RE: [Paddlewise] Kayak surfing question

At 12:42 AM 7/20/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Kevin Whilden wrote:
>
>
>
>I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing by extended paddle. I take
>an extended paddle brace to mean that you extend the paddle more to the
>bracing side as you would do with an extended paddle roll. I can't see how
>(if this is what Kevin means too) that can be accomplished without moving
>the hands on the paddle out of the traditional narrow position (which I
>agree wouldn't give you an effective brace so why bother keeping the hand
>close together anyhow).
Yes, it seems like we are talking about the same thing. When I brace with 
my GP, I only slide one hand - the one away from the bracing side - and I 
keep the other one fixed. This is fast and secure, and very easy to recover 
from. Of course, a greenland paddle is always easy to find the normal 
paddling position because the indexing is so extreme.


> >
> > There's another helpful nuance of Greenland paddles in the surf, which is
> > that they are designed to act as a wing to generate lift that supports a
> > brace.
>
>They may act like a wing but I'm not so sure they were "designed" to act as
>a wing. What are your historical sources for this claim?
Well, unfortunately historical accounts of what Eskimos thought about kayak 
design are pretty hard to come by. However I have a greenland paddle that I 
built according to John Heath's article in SK, and also from direct advice 
from George Gronseth, who was incidentally the first white man to 
participate in the Greenland Eskimo's kayak training course (I always 
forget the name...). In my estimation, this paddle generates lift like a 
wing when paddled in the proper manner (as taught to me by George). It is 
indeed a logical leap to say that they were "designed" to act like this. 
However why wouldn't this design be deliberate? Surely the Eskimos' lack of 
formal fluid mechanics training didn't preclude them from gaining an 
empirical understanding of lift. The Eskimos spent several thousand years 
of designing, paddling, and redesigning, and I have full confidence that 
the current paddle shape was deliberately "designed" to make the best 
performing paddle possible.

Also, in quite apropos fashion, there's an good letter to the editor in the 
latest SK, where an aerodynamics engineer (Al Bowers) discusses Maligiaq's 
paddling technique. It's a very interesting letter, and at the end he 
concludes "Many things are not understood about the fluid mechanics of 
kayaks and paddles, but the realization that traditional Inuit paddlers may 
have discovered wing paddle lift long ago is significant". It always makes 
me chuckle when I think about the hubris of some westerners who have 
dismissed native peoples as ignorant savages.  They were anything but that, 
and we are the ones who were ignorant.







> >In calm, green water, there is a huge difference between
> > the amount
> > of bracing force that can be applied when the paddle is sculled vs. held
> > steady. In the surf, it will be hard to scull, and even if you could, the
> > paddle would be moving through aerated, highly turbulent water.
> > Since that
> > precludes it from generating lift, it is far less likely to generate as
> > much bracing resistance as a white-man's paddle, thereby reducing the
> > stress on your shoulders.
>
>
>The water that is aerated is not usually where you are bracing (and that
>water isn't going to cause much trouble if it were). The water that causes
>the trouble is the water lifting up as the wave peaks to break and is still
>peaking up behind the soup as the wave tumbles forward once it has broken. I
>extend my paddle when faced with steep dumping breakers. Yeah, I extend it
>out the other way away from the breaker and have little more than the blade
>beyond my hand to brace with so I don't hand the surf such a big lever.

This is an excellent piece of advice, although don't you think it might 
cause the very problem you are trying to alleviate if you are careless and 
get windowshaded?

>The real reason hardly anyone uses a Greenland paddle for playing in the
>surf is just what Kevin is talking about. They don't have enough bite on the
>water for the real quick acceleration you need to catch a good ride in the
>first place.

Greenland paddles don't have much of a low gear for acceleration, although 
using really exaggerated sprint-racer's technique does help. Another 
problem I've found is that they are not as effective as white-man's paddles 
for hard ruddering and severe course changes that are often necessary in 
the surf.


>Well, at least not as fast a wave as the "white man's" paddle
>can catch. Greenland paddles aren't good for quick slap braces on the waters
>surface either. This soft bite might help protect your shoulder but not if
>you give it a much longer lever arm with which to compensate for its poor
>bite (and help it wrench your shoulder).
>
>Being unfeathered your Greenland paddle would probably just get broken by
>the surf anyway ;-)
>I suppose this could be seen as a safety feature too. Better to have your
>paddle break than your shoulder dislocate.

LOL. Do I detect a whiff of smoke here? Certainly you're not trying to 
rekindle an old debate.... But that's beside the point, because everyone 
knows that Greenland style paddlers are more skilled in general and less 
likely to break paddles in the surf.

Kevin


Kevin Whilden
Your Planet Earth
http://www.yourplanetearth.org
(206) 788-0281 (ph)
(206) 788-0284 (f)

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