John Winters wrote: > I was interested in his comment that, "The shorter the paddle, the more > horizontally it can be held and still maintain a short lever arm. This is > the basis of Greenland technique, which uses short paddles held > horizontally. " This comment does not fit with the paddle lengths provided > by Brand, Peterson, and others. It also ignores that many boats with > relatively high freeboard and wide beam that might require long paddles > just to reach the water. Since I have heard this comment before I wonder if > it does not reflect a local application of the term "Greenland paddle" and > may be responsible for some of the confusion surrounding term. Yes, indeed. This summer I made 80 miles in the Mediterranean with a Valley Skerray. Since it is a beamier boat than my local skin on frame kayak, and has a higher freeboard, and larger volume, I decided to use the Feathercraft version of a Greenland paddle, which has longer shaft and blades. A short Greenland paddle on a boat with high free board would force the paddler to make very vertical strokes in order to reach the water, which spoils one of the kay benefits of the Greenland paddle -- the low angle position with respect to the water. In the book "Skin Boats of Greenland" one can appreciate the extremely long paddles that are used in East Greenland, where high volume boats are used, versus the short paddles of West Greenland, where low volume kayaks are preferred. By the way, did you folks notice the last name of the current Greenland champion? Maligiaq Padilla. It seems that we Spaniards have made it to the last corner of the world. :-) - Julio *************************************************************************** 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 Oct 09 1998 - 09:35:20 PDT
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