industry so when we heard about the slitted blade concept from Oscar Propulsion claiming to help with injury prevention we were excited to have a go!
UPDATE: We have had a bit of an update on our findings in relation to the starboard blade that we tested at the end of this video following Oscar propulsions investigations – there good clarity on how the durability of these blade can be controlled going forward to avoid what was seen. Slit design is influenced by the manufacturing process and layup in blades which wasn’t fully understood for Jonnys Lima experiment. Ultimately, its exciting times for the slitted blade concept going forward as it looks like it has lots of potential, lets hope we see some of this in… Read more »
Did you guys test out any speed parameters comparing the slitted vs traditional blade. The easier catch makes sense. And OP’s site suggest the reduced catch is made up in the power phase of the stroke to maintain performance. Can you comment with your insights?
We didn’t test any speed parameters no, this would need more experimentation. However, after a long time using we didn’t feel like the speed achievable was compromised by the slits, it might feel less powerful, but we felt this was due to the reduced power of catch. When you get used to this, it felt that the paddle can perform in the same way. It would be great to run some more scientific tests to prove this though! Cheers, Will
Jason Marcinski
1 year ago
Are the slits cut at an angle from front to back, like oblique? Or just straight through and perpendicular to the face of the blade?
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UPDATE: We have had a bit of an update on our findings in relation to the starboard blade that we tested at the end of this video following Oscar propulsions investigations – there good clarity on how the durability of these blade can be controlled going forward to avoid what was seen. Slit design is influenced by the manufacturing process and layup in blades which wasn’t fully understood for Jonnys Lima experiment. Ultimately, its exciting times for the slitted blade concept going forward as it looks like it has lots of potential, lets hope we see some of this in… Read more »
Did you guys test out any speed parameters comparing the slitted vs traditional blade. The easier catch makes sense. And OP’s site suggest the reduced catch is made up in the power phase of the stroke to maintain performance. Can you comment with your insights?
We didn’t test any speed parameters no, this would need more experimentation. However, after a long time using we didn’t feel like the speed achievable was compromised by the slits, it might feel less powerful, but we felt this was due to the reduced power of catch. When you get used to this, it felt that the paddle can perform in the same way. It would be great to run some more scientific tests to prove this though! Cheers, Will
Are the slits cut at an angle from front to back, like oblique? Or just straight through and perpendicular to the face of the blade?
Hey Jason, sorry for the delay on getting back about this.
No, they are just cut straight through not at an angle.