3000km Rowing - 1 year review WinTech RDS oars
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In this video, Lachlan Davey reviews the WinTech RDS (Reduced Diameter Shaft) oars. He has a detailed understanding of these oars, which he has used for the last 1 year / 3000km. Reduced diameter shaft oars have several advantages, which he highlights.
Lachlan compares the WinTech's RDS to the Croker Arrows and Concept 2 oars, how they feel, the positives, and negatives. He also discusses which oar stiffness he has chosen and why. |
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Video Transcript
So i've had these wintec oars for about uh about just over a year now and probably done about 3 000 kilometers with them and so i wanted to give you guys a bit of a review on what i think of them uh what i think of the good bits and a couple of bad bits that i've had with them so i first got onto these uh wind tech ores these are the reduced diameter shaft ones uh just before nationals last year and there was a set laying around the shed that no one was using and i was trying to work out what set of new oars i wanted whether it be you know croaker arrows or concept 2 skinnys or yeah all these so trying these i i noticed straight away that they're a lot easier to get out at the finish so having this reduced diameter shaft is probably one of the smallest if not the smallest shaft on the market makes it really easy to tap out so you tap out and get a nice clean puddle every time whereas with uh either you know a pair of like standard s4 croakers or even the arrows didn't seem to tap out quite as nicely as as these did the other thing i really noticed too was going into a headwind uh as soon as you use these uh com they're just so much nicer rowing into a headwind you don't feel like you you're pushing with your hands going going into the wind you feel it feels a lot more controlled and a lot easier to get a nice recovery
the main difference that I found between uh the croakers so the croaker um croaker arrows and these ones was the catch this I think these blades are a little bit better at locking on at the catch than the crokers i found at the catch the arrows were a lot more flighty like i i it was less forgiving if i didn't get the catch just right whereas i feel like these were a lot more locked on like my old pair of concept two blades that i had so in a way i when i first tried these i thought they're a good uh good mix of the lock feeling that you get at the catch with the concept twos and the uh the clean finish that you get that you get with the croker arrows
so one of the things that i really like about these just like the concept twos is they've got the uh the numbers so what the oars are set on uh perfectly here so you don't have to measure them every time you do it um you know the gate mechan the collar mechanism is very similar to uh to any other set of oar just undo it with a flat head screwdriver uh it's annoying but at the end here i don't know if you can see but it's got a special star tool for the end here not a regular uh screwdriver or or something like that so you have to keep one of them handy um it does come with one i lost it pretty quickly and you know i need to get another one for my tool kit because it's not a standard sort of measurement again here i found that this uh on time i lost this bolt i had to replace that but you know it's not hard to do a couple of the the downsides uh i've noticed with these ones that the sleeve has started to crack i don't know if you can see there but see it started to crack so this plastic's obviously a little bit more uh brittle than say you might get on the the croker or the concept 2 i haven't had that happen before it hasn't got to the point where it's a problem like they were still perfectly functional and it doesn't change that in any regard but i guess eventually it will fail and then it will have to be replaced but um you know it's not such a big deal the main thing that was the the worst part about these oars was the grips you can notice here that i've got a set of croker grips on here um they the ones that came with i went for maybe two or three rows and just by feathering i was actually ripping parts of the grip off and i was flaking flaking away it wouldn't last very long so immediately replaced them with these croaker yellows i found that for me with the concept twos i was rowing with i had croaker grips on them as well the blue ones i found that they're meant to be the same handle diameter so you're meant to be able to put a blue on here and be the same as the blue with the croker or the concept but i didn't find that was the case i found that the yellows were far more comfortable i felt like the blue was a bit bigger than the uh than it was on the croakr or the concept so i really enjoyed using these yellow grips with these oars although i would typically use a blue grip if i was using a croaker um yeah the other main thing that you might be surprised to know is i'm a heavyweight and i weigh about 100 kilos and these oars that i'm rowing with the softs i haven't tried rowing with the uh with like a medium or a stiff pair of these but i really like the way these softs feel at the catch so there's a lot less stress through your body when you take the catch and it allows you to load up so when the angle's quite big at the catch so the blade's right out there when you place it instead of actually having to squeeze the boat too much it bends in the oar and that ore then holds that elastic energy towards the square off and finished position where it's more effective and releases it so i find that it's a really good way to get a catch that feels like it's really locked on doesn't stress your body too much and the the main difference that i liked sticking with these these wintec rds's as opposed to a friend's uh croker arrows that i borrowed is the croco arrows were just so stiff they were so unforgiving at the catch and i know you can get them in a lesser stiffness but i definitely am a fan of soft oar i feel like they really really allow you to get locked on at the catch really uh it's a real confidence thing you get the blade in the water you get the pressure on and the boat's balanced you've got to lock on and you draw all the way through to the finish and you get that that bit of the catch that powerful bit with the early legs and back that you put into the oar at the catch then gets stored as elastic energy through a bend in the oar then gets released at the finish so in summary i reckon these oar are great i've recommended them to everyone who i see.
I haven't had a chance to test out the concept 2 skinnies which i think would be a lot more similar to to this wintech oar than it would be to say the uh the croker arrows they've got a slightly different different blade shape uh again reduced diameter shaft makes it easier to go into a headwind there's not as much resistance air resistance pushing on this oar shaft and because they're quite skinny they allow quite a bit of flex which is really useful for uh people who have injuries or lower back problems uh when i was talking to someone who works for croker they were saying that one of their top elite athletes that uses the the croker arrows so like the equivalent of this and a croker uh train all the time with the soft soft diameter shaft so the soft shaft ones so a lot more flex in them a lot more forgiving at the catch and then they race with a medium stiffness one and the just the feeling that you get from the the softer oar is a is a in my opinion a lot nicer than something that's just brutally unforgiving at the catch and you really put the the pressure of that catch that you're putting in the legs all through your body you don't get that sort of nice elastic effect that you get with these oars although when i first went rowing with these i thought they were very small and i wasn't sure like how strong they'd be you know i've been rowing with them comfortably you know racing with them as well and i haven't had any issues with them so yeah i highly recommend these oars to someone who's looking for a new set of oars it would be good to try them out of course i began to try out the new generations of the concept uh skinnies to see see what they're like but i'm really happy with these oars and i'd recommend them recommend them from people you know beginners onwards they're great looking oar and i think they perform really well and give a good feel while you're rowing the boat.
the main difference that I found between uh the croakers so the croaker um croaker arrows and these ones was the catch this I think these blades are a little bit better at locking on at the catch than the crokers i found at the catch the arrows were a lot more flighty like i i it was less forgiving if i didn't get the catch just right whereas i feel like these were a lot more locked on like my old pair of concept two blades that i had so in a way i when i first tried these i thought they're a good uh good mix of the lock feeling that you get at the catch with the concept twos and the uh the clean finish that you get that you get with the croker arrows
so one of the things that i really like about these just like the concept twos is they've got the uh the numbers so what the oars are set on uh perfectly here so you don't have to measure them every time you do it um you know the gate mechan the collar mechanism is very similar to uh to any other set of oar just undo it with a flat head screwdriver uh it's annoying but at the end here i don't know if you can see but it's got a special star tool for the end here not a regular uh screwdriver or or something like that so you have to keep one of them handy um it does come with one i lost it pretty quickly and you know i need to get another one for my tool kit because it's not a standard sort of measurement again here i found that this uh on time i lost this bolt i had to replace that but you know it's not hard to do a couple of the the downsides uh i've noticed with these ones that the sleeve has started to crack i don't know if you can see there but see it started to crack so this plastic's obviously a little bit more uh brittle than say you might get on the the croker or the concept 2 i haven't had that happen before it hasn't got to the point where it's a problem like they were still perfectly functional and it doesn't change that in any regard but i guess eventually it will fail and then it will have to be replaced but um you know it's not such a big deal the main thing that was the the worst part about these oars was the grips you can notice here that i've got a set of croker grips on here um they the ones that came with i went for maybe two or three rows and just by feathering i was actually ripping parts of the grip off and i was flaking flaking away it wouldn't last very long so immediately replaced them with these croaker yellows i found that for me with the concept twos i was rowing with i had croaker grips on them as well the blue ones i found that they're meant to be the same handle diameter so you're meant to be able to put a blue on here and be the same as the blue with the croker or the concept but i didn't find that was the case i found that the yellows were far more comfortable i felt like the blue was a bit bigger than the uh than it was on the croakr or the concept so i really enjoyed using these yellow grips with these oars although i would typically use a blue grip if i was using a croaker um yeah the other main thing that you might be surprised to know is i'm a heavyweight and i weigh about 100 kilos and these oars that i'm rowing with the softs i haven't tried rowing with the uh with like a medium or a stiff pair of these but i really like the way these softs feel at the catch so there's a lot less stress through your body when you take the catch and it allows you to load up so when the angle's quite big at the catch so the blade's right out there when you place it instead of actually having to squeeze the boat too much it bends in the oar and that ore then holds that elastic energy towards the square off and finished position where it's more effective and releases it so i find that it's a really good way to get a catch that feels like it's really locked on doesn't stress your body too much and the the main difference that i liked sticking with these these wintec rds's as opposed to a friend's uh croker arrows that i borrowed is the croco arrows were just so stiff they were so unforgiving at the catch and i know you can get them in a lesser stiffness but i definitely am a fan of soft oar i feel like they really really allow you to get locked on at the catch really uh it's a real confidence thing you get the blade in the water you get the pressure on and the boat's balanced you've got to lock on and you draw all the way through to the finish and you get that that bit of the catch that powerful bit with the early legs and back that you put into the oar at the catch then gets stored as elastic energy through a bend in the oar then gets released at the finish so in summary i reckon these oar are great i've recommended them to everyone who i see.
I haven't had a chance to test out the concept 2 skinnies which i think would be a lot more similar to to this wintech oar than it would be to say the uh the croker arrows they've got a slightly different different blade shape uh again reduced diameter shaft makes it easier to go into a headwind there's not as much resistance air resistance pushing on this oar shaft and because they're quite skinny they allow quite a bit of flex which is really useful for uh people who have injuries or lower back problems uh when i was talking to someone who works for croker they were saying that one of their top elite athletes that uses the the croker arrows so like the equivalent of this and a croker uh train all the time with the soft soft diameter shaft so the soft shaft ones so a lot more flex in them a lot more forgiving at the catch and then they race with a medium stiffness one and the just the feeling that you get from the the softer oar is a is a in my opinion a lot nicer than something that's just brutally unforgiving at the catch and you really put the the pressure of that catch that you're putting in the legs all through your body you don't get that sort of nice elastic effect that you get with these oars although when i first went rowing with these i thought they were very small and i wasn't sure like how strong they'd be you know i've been rowing with them comfortably you know racing with them as well and i haven't had any issues with them so yeah i highly recommend these oars to someone who's looking for a new set of oars it would be good to try them out of course i began to try out the new generations of the concept uh skinnies to see see what they're like but i'm really happy with these oars and i'd recommend them recommend them from people you know beginners onwards they're great looking oar and i think they perform really well and give a good feel while you're rowing the boat.