Had a little conversation with George Gronseth today. One of the benefits of teaching for him is that I get to ask as many questions about kayaking as I want. I have to admit some lack of education on proper paddle sizing as far as euro-style paddles are concerned. I always use a Greenland stick, because they are so much fun compared to white-man's paddles. Anyhow, what I learned from George makes a lot of sense to me at least, though undoubtedly many on this list will think it heresy. :) #1 Only the paddle shaft length is important, not the overall length of the shaft plus blades. #2 The proper shaft length does not depend on the size of the paddler at all, but rather on the size of the kayak being paddled. The reasons for this has to do with the catch phase of the stroke. Too short a paddle will cause the side of the kayak to interfere with the catch. This will cause the stroke to initiate with some fraction of power wasted because the catch starts further back. Unfortunately, the initial catch is where the majority of the paddle stroke power is generated. Thus a lot of power is wasted if the paddle shaft is too short. I experienced this when I paddled with a 200cm whitewater paddle some time back. The blade would bump into the deck, severely limiting the most useful part of my stroke. Blade size does not matter, because as Matt Broze said earlier, water is a heavy fluid and even most small blades hardly slip through the water. Paddler size does not matter much... not when compared to kayak beam and deck height. These factors dominate over paddler size, because they dictate how long the paddle shaft should be. According to George, the best way to determine proper paddle shaft length is trial and error. Try several different paddle shaft lengths, and determine which one gives you just enough clearance over your deck. Once clearance is achieved, any extra length is only a disadvantage because of the slower stroke cadence (and other reasons). None of this applies to a Greenland style paddle, because that is a totally different animal. One other bit of George wisdom, which is one of the first things he teaches in his classes... Feather angle does not matter at all. Just pick one, and stick with it. Cheers, Kevin ps. George has a relatively new website... www.kayakacademy.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Kevin Whilden Your Planet Earth kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org http://www.yourplanetearth.org voice: (206) 788-0281 fax: (206) 788-0284 ----------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed May 09 2001 - 22:58:49 PDT
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