>> All that I have read about Greenland paddles indicates the Inuits used very narrow blades. >> I don't think any of the Greenland blades in John Brand's _Little Kayak Book_ is wider than about 75mm. On Baffin Island, the paddles were longer and wider with more parallel blades, but the Baffin Islanders obviously used a different paddling technique. >> When paddling into a strong wind I get more power by changeng the position of my hands on the paddle for each stroke. When pulling on the right blade the right hand is in the middle of the loom and the left is on the left blade. When pulling left the positions are reversed. This comes naturally after a bit of persistent practice. This effectively gives a longer paddle length in the water and reduces the wind resistance on the blade in the air. It seems more efficient to do this when you want the extra power rather than going for a longer paddle. >> This is the Greenland sliding stroke, though a longer one than the one I usually use. Typically, a Greenlander would move his hands only the width of a fist or two, unless he was making a correction. There is a longer sliding stroke, which might be the one you are using, in which the hands meet in the middle of the loom, but I suspect this was used mostly with short paddles like the Greenland storm paddle. Greenlanders claimed this extension of the paddle gave them more control by getting the blade deeper into the water. Chuck Holst*************************************************************************** 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 Mon Apr 24 2000 - 06:30:20 PDT
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