Here's something I heard about that seems worth trying.

Take your kayak to some calm flat water. Bring along a friend and a
broomstick or something similar... About 60" to 72" or 150cm to 180cm or
so... A piece of aluminum tube, a bamboo shaft, whatever. Sit in your boat
and hold the pole as you would hold your paddle and go through the motion of
your stroke for a minute or so until you feel like you are really paddling
the way you like to paddle. You don't have any blades so you don't have to
pay attention to how far into the water you are submerging the poles ends.
Once you feel that you are in your comfortable stroke zone, have your
spotter make note of where the water comes to on the pole on each end and
mark it. Measure between the marks. Let's say the distance between the
marks is 52" or 132cm. That would be a good starting point for the length of
the shaft. Using a 19" or roughly a 48cm blade length as an example, you
could figure that the paddle overall should be 228cm. 132 + 48 + 48 = 228.
This would likely be a good starting point for your first paddle. For the
most part, you should be able to adjust slightly for lower cadence longer
distance and waves and chop. It may not be the definitive answer but it's a
starting point that seems to have more basis in reality than standing in
front of a mirror with a broomstick on your head since it incorporates your
current paddling style and your kayak.

Maybe it's not the best idea to drop two to three hundred bucks on your
first paddle without getting some experience in your own boat.

Have fun!

Dave


"bkr" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the great information folks. I appreciate the help you've
given me with this. I wasn't sure whether there was more to the whole
paddle length quote that didn't get quoted before...your clarifications
were very helpful.

bkr