John Winters wrote: > > Steve wrote; > > >205 cm is longish? That's 1 cm shorter than my WW paddle, which is > >longish for WW, true. > > It seems to me that a paddle need be no longer than required for the job. > For this it should be long enough to reach the water while using effective > (and personal) biomechanical movements. From my own experience with my own > boat and using my own style my own paddle appears to me about 5 cm too long > since the paddle is immersed about 2-3 cm below the point where the shaft > meets the top of the blade. > > I see several things impinging on length. Shoulder height above the water, > boat beam, boat freeboard and depth at the cockpit, stroke style, blade > length, and specific stroke requirements. There may be more. Since I am > talking about a sea kayak paddle I am not sure one can apply the same > thinking to whitewater although it might be interesting. John, I know your paddling background is canoeing. Is it possible that you are using a kayak paddle the way I see many canoeists do? They tend to treat the kayak paddle as an elongated canoe paddle with the upper part of the shaft almost perpendicular to the water when the lower blade is immersed. The flatter you keep a kayak paddle, the longer it generally has to be. But using a paddle in a near vertical position means you don't need much paddle length. I know a lot of advocates of short paddles for kayak touring. I don't recall any, even the most die-hard, using a 205 cm paddle. ralph > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ > *************************************************************************** -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Sep 25 1998 - 06:28:04 PDT
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