<So what are you supposed to propel with a paddle 243cm long, an aircraft carrier???... Allan Singleton Hamilton NZ> When you see lengths over 235, you are talking low angle style. Also, the paddler's size is important. A paddle at a minimum must be as long as the paddler's elbow to elbow distance (arm's outstretched) plus the length of the blades plus around 4". For me, this means I can not have a paddle less than around 205 -- even for high angle. A touring paddle shoud be around 25% longer than this minimum. The following was posted to rec.boats.paddle and works for me: -------- A frequent question asked of this newsgroup is "what is the best paddle length for me?" The usual answers are understandably vague as in: A taller person needs a longer paddle Use a shorter paddle for play-boating, etc. In an attempt to give a more specific answer, I measured the bodies, boats and paddles of several kayakers I know. I then put the question to the best engineering minds at my company. They say the best fit of this data gives the following equation: PL = 2*BL+BS*(.38*EE+1.2*SQRT((BW/2-SW/2)^2+SL^2)) Where: PL = calculated paddle length in cm BL = blade length in cm BS = boating style factor Touring, use 1.2 River Running, use 1.0 Play Boating, use .95 EE = elbow to elbow distance ( with your arms straight out to the sides ) in cm BW = boat width in cm SW = shoulder width in cm SL = spine length ( sitting down, measure the distance from the chair seat to the top of your shoulder ) in cm ------- I have this set up in an MS/Works spreadsheet (.wks) and can email it as an attachment to anyone with math phobia. Remember to use cm for all measurements. Ken Cooperstein *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Mar 17 2000 - 04:06:26 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:21 PDT