Re: [Paddlewise] paddle sizing heresy

Michael Daly wrote:

> From: "Kevin Whilden" <kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org>
>
> > 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.
>
> <It's too bad that John Winters isn't around these days, cause I'm sure he'd have
> some interesting comments on this.  I've spoken to him a couple of times about
> paddle design (last time exactly a year ago this coming weekend) and he's
> pointed out that this notion that the blades "hardly slip" is a misconception.
>
> It's interesting that avid paddlers feel that the paddle blades don't slip.  I've watched
> many canoe and kayak paddle strokes trying to understand exactly what's going on.
> They slip a lot!  Paddle with part of the blade above water and watch how far the
> vortex travels from the blade while it's in the water (don't confuse it with the persistence
> of the vortex after the stroke is over).  That's paddle motion.  The problem is that
> you have a hard time separating the relative motions of the paddle compared to
> the kayak, you compared to the water and the paddle compared to the water.
>
> All other things being equal, I'd not discount the significance of blade size.>

---------------------
---So, what makes a paddle design efficient, so that you feel it "sticking?"  I paddle with a
Greenland-style paddle (3 and 7/8" blade width, 220 or 230 long) and feel I can make it stick.
Also, I'm not left in the wake of Euro-paddlers at speed.  Why don't those fat, short blades
rocket folks along?  Why does a symmetrical, skinny blade, convex on both surfaces, seem to
provide very equivalent performance in moving the boat around to those high-tech, spooned and
asymmetrical fat blades?

Thanks - Dennis in St. Paul

>
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