During the author's four-hour row in hot weather, the NewGrip pads prevented the hot spots that would have caused blisters. The Pro Model is equipped with wrist straps that attach to Velcro patches sewn on the neoprene pads.
Dale McKinnon
SBM
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I’m wondering if you could accomplish the same benefit by simply gluing neoprene to the oar handle? I expect you would place the seam in just the right location so your hand never slides over it. Wonder what glue would work and if you can baseball-stitch the seam like you do leather on the loom?
I haven’t tried putting a similar neoprene on the grip, but my guess is that there is an advantage in having the neoprene move, if only slightly, on the oar handle and be more stationary on the hand. It wasn’t so much the padding that made the difference, but the elimination of the skin being dragged by the handle.
Were the oars being feathered in either of these cases? Still work OK?
Yes. I should have mentioned that my fingers are cocked back because that’s how I hold the blade on the feather. (It’s an element of the Thames Waterman’s stroke I described in an article in the September/October issue of WoodenBoat.) That NewGrips didn’t interfere with that loose, open grip on the handle was what surprised me most. I thought I’d have to close my grip to hang on to the handle, but that wasn’t the case.