Re: [Paddlewise] J. Winters on paddle length

Joy wrote;

(SNIP)
>
>What gives?  Are tastes changing on paddle length and the manufacturers
>aren't keeping up?  Is everyone supposed to special order their paddles?
>Or buy long ones and cut them down?  For that matter, how does one even
>try out a paddle as short as 200 (aside from a Greenland paddle, they are
>usually shorter) since stores don't seem to stock them?
>
>Am I missing something here?

I have asked retailers why they don't sell shorter paddles and they respond
that people don't ask for them. When I asked people why they don't ask for
them they responded that retailers didn't have them or that they had been
told to use a longer paddle usually based on some anthropometric
measurement or because so-and-so uses a paddle that long. I suspect the
manufacturers make what is ordered - Hank, what say you on this?

So, what came first?

I suspect that early sea kayakers saw that many Inuit paddles were quite
long and they also may have assumed that a paddle is a simple lever and
longer is better. There may even be a subconscious macho thing going on
similar to the canoe paddle thing (Big guys use big paddles, EH).

Having a relatively complete woodworking shop allowed me to try dozens of
paddles and paddle shapes every year and I just kept making and liking
shorter and shorter paddles.

A lot of this paddle and boat choice stuff may have to do with biomechanics
and something called psychokinetics or perceived exertion. Maybe by the end
of the reading season (remember when books were cheap and computers were
expensive ;-)) I will have something to report back to Paddlewise.

Cheers,
John Winters
Redwing Designs
Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft
http://home.ican.net/~735769/




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