How Long is Too Long (or Short...)

There has been some discussion recently about changing paddles and I thought it might be a good idea to chat about some of the factors that go into paddle choice for individuals and for crews.

Generally speaking the dimensions of a paddle are dictated by what we do with it and the materials and tools that are available to make it. Check out some of the early outrigger canoe paddles and you will see paddles with no handle, long shafts and enormous rounded blades. These paddles were very heavy. It is likely that the Polynesians did not have an effective way of shaping a handle hence the bare-ended shaft. The wood they used was ...

dense and heavy. It may be that the paddles were used for other purposes as well. For example some paddles were also used as weapons and so their shape was in part informed by that use to which they would be put. If you look at Haida paddles you may wonder why the tip of the blade is sharpened. You may also wonder why the Haida paddles are so short and the shaft so broad. Perhaps it was because longer and narrower-shafted paddles made of that material broke or because the paddles had other uses that made short a good feature. I have paddled a Haida canoe and can tell you that the paddle is very awkward to use. And if you are really curious have a look at the Greenland kayak paddle; a paddle almost certainly shaped by the materials available and not because of its effectiveness.

The style of paddling in early outrigger was determined by the paddles available. It was a lunging stroke with hands far apart on the shaft. The lunge was required in order to bury and pull on that huge blade and the lunge was followed by sitting up I suggest in an effort to keep the blade vertical. The paddle was long and heavy and required all the upper body strength to complete the stroke. The stroke rate was very very low, in the 40's.

Okay why do we use the paddles we use? The bent shaft outrigger paddle was introduced to outrigger by marathon paddlers who had lots of experience with sit-and-switch paddling. I cannot give you an exact date but it was the late 1970's or early 1980's. The bent shaft allows the paddler to move his or her body in an effective way to generate the most pull. The bent shaft keeps the paddle at a more optimum angle to catch and hold water through the whole stroke. If you are curious about whether the bend makes much difference, grab one of the (nearly) straight shaft steering paddles out of the boathouse and try to paddle with it.

Why do we have the bend we have? Some of you may know that the bend in outrigger paddles tends to be between 8 and 10 degrees. i designed a paddle with a 12 degree bend some time ago and I think it is a superior bend for our style. Marathon paddles tend to have a more pronounced bend and I know one popular paddle in the 1980s was the Sawyer which had a bend of about 18 degrees. Why are marathon paddles more angled? I think it is because the catch in a marathon canoe can be more aggressive (downwards facing blade at the catch) because the boat itself is much lighter than something like an OC6. It is also true that marathon canoes because light and tippy with a high centre of gravity do not tolerate a lot of paddler movement and so one cannot maintain the optimum blade angle for effective pull by moving your trunk like you can in a big canoe like an OC6.

Okay if we look at dragon boat paddles and contrast the work we do in an outrigger to that of dragon boat we might come up with this; dragon boats are paddled by many people using a shortish stroke dictated by the seating position in the canoe. The boat is actually paddled beyond its optimal hull speed through a most or all of the race. You wouldn't go to sea in a dragon boat and you wouldn't want to go out for a cruise in one. Because the stroke is short and there are so many paddlers a simple narrow straight shaft works. The paddle has to be short because you have to recover straight up; there is a paddler right beside you. Is it the best paddle for the boat? Probably not. For all that matter is 20 paddlers the optimum number in a dragon boat? I don't think so. At FCRCC we used to race with 18 on many occasions.

I am getting a little far afield here but I am attempting to demonstrate once again that everything about outrigger is a compromise. That is true of paddles too.

Back to outrigger blades. You could propel an outrigger with everyone using a long broomstick; the longer the stick the more surface area to catch the water, the deeper the stick (or blade) goes, the less the paddle can deflect water up. Why not use broomsticks? Because it would have to be really long to have enough surface area to catch water. Why are our blades 9 inches or 8 inches or 12 inches wide? Because it has to be wide enough to hold water given the blade's height. Why is it 12 or 15 or 18 inches from tip to shaft? Because the width and the height (and the shape) create the surface area you require to catch water. The taller the blade, the more you have to plunge it into the water to get buried, but it can be narrower. The shorter the blade, the wider it has to be to give the same surface area. Wide blades tend to warp when under load, the outside edges bend and the blade begins to shed water. So you cannot build paddles that are 4 inches high and 20 inches wide. You could make the shaft longer with a smaller blade surface but then the shaft will bend under load. Smaller blades weigh less and catch less air in the recovery phase. The longer the shaft the less mechanical advantage the paddler has. And the more the blade moves with every movement of the paddler. But at some point the shaft simply becomes too long to allow for effective paddling. It may not matter while it is in the water, but you still have to get it out again.

So where does that leave us? We will have to choose paddles for Molokai. We not only have to find a compromise for each paddler but we have to find a compromise for the crew members who will use the paddles. Rick Nu'u has suggested that there is a trend to longer paddles overall. In whitewater kayak, I began paddling with a 208 cm paddle. I eventually went to a 205 cm paddle which I thought was short. Now it is common for people my size to use a paddle shorter than 200 cm. There are trends in canoesports like there are in skiing and bicycling and running and so on. Which is best? Who knows; it is an empirical exercise.

I suggest we all give some thought to what we want and that we try all the paddles we can. Everyone paddles a bit different no matter how close they may be to one another in technique and style. We apply power in slightly different ways. Let's talk about this more on Sunday.