At 8:03 AM -0700 9/18/02, Shawn Baker wrote: >Nick Schade <schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com> wrote: >>Why is it a stretch to think that a sliding stroke couldn't be as >fluid as with a GP. With a GP your hand needs to open up, with a euro >it doesn't. A barely perceptible cocking of the wrist takes care of >the feathering, and you just let the shaft slide. > >Barely perceptible, but it's still there. > >Just like arguing that the Euro doesn't need the sliding stroke for a >powerful bite (like they're used in whitewater). The sliding stroke >with a GP is barely perceptible, but still used for a big, powerful >stroke. Barely perceptible to one is conspicuous and annoying to >another. > >Feathering messes with the sliding stroke. Plain and simple. You >slide the shaft, and lose your indexing. I'd agree 100% that a sliding >stroke with an unfeathered Euro is as fluid as with a GP. > >But that's really more of a chapter for the feathered vs. unfeathered >debate. :) I find it funny how up tight people get about feathering. Uh, horrors, you need to cock your wrist! Yes, it is there, no doubt. Yet, with a sliding stroke on a greenland paddle, you must open your hand substantially to accomplish the sliding stroke. You start with the hand where the shaft is roughly 1" in diameter, some times with the depth greater than the width, and you end up with the hand on a 4" wide section of the blade. This involves a large change in how you hold your hand (and no small amount of cocking of the wrist). I am well aware that this change seems "natural" to people who have practiced. But it is natural because they practiced, it is not natural by virtue of some "gift-from-god". Yes, with a feathered paddle, you need to cock your wrist. With practice it is "natural", it comes easily, you can do it without thought, your hands know where they need to be. I don't see how this is any harder than changing your grip from one inch wide to 4 inches wide. It is something you learn to do and with experience is so easy there is no reason to make an issue about it. -- Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 824 Thompson St Glastonbury, CT 06033 (860) 659-8847 *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Sep 19 2002 - 06:34:34 PDT
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