[Paddlewise] High Aspect Ratio Paddles

Thanks to Peter Chopelas for showing that high aspect ratio paddles are more
efficient.
Why don't all long distance paddlers use them, particularly if they are
nearly twice as efficient? Should the same paddler, paddling over the same
distance in comparable conditions, expend nearly half as much energy with a
high aspect ratio paddle as with a low aspect ratio paddle? If so, this is
such a dramatic difference that high AR paddles should take over for most
tourers. But, they don't.
Putting it the other way, if a fit paddler was able to input greater energy
into paddling with a high AR paddle, shouldn't he or she go faster and last
longer than with a low AR paddle?
Does anyone have experience of longer distance races where paddlers use both
high AR and low AR paddles? Who wins, and who is in best shape at the finish
line? If a race is not the best practical test, what is the speed cut-off
point where a high AR paddle comes in? The equations seem to suggest that
high AR paddles are more efficient at any speed, assuming an equal blade
area.
Am I paddling up the wrong creek with these questions?
Cheers, PT.

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