Hiking technique

Originally posted by jeffers Originally posted by Riv With the Blaze you are bound to end up with a mix of Finn and Laser style hiking, and you choose which ever one hurts you least.  If I was not racing and had a Blaze I'd extend the racks so that I could sit in the normal hiking position and not strain my knees and so enjoy my sailing more. I suppose if you were doing handicap racing you could negotiate a slightly lower PY. The basic idea would be to modify the boat and not the sailors body. The Blaze is pretty comfy to hike to be fair. Just a bit of padding needed at the front edge if you want to hang forwards off it.

With the Blaze you are bound to end up with a mix of Finn and Laser style hiking, and you choose which ever one hurts you least. 

What I've discovered so far is that nearly everybody considers Steve C's analysis to be gospel but most people sail L@sers which are so badly designed ergonomically that straight leg hiking is the only option. Knee damage is probably due to sailing twisted or with feet toed in causing imbalance between the muscles supporting the knee (as Steve C says) rather than having the knees bent or straight (my conclusion, though bent knees does put more strain on the ligaments in the knee). Straight legs are bad for the lower back and hips (which is where the bulk of my issues arise) bent legs reduce the strain on back, hips and abs (personal experience). Just looking at the various videos the extreme dynamics advocated by the top L@ser guys must be a major culprit when it comes to knee damage. Those sailors who advocate straight leg hiking mostly only do it for a few seconds at a time reverting to bent legs for most of the beat (Olympians and World championship contenders being notable exceptions). 

Drop hiking is not only bad for you but is slow as you have to sail with the boat heeled to leeward to stop you bum dragging. if you want to see how to hike properly watch a video of someone like Slingsby in a Laser

Totally agree with iGRF. Hiking is the dumbest looking sporting  activity ever. We are just conditined into thinking it is ok and some how laudable. (well not quite the dumbest, that is taken by windsurfers rowing their way around a course)
On a more serious side, it is plain dangerous as it causes a major increase in blood pressure as your heart tries to force blood around some of the bigest muscles in your body which are literally in spasm.

In short don't do it and if you must then do a lot of conditioning. Both methods are bad for your knees, it's just how bad they are and how much damage will you accept?

I gave up hiking Lasers three years ago as I found that two weeks on ibuprofen was too much a price to pay and I'm fit and ride the 10 miles a day to work and back 6 days a week over big hills in Devon. I now only use windsurfers and I refuse to row them!