At 11:50 PM -0700 7/26/98, K. Whilden wrote: >During the cruising stroke, with my arms tucked in close to the body, I >switch the feather of my paddle halfway through, to maintain a positive >angle of attack, It is harder to maintain a proper angle of attack during >the first half of the stroke however, so I often very quickly slice the >paddle downward so that I apply very little power during a negative angle >of attack. Then I use the upward motion of the paddle to apply most of the >torso rotation power. The wing stroke is essentially similar to the latter >scenario. VERY unscientific test this weekend: I did the stroke Kevin describes above, maintaining a positive angle of attack on both the entry and the exit part of the stroke. Kevin is right, it does work and it turns out this is basically my standard stroke, I just hadn't really paid much attention before. Then I tried it with several of my greenland paddles (note I was using a modern paddle before) and it does give a more solid feel, tending to reduce the tendancy for the paddle to flutter. Presumably instead of shedding vortices off alternating edges, it keeps the vortex on one side. It was hard to say whether there was any difference in efficiency between a straight pull and a pull with positive angle of attack. I moved along just fine with or without the positive AoA. I forget if this positive AoA stroke technique was supposed to be a unique ability of a greenland style stroke. I expect if most people examined their stroke they would see that they do it to a certain extent no matter what kind of paddle they use. An advantage for most people is that by angling the power face of the paddle down they get a little brace at the beginning of their stroke. Angling the powerface up during the exit just comes naturally. Any increase in efficiency is worthwhile but probably not unique to any particular paddle. I'll stick with my modern paddle for most of my paddling, keeping my greenland paddles for playing around with rolls. I still have not heard any greenland technique which I can not reproduce with my modern paddle and for the paddling I like doing my modern blade works better for me. Nick Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks c/o Newfound Woodworks, 67 Danforth Brook Rd, Bristol, NH 03222 (603) 744-6872 Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ >>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<< *************************************************************************** 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 Mon Jul 27 1998 - 17:07:49 PDT
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