I paddled with a Greenland paddle for a while and experienced all the benefits to joints, tendons, etc, that you and all the others have described. My cruising speeds did not seem at all diminished. All my ailments went away and when I returned to the Euro paddle they returned. I always paddle un-feathered so none of this was due to dealing with feather angles. Nevertheless, I do not agree with your assessment that once buried, the Greenland has the bite of a Euro. Paddles operate similarly to wings. High aspect ratio wings have high lift-to-drag ratios, which is why they are seen on high performance aircraft. Low aspect ratio wings have more lift in when stalled so the transition from flying to stalled is less abrupt. This is why they are seen on trainer aircraft and aircraft that must operate off short fields. Effective Greenland strokes all seem to revolve around "flying" the blade, even the forward stroke. When it comes to "stalled" strokes such as braces (non-sculled) and raw standing start acceleration, the Euro (lower aspect ratio) has the advantage. It's not just about surface area. That makes sense from a theoretical standpoint (everything I know about wings is in this email, so please don't probe any deeper!), but is also my personal observation. Accelerating out through the surf or out from behind a reef was much more trying with a Greenland paddle. Still, I'm thinking of returning to a Greenland paddle for sea kayak cruising to preserve all my body parts so they are ready for abuse when surfing and rock gardening - with a euro paddle. One recent revelation for me (though I'm sure I was the last to figure it out) is the dramatic difference between different "euro" paddles when it comes to inflicting pain on the body. I have been paddling exclusively with 203CM WW paddles for all my paddling for the past couple of years. They have short fat blades and stiff large diameter shafts. The pain factor has definitely increased, but I thought it was just due to getting older. In the past few weeks I decided to try a longer (220CM) touring paddle with longer narrower (relatively) blades for touring. I wanted to see if I could increase my speed for covering distance. The difference was dramatic. I could feel the shaft flexing like it was made from rubber. I got used to this very quickly, I think my speed did increase a little, but most important benefit was that pain was dramatically reduced both while paddling and the next day. By the way, why are they called "euro" paddles? Some of the pictures of native North Pacific paddles look a lot like "euro" paddles to me. Seems like they come from the American continent and should therefore be called "American" paddles. Steve Brown -----Original Message----- ............. The difference is in the "aspect ratio" of the blade - longer and thinner on the Greenland blade, which provides for a more gradual entry and "catch". But once the blade is in the water - all the blade - the surface areas of the Greenland and the Euro are essentially identical and you can generate as much power as you want, every time. .... Every stroke which can be done with a Euro can be done with a Greenland .......... Bill Hansen *************************************************************************** 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 Sat Sep 04 2004 - 06:40:25 PDT
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