Re: [Paddlewise] Greenland Paddle Shape

> How does this response explain that the long, narrow blades of the
> modern Inuit style paddle is less than about 300 years old? Before that
> they had paddles with broad and short blades. If this type of blade was
> bad, why did they develop it and use it for a long time? Did those
> earlier hunters starve to death?

No one knows. The lanceolate shape is far more common across the Arctic
and other parts of the world than the Greenland shape, and must have
advantages of its own. Some guesses:

* The Greenlanders were inspired by the shape of European oars (John
Brand). I don't find this convincing because the change did not include
umiak oar blades, which remained short and broad.

* A broader tip is less liable to damage from ice. This is just a guess; I
have no evidence to back it up. H.C. Peterson says Greenland kayaks
changed when they began to be used more in winter. Maybe the same is true
of the paddles.

* Greenlanders decided that shorter paddles were less cumbersome and
easier to paddle with. Like modern paddlers, they moved from 245-cm
paddles to 215-cm paddles. You can't shorten a lanceolate paddle without
moving the widest part of the blade toward the center.

* The modern Greenland paddle is easier to use with a sliding stroke.
Which came first -- the sliding stroke or the paddle -- I don't know, but
the sliding stroke makes a short paddle more versatile. If you can find
the videos, compare the clumsy-looking paddle stroke in "Nanook of the
North," in which a long paddle is used, to the graceful sliding stroke in
the montage in "The Wedding of Palo."

Of these four guesses, I think the last two are most likely.

Chuck Holst
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