-----Original Message----- From: Rich Kulawiec [mailto:rsk_at_gsp.org] Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 1998 1:23 PM To: paddlewise Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Greenland Paddles On Wed, Jul 22, 1998 at 01:09:53PM -0500, Chuck Holst wrote: > Maybe it is a whitewater legacy, but most kayakers seem to be > taught -- whether consciously or unconsciously -- to keep their > hands in one place. Why, yes, of course we do. Moving one's hands around on the paddle shaft accomplishes nothing but to waste energy that's better directed into propelling the boat, so I'm surprised to hear that anyone would actually *deliberately* do so. What would be the point? ---Rsk Rich Kulawiec rsk_at_gsp.org ************************************************************************** * Responding to both Mark and Rich, marathon flatwater canoe racers move their hands all the time -- they switch sides every few strokes -- because it helps them win races. In a situation where the leading canoes are sometimes within a canoe length of each other several hours into the race, where one slip can mean the difference between winning and losing, they somehow manage not to miss a stroke, let alone lose their paddles. Which reminds me of the time I showed my first Greenland paddle to the late marathon canoe racer Karl Ketter, Jr., who taught me how to sit 'n switch. His laconic comment was that in their last race in Canada, he and his partner, who as usual were using wide-blade, bent shaft paddles, had been passed by a couple of Indians using straight, narrow-blade paddles! The Greenland Inuit, who invented the Greenland paddle and taught Europeans how to roll, typically used the paddle in an extended position for sweep turns, braces, and rolls. Even though many of them could roll with just a short throwing stick or even a stone in the fist, the extended roll was still the preferred roll because of its reliability. (For an extended roll, I think the Greenland paddle is superior to a Euro paddle because you don't have to let go of the paddle to grasp the tip of the blade, as I explained in another post; you just slide hand out to the end of the blade without ever letting go.) Also, the East Greenlanders (I don't know about the West Greenlanders) used the partial sliding stroke to place the blade deeper into the water -- for more control, they said. With the short Greenland storm paddle a full sliding stroke, in which the hands meet in the middle of the short loom as the paddler switches sides, is the only possible forward stroke. In some ways it reminds me of the marathoner's sit 'n switch stroke. The purpose of the storm paddle is to reach deeply into solid water while as little as possible of the upper blade hangs out in the wind. Greenlanders also extended the paddle when resting or to brace the kayak when throwing a harpoon. Local instructor John Andrew demonstrates how effective an extended brace with a Greenland paddle can be by having his students hold one blade of the paddle tightly across the cockpit coaming while trying to sink the extended blade. It is a very effective demonstration, because the extended blade reacts hardly at all to vigorous attempts to sink it. (Don't try this with a feathered paddle!) Remember that sea kayakers paddle in a different environment than whitewater kayakers. The waves move instead of standing still, they are often less predictable, there are no riverbanks, no rocks to dodge or eddy out behind away from shore, and the water is deep. In a capsize, there is (relatively) lots of time to set up for an extended roll, and you don't have to worry about smashing your face against the bottom if you use a layback roll. In other words, what's important in whitewater kayaking may not be as important in sea kayaking or other kinds of paddling. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:51 PDT