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Stonefly paddle length


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Why not carve the Greenland paddle now while the paint is drying? It only takes one or two days to carve it.

All you need is a Western Red Cedar 2X4 .Most people recommend a length that measures from the ground

to under your curled fingers with your arm straight above your head.

 

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WI:

For info on Greenland paddles, check out qajaqusa.org/gear/paddles & making. My favorite paddle, which is sort of a hybrid of Greenland and Aleut, is 103" long with blades 3-3/8" wide. I'm 71" tall with a wingspread of 71-1/4". You can get an idea of the paddle from the attached pics.

 

However, I'm not sure how a GP would work with the large (29") beam of a Stonefly. You might look into a native paddle with wider blades like the Mackenzie Delta style as documented by David Zimmerly (see arctickayaks.com or Zimmerly's book Qayaq: Kayaks of Alaska & Siberia).

 

Fair winds, Andy

 

DSC_1085.JPG

DSC_1094.JPG

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If you paddle a canoe with a double-blade paddle you'll get a lot of strange looks and an occasional question from the uninformed who are certain that you're "supposed" to use a single-blade.

 

You'll also get where you're going with less effort and in greater comfort. I haven't used a single-blade canoe paddle since about 1992 and I don't miss it at all. you'll find that 29-inch beam is no problem at all, even with a shorter double-blade intended for a narrow kayak.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've carved over a dozen West Greenland Style Paddles.  The length of them is determined by your physical measurements.  I have tried a couple different formulas, some using your height and found this one to be the best as a first paddle:   Using height factors in your leg length.  Short legged people with the same height as long legged people would end up with the same paddle. Sitting in a kayak nullifies your leg length from having anything to do with it.

 

(For total length add your finger tip to finger tip with outstretched arms plus the distance from your elbow to fingertip together.  The loom should be equal to your shoulder width.  The blades lengths are what ever is not loom.)  

 

Very experienced paddlers may end up wanting to modify this a tad to fit their stroke, but it is a good place to start. And you should develop a good stroke before modifying anything.

 

During a discussion on this with Jeff some time ago as I was considering how to market these things he suggested that 3 sizes could very well cover just about everyone except the serious paddler who might have more specific requirements. And these people will be ordering custom anyway.  I think he is correct, and this may be what I do when I set up my site after retirement.  

 

If you are paddling anything at all wider than a real kayak you will find the beam to effect how your paddle works as well. I know Jeff's canoes are quite narrow because he expects you to use a double blade paddle. You may however want to add some length if the width of your boat in your station is more than 24".  The stroke with a WGSP is along side the boat much more so than a Euro paddle.  It doesn't take much beam to make the WGSP awkward to use at all.

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