Joy E. Hecht wrote: > ... > Around here - the Chesapeake Bay area, roughly - none > of the folks selling gear stock paddles as short as 220, much less > shorter. ...<snip>... Paddles in the 210-215cm range are readily available in our area. The last time I went shopping for a paddle I was looking for something in this size range, and at a single retailer I could choose among glass or graphite or ultralight graphite, two-piece or one-piece, and (for the one-piece) feathered or unfeathered. Clearly, manufacturers do make paddles shorter than 220cm, although sometimes only in those models designed for a vertical stroke. (For example, Werner makes Kauaii and Molokai paddles down to 210cm as part of their regular line.) I suspect that your local retailers do not stock shorter paddles because the market is too thin in your area. I find it interesting that whitewater paddles are shorter than touring paddles. I use a 197cm whitewater paddle and a 215cm touring paddle. Why the difference in length? First, it isn't because whitewater boats are narrower. Every whitewater kayak that I have paddled is wider than my sea kayak. I think that the answer lies with the following: First, the combination of greater rocker and lower volume causes one to sit lower (relative to the water) in a whitewater kayak, which makes a shorter padddle more appropriate. Second, in whitewater paddling there is frequently the need for sudden, rapid acceleration. A shorter paddle acts like a lower gear, allowing a very high cadence for quick acceleration. Whitewater paddling effort occurs in spurts; the touring cadence is much more even. Third, the lack of directional stability in a whitewater kayak magnifies any inefficiency in the forward stroke. The "sweep" strokes that result from paddling with a low-angle technique and long paddles would not work well at moving a whitewater kayak forward. The inefficiency of such a stroke is masked by the greater directional stability of a sea kayak. Dan Hagen Bellingham, Washington *************************************************************************** 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 - 08:18:45 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:29:59 PDT