[Paddlewise] Technology guides paddle design.

When the Eskimos (or related peoples) designed their paddles,
what materials did they have to work with? Driftwood? Bone?
>From these materials you cannot build a shaft with wide blades,
because the blades would break. The only blades that would
last would be narrow (e.g., Greenland) blades. Thus I suspect
that the Greenland design came into being not because those
early folks rejected a wide blade design in favor of a narrow
blade, but because they did not have the materials (strong
glues for laminating, plastics, composites, etc - all the products 
of technologically more advanced civilizations) needed to make 
the narrow shaft & wide blade combination, or what is sometimes
called, condescendingly by some, the "white man's paddle."

Please give some thought to this theory before you flame me
for my political incorrectness!

:-)



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