Stick Em Up!

December 05-January 2006

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Neil Schulman

Magic Paddle

Don Beale provided instruction.

Crack! Not a good sound. Definitely not when you’re underwater in the middle of a roll. Then I was back upright, with half a paddle in my hands. The other half was floating a few feet away. It was the end of one Greenland paddle and the beginning of the next.

I’d been introduced to Greenland-styles by a few friends of mine, and had come to like them for rolling and everyday paddling. I was also on my way to the west coast of Vancouver Island in a few weeks and wanted to take one with me. I’m not an accomplished woodworker by any means, so...

I called Don Beale, a local paddle maker. “If I got a bunch of people together, could you walk us through the paddle-making process?” I asked. “Well,” Don said generously, “I can probably fit six people in my shop if you can help me move a picnic table. Send me some measurements and I’ll get wood.” A flurry of emails later, we all gathered at Don’s shop and he showed us how to find the paddle hidden inside a chunk of western red cedar.

Plans for Greenland paddles are readily available on the web (try www.qajaqusa.org for starters). But it’s no substitute for an experienced paddle-maker looking over your shoulder and walking you through the process. We shaped our paddles with simple and affordable hand tools: a vise, a low- angle block plane and a spokeshave. We used routers and drum sanders for shaping the edges of the ‘loom’ (shaft of the paddle) and rounding the tips of the blades. And we glued some hardwood onto the blades to protect the light but soft cedar from the inevitable contact with coastal rocks. By the end of the day, all that was left was to go paddling, check how it fit, and do some reshaping. Don also showed me how to turn part of my broken paddle into a Norsaq, a traditional Greenland throwing stick used to assist with hand-rolling.

Two weekends later, my paddle and I were cavorting in the waves.

A variety of materials can be used . A Greenland boat and paddle. .

ORIGINS

Greenland paddles were born in a land with no trees. In the Arctic, wood comes only by chance, as driftwood from far away, and the odds of finding logs big enough for a large blade are nil. So the Greenland paddle has blades only a few inches wide that transition into the loom. Greenland paddles also have a symmetrical, unfettered design which evolved over centuries of use.

CAN YOU REALLY PADDLE WITH THAT THING?

If you’re used to a beefy, carbonfiber Euroblade, a Greenland paddle looks pretty ridiculous. The first time I borrowed one, I was ready after five minutes to go ashore and make firewood. But after a few days, I had an epiphany. Cruising along, I noticed the shoreline just flying by.

In other words, yes, you can paddle with that thing. Greenland paddles are perfect for touring—they allow a light, fast and continuous cadence, and wind won’t catch the narrow blades. I get some strange looks, but I have no problem keeping up or even outdistancing those looks once we’re on the water.

FLEX, BUOYANCY AND SYMMETRY

Greenland paddles also offer some benefits in their flex, buoyancy and symmetry. The flex of the wood—especially relatively soft wood like cedar—is easier on the body than a big blade made of stiff carbonfiber or fiberglass, since the flex takes repetitive strain off the ligaments and tendons. “Everybody over thirty should be using a paddle with some flex,” says an instructor friend of mine.

The buoyancy is also a benefit when rolling and bracing. Rolling with a blade four inches wide sounds absurd—but it’s actually much easier, partly because of the buoyancy of the paddle. Wood, especially cedar, will spring out of the water like a super-expensive foam-core paddle. The first time I rolled with a Greenland paddle, I came up so quickly I went over on the other side!

And I love the symmetry of the paddle—there’s no right side up or upside-down or feather angles to worry about. You just grab the paddle and go.

DIFFERENT STROKES

To really get the benefit of a Greenland paddle, you’ll need to make a few adjustments on a Euroblade stroke. The first is about the angle of the blade when it enters the water. Instead of the blade being perpendicular to the water, tilt the top of the blade forward before the plant of your stroke. Then—unlike a Euroblade where you pull the paddle out at the hip—let the paddle slide behind your hip until it naturally springs out of the water. The forward tilt of the blade will make water pour off the back of the paddle, providing propulsion past your hip.

Greenland paddles can also be slid through your hands and extended, either slightly to offset wind or extended fully for a full sweep stroke. This provides another strategy to offset weathercocking (along with boat edging, posture and use of a skeg or rudder). A power-generating variation is the sliding stroke, where the blade is held in the inboard hand and the outboard hand is slid to the middle of the loom. This provides more forward propulsion and is great for quick acceleration.

Sweep strokes, sculling and rolling are often done with the paddle extended. While you could do this with a Euroblade, you really don’t want to—the forces on your body with a big blade at the end of a long lever translates to a high risk of injury.

SHAPE

Marcel sculls with a Greenland paddle.

Building your own paddle means it can fit your body precisely—length, hand size and so forth. Everyone’s an individual, but here are some places to start.

Paddle Length: Greenland paddles are meant to be used on boats with a low deck and relatively narrow beam. If you’re in a beamier, higher boat, you’ll want a longer paddle to reach the water. Assuming you’re padding a relatively narrow single, the standard way to decide on paddle length is to start with a body measurement—an arm span plus a cubit (a cubit is the distance between your elbow and the tip of the middle finger). Take this as a starting point as you develop your Greenland paddling style.

Loom length: The length of the loom is also a key body measurement. You want your natural grip to be right on the edges of the loom where it transitions into the blade. Put your PFD on, and then let your arms hang at your sides. Now bend your elbows at 90 degrees. A starting point for the loom/blade transition is roughly in between your middle and index fingers. Remember that you can take wood off to make the loom longer (and the blades shorter) but you can’t put wood back on to make the loom longer.

Shouldered or Unshouldered: Shoulders are a sharp transition between the loom and the shaft. Unshouldered paddles make this transition smoothly. Shoulders give you a stronger sense of where your hands are and some paddlers claim they help your hand naturally tilt the blade forward.

Loom Cross-Section: The loom cross section can be easily shaped to fit your hands. Most Greenland looms are significantly larger in diameter than Euroblades in order to fill up the hand. The lighter forces on the Greenland paddle means it’s often gripped with only two or three fingers. I like a slight rectangular shape so that I can feel the blade angle without having to look. Whatever your preference, it should keep your wrists in a neutral position.

Blade width and edge: You’ll want the blade to fit in your hand as required by some of the moves of traditional Greenland paddling. You’ll also want the edge to be sharp enough to enter the water quietly, but not so sharp you can’t grip it comfortably without gloves.

HANGING OUT WITH ‘STICK PEOPLE’

Kayaks originated in the Arctic, and traditions from these Arctic origins are growing in North America. Greenland paddling is a way to reconnect with thousands of years of kayak evolution. Unlike Euroblades, where shapes and materials seem to change every week, Greenland paddling technology evolved slowly, the pace matching the Inuit’s relationship with the landscape. That funny- shaped paddle is a connection to paddlers of thousands of years ago.

The community of paddlers interested in traditional paddling techniques has grown as well. Qajaq Canada and Qajaq USA have hosted the SSTIKS (the South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium) in Washington State for the past several years, and networks of paddle builders, boat builders and paddlers have grown considerably, with several people making the trip to Greenland to compete annually. To learn about the world of traditional kayaking, visit www.qajaqusa.org.

You can also learn more about Greenland paddles from several professional builders (www.bealepaddles.com and www.superiorkayaks.com). But even if all you do is fashion a paddle from a chunk of local wood, you’ve linked yourself to several millennia of kayaking tradition.

© Neil Schulman writes from Portland, Oregon. His everyday touring paddle is an unshouldered 88-inch piece of Ponderosa Pine.