Drew Cutter wrote:
I did some more research today on wood vs graphite vs fiberglass.
Apparently the amount of bend (flex ) that a wood paddle does , it
provides stress relieve to your joints , etc.

It certainly can, but it depends on the design of the paddle. If you
build your own wood paddles, you can make them as stiff or flexible as
you like. Personally, I prefer a paddle with a bit of flex and snap to
it, as opposed to a paddle that's really rigid. The other means to
reduce stress on the joints is to make the paddle shorter and/or the
blades narrower and use a higher paddling cadence to move at the same
speed. It's analogous to using lower gearing and a higher cadence on a
bicycle.

What are the different
things that you can do to the grip to make if comfortable , etc ? Since
the Greenland paddle is very customized to the paddler.

First, the cross-section of the loom should be sized to the paddler's
hands. The shoulder size, shape and angle can be modified to suit one's
preferences. Some paddlers prefer a paddle with no shoulders. If you
look in my "Greenland Paddles" album on Webshots, I've just added a
photo of various shoulder and loom configurations.

http://community.webshots.com/user/brian_nystrom-reg

I also cover sizing paddles in detail in the book.

I suppose their is no way to break down (Split) a Greenland paddle to
make to transport easier on the plane or car ?

Feathercraft sells a takedown GP, but it's rather heavy. The problem is
that the only commercially available center ferrules are too small and
the wrong shape (round) for a GP loom. In order to get adequate strength
at the loom-ferrule junctions, you need to use a hardwood or
hardwood-reinforced loom, which makes the paddle heavier than a typical
cedar paddle.

For transportation, a 4" PVC tube with a glued-on cap on one end and a
screw-on cap on the other holds 3 GPs and protects them quite well when
traveling by road, rail or air. It can easily be strapped to a roof rack.


Brian Nystrom wrote:
Drew Cutter wrote:
Brain ,

I love the tuktu paddles. Question do you carry more than one style
of Greenland paddle . One for bad weather (storm) and another for
more calm condition when you are on open water (like the great lakes
) ? I kind feel like I'm buying a bamboo fly rod as i look over the
tuktu paddles.

I do carry two paddles, but my "storm" paddle serves primarily as a
conveniently-sized spare that fits nicely on my foredeck. The "storm"
moniker is actually a North American term. In Greenland, it would be
referred to as a "short" paddle for use with a sliding stroke. They
are/were used for all paddling in certain areas of the country. There
are also medium-sized paddles that are used with a partial sliding
stroke. You can see John Petersen using this this paddle & technique
in the video "Amphibious Man". He's so smooth that you barely even
notice that he's sliding the paddle one hand width on every stroke.

Brian Nystrom wrote:

Feathercraft sells a takedown GP, but it's rather heavy. The problem is
that the only commercially available center ferrules are too small and
the wrong shape (round) for a GP loom.

On Qajaq USA, someone recently posted a link to a web site selling carbon fiber
sleeves of different sizes. These are carbon only, no resins. By stretching or
compressing the weave, you can vary the diameter somewhat compared to the
nominal diameter. As well, you can set its cross section to be oval or any
other shape. Add a little epoxy and you can make a custom ferrule for a GP.

Mike

Michael Daly wrote:
Brian Nystrom wrote:

Feathercraft sells a takedown GP, but it's rather heavy. The problem is
that the only commercially available center ferrules are too small and
the wrong shape (round) for a GP loom.

On Qajaq USA, someone recently posted a link to a web site selling
carbon fiber sleeves of different sizes. These are carbon only, no
resins. By stretching or compressing the weave, you can vary the
diameter somewhat compared to the nominal diameter. As well, you can
set its cross section to be oval or any other shape. Add a little epoxy
and you can make a custom ferrule for a GP.

Sure, but what do you use for molds? You need to make both an outer
sleeve for both sides of the paddle and an inner connecting tube that
fits into one side of it to form the "male" portion of the ferrule. That
means an internal mold for the outer sleeve and a matching external mold
for the inner tube. I'm sure it can be done, but I can't think of an
easy or inexpensive way to do it.

Brian Nystrom wrote:

Sure, but what do you use for molds? You need to make both an outer
sleeve for both sides of the paddle and an inner connecting tube that
fits into one side of it to form the "male" portion of the ferrule.

I was thinking that you could simply wrap the sleeve over the loom (pre-cut and
covered with a mold release). Once cured, glue one half of the paddle into the
resulting tube. Alternatively, just put release film/PVA on only one side and
have the ferrule cure directly on the other half. If you don't want to have a
ridge at the end of the ferrule, you could carve the loom down by the thickness
of the ferrule.

If the loom's not round, there's no problem with the removable end rotating,
just sliding out. A slit cut into the female end of the ferrule will allow a
clamp to close it tight.

Not much of a clamping device would be needed as long as there's enough friction
inside the tube. I once went paddling with a Euro where the tightening widget
had fallen off at home and I hadn't noticed till I got to the water. I wrapped
the shaft with a bit of bungie and it was fine.

Mike