On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 6:44 AM, PeterO <rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com>wrote: > > Don't want to stop a good discussion, but maybe both opinions are valid? > Anyway the following is sufficiently twisted that the debate has a fair > chance to continue. > > LOL... well notwithstanding that last sentence, I tend to agree with PeterO; I can see a place in kayaking for a longer GP. Sea Kayaking has come a long way in the last decade alone. At one time GPs - any Greenland Paddle regardless of length - was denigrated by people who knew no better. The EP folks devised a test to prove that their paddle was better. Simply tie two kayaks together stern-to-stern, put a paddler with a GP into one cockpit and a paddler with an EP into the other cockpit and let them fight it out. The EP invariably won because this test favors that paddle. It was much harder to test the merits of the GP because its strength was in the long run. For a lot of paddlers (including me, I'm afraid) the EP was the only paddle worth considering. Until recently. So many really good sea kayakers are now using Greenland paddles that it's impossible now to claim that they are not as good. In fact I think that Greenland paddling and equipment might be (along with "playboating") one of the fastest growing aspects of the sport. It's certainly a fascinating aspect. I have in my possession a book published about 40 years ago that has several photos of Greenland kayaks and Inuits paddlilng in them. One of them clearly shows a line of kayaks tied stern-to-bow towing what appears to be a whale carcass. They are using paddles that must be over 9 feet long. Five Inuits towing a whale can't be all wrong!!! :P If it works, it works. I'm thinking that there is room for these in the sport. Peter's ideas about who might be better suited to a long GP (LGP) have merit, at least in my eyes. It would be very interesting to have a couple of Paddlewisers carve a 9-foot long GP and let us know what they think. Viva la change! Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Jul 09 2010 - 08:55:17 PDT
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