Hi
I’ve made a GP paddle and now that the water is a rather delightful 11C and last light is at 8:50pm I have the time to try it…
However - I am not sure how to use it ! 
Does anyone know of a good online place/link where I can either look at some diagrams or see a video or something.
I am used to a Lendal Kinetic Touring (trad euro paddle) but am keen to learn new paddling skills.
Also the Gp (western red cedar) seems alot lighter than the Lendal… hmmm
Anyway - if anyone knows of a visual link let me know - cheers Ed
movement explained
Here is a link to Greg spending sometime on canted forward stroke:
http://www.qajaqusa.org/cgi-bin/TechniqueForumArchive0_config.pl?review=581
do a search on that site and you will find a treasure chest of info.
-assad
Gp
Right - I’ve had a good look at the vids and read some other threads on GP usage but am still unsure of what ‘canted’ means.
To my mind the explanations seem to suggest that the higher blade (out of water) is over the lower (in water) blade. ie when the blade enters the water the tip is closer to the stern if you were to draw a vertical line down from your hand…
Anyway, I am unsure of the subtleties but am planning a go this afternoon after work.
Also read that they work better with narrow boats - mine is a Cobra Expedition at 21" (I think) but is fairly low around the seat area - any thoughts ?
The cadence on the vids looks quite fast but I guess they are racing. And I noticed the low elbow action - will bear that in mind.
In terms of blad angle - should this be at 90 degrees to the hull on entering the water ?
Was keen to try last night but found a breeding pair of what looked like black widow spiders in the paddle shed… had to move them and their egg sacks…
Ed
The canted blade has to do with
the blade angle as the paddle blade enters the water. The top of the blade is canted forward so that the blade actually enters the water with a diving angle.
Watch the videos at Qajaqusa and read Greg’s articles. It’s pretty much self evident.
The canted stroke is done
with the top edge of the paddle tilted toward the bow. This angle will make the paddle want to dive as you pull it back. To counteract the dive you need to push down and across the deck with the top hand.
Greenland paddles with a narrow loom work best with a narrow kayak. A low deck allows you to use a more relaxed paddle stroke with the elbows low and less movement of the shoulders.
The cadence will be faster with a shorter or narrower blade. A wider blade will give you a slower cadence.
If you want to use the canted stroke the blade should be slightly canted when entering water. A canted blade will dive deeper into the water fast and allow you to start to apply power to your stroke sooner than a non canted stroke.
Canted
Right - had a paddle a few days ago for an hour or so.
Wow Very nice and I was grinning from ear to ear as I realised that the darn paddle actually works and something I made was moving the kayak !
Anyway - I tried different angles and found that if the top edge is tipped forward the blade digs down deep and seems to pull very quickly to the vertical or near vertical position by the side of the kayak.
(I hadn’t read the above posts when I went out - but from reading them I will try and push the other hand down and towards the knees).
When the paddle exits it comes out almost horizontal along the line of the kayak hull right by the side.
I practiced with a cant in the other direction (so that the top blade was tipped back) but this made the paddle veer away from the ull and seemed less intuitively like a good stroke.
So I think I have worked out the very basics but will be putting in some effort over the summer - really like it (WRC - see another post of some details here : http://www.parazz.com/photos/46752203339_10337.jpg
)
It’s oiled with tung oil not on the loom and West System slow cure epoxy on the blades.
Planning on a storm paddle next (had a go at a slide stroke with the full length paddle and seems ok so think that a storm will sit well on the front of the Cobra Expedition (SOT) for safety and so on).
Cheers
Ed
