I started paddling using a Euro paddle a number of years ago, not knowing of alternatives. I did short-term, distance, and rolling with it. Gradually, as I learned of Greenland paddles and began experimenting with making my own, I discovered more and more situations where I preferred the Greenland style. For example, I just did a two-day, approximately 40-mile, overnight paddle, and found myself stowing the Euro paddle about 4 miles into the trip and completing the rest of the paddle with my Greenland. There is little sacrifice of speed (if you care about those things) over a long-distance trip, IMHO, by using a narrower design. If anything, pushing a smaller volume of water per stroke seeems to extend endurance. And I like the way my hands meet the shoulders of the paddle. I still intend to keep the Euro for situations in which you need the most power per stroke per unit time, but those circumstances are pretty rare. If you do switch to Greenland style paddles, though, make sure you give yourself time to adjust to the paddling styles as well. I have never tried the narrower-bladed manufactured paddles, and would be interested in a comparison from any who have paddled both Greenland and narrow, Euro-design progeny. Tom Joyce *************************************************************************** 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 Sun Jun 04 2000 - 09:56:49 PDT
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