[Paddlewise] Trip report and Greenland paddles

   Friday morning I decided to tag along on Duane Strosaker’s "day after 
thanksgiving paddle," so I packed up my stuff and head up to Palos Verdes. I 
used to paddle Palos Verdes quite a bit, but for some reason hadn’t been up 
there in a number of years. I was looking forward to reacquainting myself 
with the area.
   As the people filed in I was a little surprised to count over twenty 
paddlers standing on the beach ready to go. Who’d of thought so many folks 
would show up to paddle with a fellow who is such an obvious menace to this 
sport! But there they all were. As the last few people on the beach prepared 
their equipment, Duane called everyone together to make sure they had all 
signed the liability waiver, and to give the group a few last minute 
instructions as to our plans for the day. 
   We were launching through all of about one foot of gentle surf. Pretty low 
key if you ask me. Nevertheless, of the first half dozen people off the 
beach, I think two or three of them capsized! I decided that I had better 
help launch the rest of the group. When there were but three people left on 
the beach I launched, only to turn around see one more person in the water. I 
turned around and landed to helped the last couple of people off the beach, 
and then launched once more to join the group. Duane had listed this trip as 
being suitable for intermediate paddlers, but I guess several of these folks 
have a different definition of "intermediate" then I do.
   So we were off. I was using my newly carved Greenland paddle for the first 
time on this excursion. I don’t like Greenland paddles for serious ocean 
work. But I have been hearing so many wonderful things about them, primarily 
on this list, that before I completely condemn them I thought I should get 
more familiar with just how well they actually work. So I put aside my trusty 
Werner San Juan in favor of this "stick." I must say, my first impressions 
were that this new paddle really sucks!
   I noticed that as I paddled at the excruciatingly slow pace of the group, 
that water would drip down the paddle blades and use my thumbs as drip rings. 
After a while this started to get rather irritating. I talked to Duane about 
it, as he has used Greenland paddles quite a bit, and he told me how to angle 
the top edge of the paddle forward. This made a huge difference! Not only did 
the drip go away, but it felt like I was able to get considerably more power 
out of this wimpy little stick. OK, so maybe this paddle isn’t as bad as I 
initially thought. Still, I was really missing my San Juan.
   The trip itself was fairly uneventful. We head up the coast a couple of 
miles, some distance off shore. In an attempt to wring some performance out 
of my new paddle I started zig zagging in closer to shore and back out again 
maintaining a pretty good pace. I noticed as I did this that several others 
followed my lead. When it came time to turn around a few of us elected to 
split from the group and check out a nearby cove. There were a couple of 
shallow caves there which we could play in. I started to back into a deeper 
one, only to chicken out as I didn’t have any faith in this Greenland paddles 
ability to claw my way back out if things got dicey. 
   We caught back up to the main group just as they were preparing to land on 
the beach. The tiny surf gave me little concern so I just pulled into the 
sand and exited my boat. Carrying my equipment up to the parking lot I joined 
up with Duane and Jim, and a few others watching and taking bets on which of 
the remaining people on the water would have problems landing. It’s hard to 
believe, but even in these exceedingly calm conditions several folks capsized 
as they tried to land. I suppose lending them a hand would have been the more 
civil thing to do, but heck, they’ve got to learn sometime, and in these 
benign conditions it was pretty unlikely that anybody could get hurt. 
Besides, there was some real entertainment value in watching them crash and 
burn. 
   While the group prepared to enjoy a pot luck lunch together, I regretfully 
had to get back home. This had been a nice paddle with a good turnout of 
folks. Nobody got lost in the fog, or run over in the shipping lanes. There 
weren’t any arguments about which course to take, and in fact everyone seemed 
to have a pretty good time. I was so disappointed! I mean, considering 
Duane’s reputation on this list, I thought for sure somebody would die. Well, 
maybe next time.   

Scott
So.Cal.

***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************