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One way to think about the torque is to think of it like the transmission of a vehicle. Your body is the motor and the boat’s progress is the work being done. If you want to race, chances are you want to slam into third gear a lot and you should look at my Racing blades for their substantial grab and torque. If you want a smoother gear look into the Cruising designs. Think of them as a high second gear. My smaller blade shapes are more like a low second gear- great for starting from no speed at all but maybe undertorqued for the highway.
Once you focus on the Blade Shapes you prefer then you adjust the length to tune your torque. This is most often based on past experience and how my shapes relate to other more common shapes found on the market.
My feeling is that for most cruising you want the blade to stick in the water most of the time. But if you have to pull really hard- the paddle should tear through the water a bit. This keeps it from hanging up in the water on really high torque strokes- like when you are trying to stay up to speed with an accelerating slab of water. Too big of a blade and you will get hung up on a stroke that looks more like a brace. If your paddle can always pull through the water, you can apply a greater range of motion to the same workload and this gives you a chance to apply more of a variety of geometry to the stroke. It’s lets you have a stroke and then shape it. If your blade is too big or your paddle is too long- ie you have too much torque- your blade will freeze in the water and you will not have a dynamic stroke and it will look like you are posing- or worse- bracing for the worst. Also- if your blade can pull through the water a bit- it can help on rolls because it brings your basis of support- your blade- to a lower point below you where it is easier to lift yourself from. If your paddle hangs up on the surface too much it can be like trying to lift yourself to the ceiling instead of being able to push up from below a bit. The roll stroke turns into a forward stroke.
One final reason to stay in a second gear range of torque is that it can help fail-proof your shoulders. If the paddle tears through the water at a lower pressure than your shoulder tears- it’s like having a fuse in the system.
Check my Size Chart and the Shape Comparisons page to get a feel for how my blade sizes stack up with more common shapes.
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