Any of you use both?
(not concurrently of course)
Yes. Just switched to a GP that i
made last winter in a workshop.I love it. Can’t wait to make another. I do make myself use the Euro at least once a week or so as it is my spare and i want to feel equally as comfortable with them both. I try to remember to do a few rolls with the Euro as well. I have to say that since the GP i am addicted to rolling. It has me hooked bad, I do about 10 or 30 rolls each time i go out. 
Sure
I prefer a GP for touring/playing/expeditions/rough water, a short Euro for whitewater and surf (I often use the GP in surf as well), and use a wing for race training in a K1 / ski.
There are a lot of parallels between GP and wing use so I have no problem alternating between them. Each teaches you something and makes you a better paddler.
To keep my reflexive brace, I use all my kayak paddles unfeathered (but let’s not beat that poor dead horse any more…).
Greg Stamer
Sure
In fact I use a GP, a wing, and a Euro. Depending on conditions and my mood I start with one and put another on the boat as a backup. No problem switching. And like Greg Stamer all of the paddles are zero feather.
Yes
feathered Euro and a GP but I am a pariah…
No feather here either!
yes
I order my WW paddles with no feather since I don’t want to mess with that aspect of switching back and forth. Uses similar to Dr Disco and Mr Stamer, above. Werner split sea kayak paddle at zero, traditional GP.
yes
I use both and carry both with me. I mostly use the gp but like both
Was doing so
I have to get back to the GP - went more Euro last season and this hasn’t been my best paddling season - at all. But I tended to switch between a good bit for a while and liked to have both options on board as long as I had time in with both to use them right.
well that we knew!
Yep -use both.
yes
I like both. I generally prefer the Euro blade, but do like to paddle with the GP as well. It feels nice in the water, it is so fun to roll with, it has nice flex to it, and it uses a different set of muscles than paddling with the Euro, so it can give you a bit of a break.
I prefer the Euro for really rough water though and find it quicker and more effective to brace with in big conditions, and it has more immediate power when you need it. I also find it is easier to handle a boat with more precision when doing bow rudders and side slips, etc. when using the Euro…but the GP has a lot of advantages too.
I also believe that EVERY serious paddler should learn to paddle with both the Euro and GP to be a truly well rounded paddler…and should learn to paddle a canoe too but that is another topic!
matt
Yes - both
I like to keep my euro paddle skills up and occasionally use it but mostly the GP. Occasionally I teach and people arrive with a Euro and the last thing I want to do is push any doctrine on someone.
Although I taught Euro users to roll using a GP and then once they have it a bit, switching back over to a Euro and it works well as a teaching method.
GP for deep water tours
I don’t like how the GP works in shallow or rocky water, so I do not use it in rivers much.
In the surf I’m most often using a Euro paddle, as well.
On long tours I like to use the GP for deep water and the single blade for shallow water.
hmmm
Funny you mention that you don’t like it in shallow water. I was actually going to include in my post how much I do like it for shallow water. I find that you can achieve a suitable stroke with little penetration below the water line when needed. Thus I ffind it very good for paddling in shallow water or in thick weeds. That is one of the things I like about it.
matt
Interesting situation
I of course can switch to using a GP in a very low angle stroke even though normally I use a high angle and the paddle goes deep into the water. And I have experimented with both a GP and a Euro in weeds (my lake is full of them). My conclusion is just the opposite of yours. A low angle stroke with my Euro seems to handle the weed problem better than the GP. I have no idea why or how your stroke differs from mine. But it would be an interesting thread to analyze this.
I use my GP most of the time but
the only time I would use a euro is in very shallow river water where i cannot get much bite - ie small rapids with rocks.
I hate the hydrilla weeds!
And I find the single blade is worst for them, followed by the GP, then the Euro which is actually not too bad in the weeds.
weeds
actually now that I think about it more (has been a while since I lived on the river that always required me to paddle through weeds and shallow waters)
I think that for shallow waters I would obviously change to a much lower angle stroke (I usually use a pretty high angle stroke) but in the weeds I would maintain the high angle stroke, “stabbing” the paddle blade straight into them. It would allow a good catch and a cleaner exit since the narrow blade would penetrate down deep and not get hung up on the exit like a big and irregularly shaped Euro blade.
That was one of the things I liked about the GP. It just seemed not to get bogged down in such situations like the Euro.
It’s been a long time since I lived on the West Coast, but I recall the big fields of Bull Kelp. I imagine the GP would do well in them as well. They too were a bit of a PIA
kelp is a PIA either way
but I noticed it is easier with the GP than the euro. People always ask to try the GP after we pass a bunch of kelp.