[Paddlewise] The lighter the paddle

I use a very light carbon paddle a lot of the time and it is my opinion
that if you are just paddling along, the lighter the paddle the easier
it is to paddle.  My paddle weighs one and one half pounds and It is
much less tiring to use than my old paddle.  There is a place for
heavier paddles.  If you want a strong paddle to beat on rocks with for
instance.  In surf you need a paddle that will hold up to beating
yourself on the head.  In strong winds a paddle with some weight might
be easier to hang on to, though I am not positive about this,  the shape
of the paddle blades will have more effect on handling in wind.

Someone with a great deal of paddling experience recently told me that
they routinely switch back and forth between feathered and unfeathered
paddles and that this gives them no trouble.  I was excited to hear this
because I learned to paddle strictly with unfeathered paddles due to
worry about wrist injury (wrist injury would put me out of business).
Others have told me that I don't need to worry about wrist injury, and
now I wonder if I should go to the trouble of re-training myself.  I
also intend to take up greenland style paddling, but will continue to
use euro-paddles with my euro boat, so I'll have to switch styles when I
switch boats if I start using feathered euro paddles.  Yet other people
have advised me to pick one style (feathered or unfeathered) and stick
to it so that my braces will not be compromised.  I DO NOT WANT TO START
A FEATHERED/UNFEATHERED DEBATE.  I  have heard all this before;  I would
like to hear from anyone who is able to switch regularly from feathered
to unfeathered paddles.  It may be that the key to the one example I
know of a person  switching techniques at the drop of a hat is in
switching from a greenland paddle to a euro paddle; perhaps the
different feel of the greenland paddle and paddling style provides the
necessary physical cues to remind the body to use the correct bracing
motions.

Does anyone think I can use both techniques?

Nick Lyle

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