Hand injuries anyone?

cougarmeat said:
The distance apart is limited by your above-the-head "wingspan".
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For people with ordinary cars, it's difficult to get the bars spaced widely enough. That was the main reason I bought an older (VW) station wagon when I needed to replace my 27 y.o. VW Golf.
The crossbars on my car are 44" apart - just right for me, and I'm not that tall. There is some technique involved with the Hullavator, and it's nice to (still!) be flexible enough to easily do a deep squat..... and stand up again. :)
 
The older Volvo 740 has a roof long enough to land a small airplane. And the height is short enough that even a garden gnome such as myself can reach the top just standing next to the car.
 
Just a followup: my wrist injury is getting better. I tried wearing a brace to immobilize it at night when sleeping...but the damn thing drives me crazy (and I'm not sure it helps much).

Otherwise, I've just been using a combination of rest (trying to avoid doing anything stressful like fast, long paddles or lifting heavy objects with that hand)...and interestingly, strength training seems to help! (e.g. doing dumbbell exercises like curls and chest presses with 15-lb weights).

I've never been a scrawny weakling (LOL), but like many otherwise fit people, I've never specifically targeted my forearms and wrists with weight training. While you certainly use wrists/forearms when kayaking, you don't use them nearly as much as upper arms/shoulders/back/torso. So it feels like generally strengthening forearm muscles provides more support for the wrist joint.

All just theories, LOL. I did a 5-mile XC ski yesterday, and I pole hard (really work my arms) when skiing...and my wrist feels fine...

Scott
 
I get periodic wrist pain that seems similar to carpal tunnel syndrome with numbness etc. I'm also an avid gardener.
I find Tylenol at night to reduce swelling and wearing a wrist brace at night helps enormously. It never affected my paddling but I had concerns it might one day.
 
In my youth, it was a matter of machismo to be able to dead lift and throw boats, even K2s onto the top of a vehicle. Those days are long gone. Plus, if anything goes wrong, besides hurting yourself, you can ding your vehicle.

I stupidly resisted getting a lift assist device until I had turned 70. I most often had my wife or a friend around to help lift: or alternatively, some stranger would take pity on the old feller who was obviously having difficulty lifting his boat. My wife was also getting quite perturbed that we were still lifting boats onto cars late in our retirement years.

Now we have a Yakima ShowBoat 66 roller loader for summer use. I use a garden kneeling pad under the stern of the kayak and then just lift the bow onto the roller and push the boat up from the rear, easypeasy. It works very well and I am still loading kayaks and paddling well into my 70's, even with arthritic shoulders. Been a long time since I did a dead lift even of a 42 lb. carbon fibre boat.

For winter and early season use, when the XC ski box is on the SUV, my wife found a used SeaWing™ Kayak Carrier with Stinger outfit that goes on beside the ski box. Same deal, pad under the stern, then lift the bow onto the stinger and push the boat up onto the cradles. I really like the Malone cradles as well.

I have some lady friends who have a hullavator for their truck and it works great. But it's way more expensive to buy, more complicated mechanically, and more complicated to install or remove. They have also had minor mechanical problems with it occasionally. Still, well worth the price for their needs.

Whatever the choice, getting a load assist device is well worth the cost. It takes "much less effort" and there is much less chance of injury, or vehicle dings. This is particularly true for older and smaller paddlers. Both the Sea Wing and the Yakima roller, are less than half the price of a good carbon fibre paddle so there are several price points and options for lift assist kayak loaders out there.

My two bits (loaders) worth. Cheers,

Rick
 
I got lucky and found someone locally selling a Hullavator for $400 (in like-new condition). I'm still getting the hang of it but liking it! And @SalishSeaNior I actually think the Hullavator rack mechanisms are really easy to take off and put back on: all you do is tip them up and pull out a pin and they come right off. It's a LOT easier than installing/uninstalling my J-hooks!
 
I still don't know why the Hullavator's lifts have to work independently. Seems like having a connecting rod for the two lifts, so they both go up together, would solve a few issues. For one, the distance between the lifts would not be limited by your physical reach.
 
cougarmeat said:
I still don't know why the Hullavator's lifts have to work independently. Seems like having a connecting rod for the two lifts, so they both go up together, would solve a few issues. For one, the distance between the lifts would not be limited by your physical reach.
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I understand your comment, BUT...
You'd need at least two rods, with triangular bracing to make a rigid platform that would rise and drop as a unit. How would you adjust that to deal with different rack spacings for different vehicles?
It sounds like you want the racks farther apart than your 'wingspan'? How would you release the latches to allow the racks to go up and down?
It would be a PITA for putting the Hullivators on to the crossbars and taking them off, and for stowing them as well, if they were connected together in a large 4x4 foot assembly.
As @SWriverstone says, it's simple and quick to take the bulky parts on and off - just a single pin for each. I like that. And I can stow the 'kayak holders' side by side in the back of the car.
Both my hands and arms still work - sorta- so I manage to get both parts of the Hullivator to move more-or-less in unison.
However I have a friend who is a bit more creaky than me who couldn't squat to grab the latch handles to make the Hullivator work with his compact car, so it's not for everybody.
 
cougarmeat said:
I still don't know why the Hullavator's lifts have to work independently. Seems like having a connecting rod for the two lifts, so they both go up together, would solve a few issues. For one, the distance between the lifts would not be limited by your physical reach.
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There is an option that I've seen called a MOS Uplift which does that. It's not especially elegant looking, but it works.
 
I have had the same issue off and on for years in my left arm. I'm a paddler, climber, weightlifter, and guitarist—all four activities stress the crap out of your ulnar nerve. I've had physical therapy and the main takeaway is to religiously stretch and massage your forearms/wrists and work on gaining your grip strength back using any kind of squeezing exercise you like. I use one of those plastic squishy squeeze eggs mostly.

When I have a flare up, I use gym hooks when paddling and lifting (I only use the hook on my left hand when paddling). It eliminates the stress on the wrist/grip and allows me to pull without making things worse.

Of course, ice and Advil is used as needed too.

Good luck!
 
Regarding pain management...........For many years I have experienced chronic pain (mostly joints) from a combination of arthtitis and a genetic disorder that affects connective tissues, primarily causing painful hypermobile joints. For decades I was a daily Ibuprofen user. Today I rarely resort to NSAID's, Tylenol or other common pain/inflammation products. I manage with Traumeel analgesic, a homeopathic product, and CBD balm (which is legal in Washington and BC).

Being an aging ex-pot user (45 years ago) I was really hesitant to try a Cannabis product but have found that it works very well for me. It gets right to work and, though it isn't as effective as 3-Ibuprofen tabs, it lasts a decent length of time. Because the balm I use is pretty fragrant I don't use it in bear country.

YMMV.
 
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GAH. My wrist injury is still dogging me, after a few months. It's almost certainy my fault, because I refuse to do what I should do, which is to stop paddling (or doing anything else strenuous) with that wrist for a month or two. I just can't. :( It's a bit like someone telling you that your bad eye will never get better unless you can keep it closed for a two months. Could you do that? (I didn't think so, LOL.)

Just last week it was feeling great—no pain, and I paddled several times without a hitch. Then, while doing the laundry of all stupid things, I grabbed a handful of heavy, damp clothes from the washer to toss them in the dryer...and felt that tendon in my wrist twang like a guitar string—accompanied by pain.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

<sigh> I continue to believe there has got to be some way of healing it that doesn't involve simply not using it for anything (becoming "one-armed") for a month or more. Because I honestly don't think I could survive that...

I've noticed that I can actually do strength training exercises (with dumbbells) without hurting my wrist. The hurt level depends on the specific range of motion, so if I avoid that range of motion (or use it very gently) it doesn't get worse. So I'm thinking the solution might be a focused arm/wrist strength training campaign. I'm not a weakling to start with...but I'm feeling like if I can gradually strengthen the muscles in my forearms and wrists, they'll help support the "exposed" tendon that's causing my problems.
 
SWriverstone said:
It's a bit like someone telling you that your bad eye will never get better unless you can keep it closed for a two months. Could you do that? (I didn't think so, LOL.)
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Several years ago a friend of mine suddenly had double vision. The solution was to wear an eye patch for about two months. That break was long enough for whatever was acting up to resolve itself.

So yeah, I probably would take a break if it was going to improve things. If you'd have taken a month off when it began acting up, that month would have been done a while back. :)

Sucks to take a break but sometimes you've got to.
 
I had a tear in the periformis (deep hip) muscle about two months ago and I'm finally back to outdoor cycling and full rehab exercises. I hate "exercises" and would never be a gym member, which might seem odd given that my life is significantly organized around biking/kayaking/walking. I recommend working with a sports-oriented PT who understands that your "normal function" is not the population average. I've found very few doctors who will even try to understand endurance athletes, but I've had much better luck with Physical Therapists. My current PT understands what I'm working toward and that my ultimate goal is to incorporate a wider range of functional movements into my activities rather than to maintain the program of "exercises" that I'm doing to get back up to speed.
 
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