RE: [Paddlewise] Paddle length

Narrower the paddle the higher the flutter rate and the less likely you will
know where you paddle blade will be at any given time. It is sort of a falling
leaf effect. Some blades of the same width flutter less radically than others
and that is due to the blade shape and dihedral on the power face. Also a
bigger loom will give the paddler a little better control of the flutter. I
have huge hands and I do just fine with the narrow shafts (as even the thin
walled graphite shafts on the standard size loom tend to be. the trick is
using the paddle in such a way you hardly have to grip it but rather just push
with the ball of your open hand and pull with your hooked fingers. This will
cure wrist problems too since you won't be bending your wrist to follow the
shaft angle change that happens during the stroke. The cure for flutter (and
too tight a grip with any paddle) is to use the paddle with a wing like
stroke. With a GP paddle angle the top of the blade forward so it dives down
some as it enters the water and you are pulling on it and then reverses itself
and climbs out ot the water toward the end of the stroke (at the first half of
a flutter as it reaches its deepest point). Glide down, a single flutter at
the stopping point, and glide back up and out. As long as you get the paddle
on a glide path to the side (from the point of view of the paddle) as you are
pulling it shouldn't flutter. With a vertical wing paddle like stroke using a
Euro blade you get a lot of the benefits of the wing stroke including no
flutter (without having that god awful splashy water throwing wing blade that
is poor at stern draws, low braces, duffeks, bow draws, and skulling support
strokes).



Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:10:20 -0700
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Paddle length
From: crjungers_at_gmail.com
To: pdh_at_mmcl.co.nz
CC: marinerkayaks_at_msn.com; paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 7:48 AM, Paul Hayward <pdh_at_mmcl.co.nz> wrote:






My first paddle was 2300mm (96.1") and when I went longer I added 100mm to
each end - to give 2500 (98.4"). There was nothing magic (or engineered) about
the 100mm, I just decided to make it 'significantly' longer and then trim it
back until I found a 'sweet spot.' I've never trimmed it back and all my
subsequent paddles (lighter ones, stronger ones, hollow ones, splits - I've
played around some) have remained at that length.


Yikes!!! That is one long paddle. But it's interesting that I have an old book
about the arctic and there is one photo taken (I believe) in eastern Canada
with several Inuit kayaks in a line towing a whale and using VERY long
paddles. The photo was taken from a ridge above and to the side of the
paddlers and the paddles are clearly GPs and the length is striking. So
perhaps you have rediscovered something here.

So do I understand that you folks also struggled with flutter issues?

If I had a spare $400 I'd buy one of the graphite GPs or drive to California
and beg Strosaker to let me try one of his graphite blades. I keep going back
to his web page about the construction and to Chuck Holst's pages about the
wooden GPs and trying to figure out where I went wrong (with the flutter).

I have one more almost perfect cedar 2x4 as a blank for a new paddle. It's 8'
long so I could experiment with something longer.

Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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