>If you move a certain weight through a certain distance, laws of physics >will tell you exactly how much energy is needed. It's irrelevant whether you >are using a diesel engine, steam power, or man power. >Laurie Ford. Hi Laurie, I'm not a techie type, but it seems to me your analysis is flawed. I've always thought of using different blade sizes as like varying the gears on a bike - you can go for low effort/high repetition or high effort/slow cadence, depending on the landscape, your ratio of fast and slow twitch muscles, etc. Reduced to absurdity, your argument would be that it's just as easy to carry a thousand pound weight by hand in one trip as to carry it in 50 trips of 20 pounds each. Obviously, the discussion around "optimum" blade size does not involve such extremes - and indeed threatens at times to degenerate into "how many angels can dance on the blade of a Greenland paddle?". All that said, I understand what you mean about just getting on with it at a certain point - paddling rather than talking paddling. For me, equipment should be a means to an end rather than an end in itself. For others, the gear may be an end in itself, and that's (very literally in some cases) their business. Cheers Philip T. "The opinions expressed in this posting are not necessarily those of my employer, or indeed, of any sentient being." **************************************** Mountain Equipment Co-op 1655 West 3rd Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6J 1K1 Tel: 640-732-1989 Fax: 604-731-6483 email: pid_at_mec.ca Visit our website at: http://www.mec.ca ***************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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