Hi everyone- I have been following the euro vs. Greenland paddle discussion with interest, but have some questions about the forward stroke for both euro and greenland paddles. I thought my forward stroke was ok until early this summer when I saw myself on videotape! I recommend this for anyone who wants to work on their technique - very helpful. I spent the summer reworking my forward stroke to the style the ACA teaches: -arms fairly straight -paddle comes out at hip -whole torso moves, not just arms and shoulders -hands don't cross over the center line After so many years paddling one way, it has been surprisingly hard to retrain myself to paddle differently. So, I was discouraged when I got Doug Van Doren's Greenland paddling video and saw that to use my new Greenland paddle, I might have to retrain myself yet again. But now I am noticing that a slightly different style of forward stroke is taking hold, which I saw in an instructional video ("Brent Reitz Forward Stroke Clinic"). Apparently it has been developed and used by racers, and differs from the "standard" forward stroke in some significant ways. In particular it features radical torso rotation, hands crossing over the center line, paddle release far past the hip and a distinct bend in the arms throughout the stroke. I have seen this stroke on TV being used in races, and, when I took a look at the video clips shown on www.qajaqusa.org, the stroke that Michael Jakobsen and Maligiaq Padilla were using looked a lot like the forward stroke demonstrated by Brent Reitz in his video. This seemed most clear in the long distance forward stroke (oblique view) as done by Maligiaq Padilla. Maybe others who have seen the Brent Reitz video and/or who actually paddle this way could check the qajaqusa site and see if they agree. Obviously there are still differences between gp and euro techniques that involve the blade angle, as others have discussed, but I thought there was a strong similarity in overall form. I am curious as to other paddlers' take on this modification of the forward stroke, since I have not seen anyone in my area (Minnesota) really paddle this way. There are several things about this new version which would probably be easier for my shoulders to handle, and the thought of being able to learn a more powerful stroke that can be used with *both* Greenland and euro paddles is very appealing... Sarah Ohmann *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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