My 2 cents worth here;
I am mostly a GL paddler. I like them and feel most comfortable in using them, especially in choppy water.
But I have a theory. An observation — which I believe bears consideration. GL paddling is most often thought of with an overview of forward paddling and going from point A to point B. BUT the overarching principal of Greenland paddling is control, and much of that for it’s use in bracing and turning.
I make them and have sold quite few to many paddlers and I have been using them for a few years now. It’s been my observation that a longer paddle then you’d choose in a euro types is more useful. Easier to use too.
One thing that a good GL paddler does is to move the paddle all over the place in his or her hands. It’s a general purpose tool, not a specialty tool. Doing ruddering with a GL paddle, it’s common to extent it. Same with most bracing strokes. I am a short man at only 5’ 6". Yet I make Greenland and Aleut paddles of 8 feet and longer for my own use.
My nephew lives in Soldotna Alaska and he made friends with a woman up there who’s husband made kayaks and paddle for years before he died, but she is still quite informative as to some of the details she learned from her husband. She told Liam (who then told me) how her husband used to measure men for paddles. It was their arm span + 1 cubit for most paddles and for “big water” (I am unsure the connotation of that phrase) he would add a hand span, from pinky to thump with maximum spread of the fingers. Also his measurement from the place on the hand where the thumb and palm meet below the index finger meet, to the 1st joint of the MIDDLE finger was how he’d make the blade width.
Using that set of measurement I find MOST commercial GL paddles made today are too small in either length or blade breath, or both. Is he right and everyone making today wrong?
I can’t say.
But what I have been told is that many commercial paddles made today are copied from existing paddles used in Greenland by champion paddlers. That may be the difference ----- insomuch as the average Inuit man is fairly small compared to the average European or American man.
But I am a student, not a master. So I am learning too. This note is not to correct anyone, but just to bring more thought to the conversation.
Even at only 5’ 6" I find 8 foot long paddle seem to just do everything better for me then the 7 foot to 7-1.2 foot paddles, and some of my Aleut paddle are 9 feet and over. Again, they work great (for all but shallow waters)
I reemphasize the way they are used is different then how most euro paddles are use. It’s proper and expected to move the GL and Alaskan paddles up and down it’s length a LOT, as you use them. If a paddle is 8 feet long and you extent it naturally and quickly, the blade is catching water much farther out from the seat of the kayak which makes for more arc in those strokes ,allowing good maneuverability with minimal stress. The planting of the GL blade in the water for many strokes is close to neutral and as the blade enters*, then* the paddle is rotated to get the desired amount of catch and purchase. The blades are long, so going deeper give more traction, and rotation more to give greater face-to-water will also gives more traction, but that is all in the control to the paddler at all times, because of how GL and Aleut paddles are used.
Anyway…food for thought.
And yes, I have a spare you can borrow.