Chuck wrote; > >I don't think of the Greenland paddle as a long paddle. Mine, which is made to >my dimensions using traditional methods, is about 218 cm long. The blades >are narrow but long (9.5 cm by 89 cm). And if you look at old films of >Greenlanders, such as Knud Rasmussen's "Palos Brudefaerd," you do see >torso rotation. You also see both a low forward stroke and a high forward >stroke in that film. The higher, more vertical, stroke was used when more >power was needed. Once again the Inuit beat us to the punch. Just out of curiosity, Chuck, do you vary your stroke with your paddle. Mine is a low aspect ratio paddle that is 210 cm and also vary between high and low strokes depending on how enthusiastic I am. Richard Culpeper seems to be doing the same thing (using a small bladed short paddle) and his skills are solid so maybe there is something too it. A guy named Darcus some years back did some government funded ergonomic research and after spending big bucks discovered that, free from outside influences, the body would naturally take up its most efficient posture and motion. However, when a tool was involved that forced an alteration to that posture or motion it took a learning process to develop the most efficient action. Perhaps this is a worthwhile experiment for someone. Give a beginner who ha never seen anyone paddle before new paddles of different lengths and then see what their strokes look like. Maybe, if we let our bodies do their own thing, w could arrive at the best (or close to best) stroke without instruction. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Apr 04 1998 - 04:43:16 PST
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