I am fairly new to kayaking. I started out (like most) with a cheap euro style paddle and I learned from watching Youtube and from books. I used the regular aluminum shafts and have several paddles with different size blades. I have injured both my wrists in climbing accidents and in fights when I was younger, but I never had surgery. I did notice a bit of pain in my left wrist after long days and sometimes in my right wrist at the root of my thumb on the outside “edge” of the hand. When I started using GL and Aleut paddles the pain stopped. But I have a theory. A guess if you will;
I think it may be not the paddle that made the difference but how the older style paddles are used. The paddling techniques.
Using a GL or Alaskan paddle, you move your hands all over the paddle all the time. The hands move up and down the blades and that makes them grip in different places and open and shut to different diameters around the shape of the blades and the looms at different locations. So the hands are working and not holding the same shape all the time. When using my euro paddles the hands stay around a round tube the same way for probably 99.5% of the strokes. I am going to venture a guess that it’s the repetitive movement that gives the pain more then the actual style of the paddle itself. I also think the slight flex of wood is better for 8-14 hour days then metal or fiberglass. (I have never picked up or even seen a carbon paddle)
If I were to be making straight runs of many hours, in straight lines maybe the GL and Aleut paddles would hurt too. But I love following the bays and the shore lines, so I am constantly turning. That turning with the GL and Alaskan paddles is done in a different way because of how I use the older style paddles. I am repositioning my hands to brace, turn, roll, scull and all the things everyone else does, but every time I do so my hands are closing on the paddle in different angles and around different places, which means they open and close to different degrees. That way of moving my hands (I think) is what causes me to have no pain at the end of a long day, or even a few days on a camping trip.
So…is that in any way helpful? I don’t know! I am too much of a newbie at the sport.
I don’t have decades of time and hundreds of different paddles to make a valid comparison. All I can say is what I have learned in 2 seasons. Now I do get a lot of time in the weeks I am out there because I live 8 minutes from the water and I am out 3-4 hours every morning Monday - Friday and then nearly all weekends, 12-14 hours on Saturdays and 8-9 hours on Sundays , from when the water opens to when it freezes. I got a lot of seat time in my 2 seasons per week, but it is still only 2 seasons. I have not stared my season this year yet. All the water is still under ice here. I cannot paddle all year round. Winters here make all the water too hard on top!
So take what I wrote for what it’s worth (maybe nothing)
Others here have a LOT more time in kayaks than I do, so listening to what they have to say may be of more value by far. All I know is that my wrists don’t hurt after long days with my sticks and they did sometimes with aluminum shafts. I think it’s because of the way my hands open and close to differing degrees around different diameters when I use the GL and Aleut paddles that made the difference, but I could be wrong.
Thanks so much for the detailed advice. We paddle year round here on the California Central Coast, and I have had some luck isolating my wrist and not allowing it to flex. I do plan to find or make a greenland paddle (though wood-working with a bad wrist is difficult). In the meantime, I have cut down to every other day, and have done the same with my guitar playing. Thanks again!
I can share some personal lessons learned that I hope may help you as well. Two things I have changed are a smaller blade and hand releasing.
To reduce load on my wrists during distance paddl ing I changed to a smaller blade paddle. This would equate to more strokes per distance but less load on my hands and wrists.
The second technique was to open my upper hand while it was moving the blade forward for the next stroke. Lower hand is closed while pulling back on the blade in the water. This alternation of opening and closing my hands during the stroke cycle helped reduce fatigue. I was already mentioned that Greenland paddle stoke does this already. Modern paddles usually do not promote hand movement.
Also keep your hands and wrists warm. Cold water can suck the heat out of them fast.
I have a history of wrist injuries and experienced pain when first starting - it was a combination of OK to lousy paddles and the common newbie death-grip.
Before I bought a boat, I splurged on a carbon fiber bent-shaft paddles and learned how to relax while paddling. Both made a huge difference, and the paddle is still good after 17 years, so a lot of money well spent.
I made a GP along with a skin boat, and now use the GP most of the time. It’s been easy on the wrists for many reasons summarized well above, but also noticeable lessening of shoulder fatigue. My expensive carbon paddle is now a classy spare and a very good loaner paddle.
I will say that the GP I made is nice (I was a professional carpenter), but the one I have that was made by an experienced maker is far better. There are subtleties to the design that can really provide superior performance, particularly the edge radius, tip radius, blade shape, shoulder, etc. So if you make your own, that’s good, but it would be ideal to try a quality GP to have an idea of what the design is capable of.
I just learned (through another paddling forum where I participate) about an Estonian company, East Pole Paddles, that makes a very nice range of Greenland and Aleut style paddles in a wide range of sizes and styles for quite reasonable prices, comparable to quality Euro paddles. They ship to the US for free and state that there are not added custom fees or VATs. Since the Euro is currently worth $1.08 US dollars the prices are mostly under $300.
They appear to be laminated cedar and some even have carbon fiber laminations for strength. I’ve looked at their site and am impressed with the level of design and detail in the paddles. I’m close to tempted to buy one (my original laminated cedar and spruce GP is getting pretty beat up after 15 years of regular use.)
Another benefit of wooden paddles as opposed to synthetic materials is that you can modify the surface with different varnish and oil combinations to make the loom more grippy or slippery, to your personal taste, which can control tendencies for using a death grip.
You’ve gotten some replies I see. Crank shaft; GP…. I tend to think (but there are exceptions) that technique, faulty technique is the most likely cause of these types of issues. Feathered blades, faulty stroke mechanics……cause lots of issues. I don’t believe the crank shaft alone will rectify poor mechanics. Certainly no problems in going to a GP: they’re great. If you stay with the Euro, I’d suggest a smaller blade size, going to no feather, and really; REALLY concentrate on mechanics. Try hard to eliminate any active use of the arms in your stroke. Keep the stroke short. Deficient mechanics can be just as prevalent with the GP as with the Euro.
@jrpoo1, agree that pain issues point to techique. If you experience shoulder pain, look at the load pressures at different points through your paddle stroke. Slouching nearly ruined my back. Rather than looking toward surgery and pain killers, proper sitting with lumbar support eliminsted the issue. If your wrists hurt, chech your grip, especially if you paddle high angle. PAIN is a warning sign. I ruined my shoulder with repetitive motion. I changed technique. You don’t usually get a second opportunity.
I have two bad wrists, and don’t have any trouble planing. Once the outline is cut you can do the rest with a block plane and sandpaper and maybe a rasp for the loom.
I too have injured tendons and wear a wrist brace. I’m paddling with a bent shaft kayak paddle. I experience no discomfort and believe my stroke is unaffected
Hands should open and close on a euro paddle. My hands move on a euro also many times if I want to reach further.
Feathered 30° R paddle makes me move my wrist less the zero feathered paddle. With paddle feathered if you taped it glued my hands to the paddle and made my wrist stiff I could still paddle efficiently.
No electric planer needed, and for me anyway, not wanted (though I do own one for planing long boards for gunnels and such). They might be faster but require pretty much the same hand grip and strength as a manual plane.
I did some roughing in with a power planer for the first time on the most recent paddle. I’m pretty much a newbie with the power planer and so took it easy. I am a fan of my Stanley #4 bench plane for most of the shaping. Not a lot of wrist action there but I do need to pay attention to my right elbow. RSI due to some imprpoer technique while paddling a whitewater canoe on long flat water.
I work with hand tools every day. I use 9 different planes for differing jobs. The real trick to making a plane easy and smooth is to get it super sharp and then to get the blade revel set to only about .005" The ribbons should come off the iron so thin you can see light through them if one is held up to the sun light. I use them mostly for hard woods like Sugar Maple and Bastogne Walnut but when I cut soft woods like cedar or pine, the effort is VERY easy.
Sharpen your iron to a super straight edge and as sharp as you can get it. If it won’t shave easily it’s not sharp enough. I strop with a leather pad glued down to a board after I come off the stones. If human hair laid across the edge and drawn slowly at an angle will actually split before it cuts. If you sharpen correctly and set your edge only 5 thousandths out of the plane’s sole you’ll find it goes across a soft wood with only about 6 pounds of force, which is FAR less then you exert on a paddle.
Teaching wood working classes for 30 years I have seen so many people working hard to use planes and it’s all because they are (1) not setting the blades correctly, or (2) using them after they start to get dull.
If you are working up a sweat or getting tired muscles when working soft wood with a plane, I promise you one or both of those things is the problem.
Kayaxeman, I have been sidelined from kayaking with rotator cuff injury 1 year and currently with tendonitis in my elbow (golfer’s elbow). There is no way to heal tendonitis by continuing the repetitive motion in kayaking. Even though tendonitis first presented itself in my elbow summer of 2021, I continued to paddle through most of 2022 and it got worse. My doctor convinced me the only way to heal tendonitis is through rest. No brace or paddling style will make tendonitis go away. I’m sorry if that is not the answer you wanted to hear but it is the cold hard truth.
I love my Greenland-style paddle, but I have a carbon shaft paddle with ergonomic (bent) shape and I think that would be the best option to minimize strain on the wrist.
I switched to a wing blade in 1993 for a multi-day, flat water, prize money race in 1993. Had (still do) a dinged right shoulder from a 1992 face-plant skate-ski wreck on an icy trail at Whitefish, Montana. Had heard all the horror stories about torn up shoulders from wing blades. Figured out that I wasn’t tough enough to gripe the shaft tight and force the paddle through the water. You don’t have to!
The wing will take & hold a proper ‘set’ if you ‘Spear the Salmon’, fly it to the side (kind of a sweep strike), pull with hooked fingers, forcibly push with an open thumb web top hand, and change feather (75-80°) with just a finger flick. Full torso rotation, of course.
Also worked for easy Class II- downriver racing a WSBS Missile on the Johnsrud Park - Weigh Station reach on the Blackfoot River above Bonner, Montana. Montana Mike
There’s a reason for that; it’s because you’re still trying to use a “control hand” with the un-feathered paddle. If you stop gripping the paddle, you eliminate wrist movement almost entirely.
Except in rough conditions where you need to grip the paddle with both hands, your grip with an unfeathered paddle - Euro or GP - should be loose, with the bottom hand just hooking the paddle and the top hand just pushing. If you do this on both sides, there’s very little wrist movement.
It’s funny that even after years of using planes and spokeshaves - and owning way too much sharpening equipment - I never fully appreciated what truly sharp means until I started carving bowls and spoons, where stropping your tools (knives, gouges, adzes and axes) is par for the course to create and maintain an edge. Especially when working with a knife, you can really feel even minute changes in sharpness, which are quickly corrected by a few passes on a strop.
I now strop my plane and spokeshave blades too, and if a plane won’t produce a clean .001" shaving, it’s not sharp enough. That said, roughing out a paddle that will be sanded to final shape doesn’t require that level of sharpness, but it sure makes the tools more fun to use.