Dragon Boat West

Question re: paddling technique as seen in the Regatta pics

I have always been taught that during the reach/catch phase you should be sitting up almost straight, maybe a 5-10 degree bend as you rotate forward into the reach and bury your blade.

Yet in some of the Regatta pics you see paddlers extended forward to almost a 90 degree angle. This looks like it gives one heck of a long reach but is this good form and does it allow for a strong pull during de-rotation? Is it a technique paddlers should use? Does it make for faster boat speed? Is it sustainable over a 500m race?

It may allow for a strong arm pull, but it is not conducive to a strong core pull.  And even the strongest arms will tire well before 500m.
Different coaches preach different philosophies.  I have always believed that at exit, your body should be at a 5 degree bend.  At catch, and the start of the compression phase of the stroke, the bend should be 15 degrees, at most (thanks Jason/Jen).  Any more than this tends to cause "bobbing" and far too much motion in the boat.
Use rotation to increase your reach...keep your core tight, tight, tight (thanks Jackie) so that you are not bobbing or creating too much motion in the boat.

ive been wondering about this too.  how about teams that hinge?  ideally, how much of an angle are you supposed to be at?

Depending on which pics you looked at you could have seen some "newer" or "rec" teams just figuring things out. If you check the FCRCC teams or some other more experienced teams you may find that their stroke looks like it should be. Just as aquaman pointed out that is how I preach my paddlers to do their strokes. The 15 to 5 degree aspect, start to finish of a stroke. Just an FYI of course. Each coach has his/her own philosophy regarding paddling.

And I reviewed the pics but there aren't very many of actual race shots. At least that is what it looked like to me. It seems they were shots after a race or on the way to a race. But I could be wrong.

Hm, I get pretty far forward (well past 15*) at the front of my stroke... 
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=208895&l=f4d54&id=508373524
I promise you that its sustainable for 250m, 500m, 1000m, and even 2000m.  But, thats the technique we've been taught to use, and it seems to work well for us.  We also make sure that when we drop our weight forward, all of that weight is out on top of the blade and NOT in the boat.
One observation that I made when comparing our boat vs. the USA boat is the effect our different strokes had on boat motion. Theirs was more of a marathon/outrigger stroke.  Their boat looked more "smooth" through the water at every point of the stroke, whereas ours surged upwards and forwards at the first half of the stroke, and as we recovered to the front again, our recovery matched the glide of the boat. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  "different strokes for different folks".  Given the varying strokes that won races in australia, you can't really say that one way is better than others.  You just figure out what works for you and your team, and roll with it. 

HEAR HEAR!!  msn(u) :clap: Well put my friend!

I just want to amend this a bit.
You need a decent amount of flexibility and fitness to be able to pull off this stroke properly.  The average person who sits in an office all day, goes home to eat dinner and watch TV and paddles once or twice on the weekends probably wouldn't be able to do it without risking some sort of injury.  It also takes quite a bit of practice and "feel" of the water to trust yourself enough to put all of your weight on the blade like that, and trust yourself not to fall in. 

Also, this just came to me, regarding my comparison of our boat and the USA boat.  think about the differences of how a K1 looks going through the water vs. a C1 (looking at the boat's motion, not the paddling technique).  the K1 would be the USA, we would be the C1
C1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwgBxBT_OH8
K1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBlkrYtBdao

If you think about how to get the blade in the water, there are two obvious ways to do it. One is to drop your arms, the other is to drop your body (by hinging at the waist). If you hinge, you are in a weaker position as far as rotation is concerned but you get a long reach and your weight on the blade more easily. If you drop your arms, you won't be able to reach as far forward. I think it might also encourage paddlers to pull too soon before they have their blades fully buried. Hinging will put more stress on your lower back and, if you don't do it right, can cause the boat to bounce (the evil "bobbing"). So both approaches have their pluses and minuses.

It's also not just one or the other. There's a continuum from completely upright to the 90 degree bend. It seems even the FC paddlers don't all hinge to the same extent as can be seen in Colossus's facebook picture. Seat 10 is pretty upright. Seats 8 and 7 are hinging but not as much as seat 9.

This is my second hand regurgitation of stuff I learned from Kamini's coaching series. If she does it again, I highly recommend anyone interested in paddling technique sign up for that specific component of the series (if not all of them).

PS: I am not a coach, although I have been known to pretend to be one.