Building a Greenland Paddle, Part 3: Paddle Shaping Concepts

[@garychristensen4115]

Awesome video series. I am a greenland paddle fan. Built my first one (MUCH to heavy), second one is better. Absolutely love your content!

[@citizenwolf8720]

I also have a Gearlab Kalleq. It's a very nice paddle. But, I would also prefer a shouldered version, and luckily I hear that they'll be producing one soon next year. The downside of these paddles is that they're very expensive (but they are very good). Btw, for interest, with the Kalleq, I don't use a canted stroke. I actually use what might be described as an inverted (or reversed?) canted stroke, ie if you say that the blade on a canted stroke enters the water at (for example) 135 degrees; with the stroke I use with the Kalleq, the blade enters the water at approx. 35-45 degrees. For whatever weird reason, I've found this angle blade entry to be more comfortable for me paddling with the Kalleq.

[@paddockpaddler]

A great thing with the GP is that you can pretty much used any form of stroke and they won't go too bad (they are very flexible). Having said that, some fundamentals certainly increase the efficiency and power potential. It seems to me that the advantage of the standard canted stroke is most apparent during the second half and exit of the stroke. I reckon it could be quite reasonable to enter the water with a 'negative' cant and if the angle changes through the stroke to a 'positive' cant, you may still get much of the advantage of the standard canted technique. Everyone's ideal biomechanics are slightly different so in the end your need to tailor slightly to what the paddle (and your body) tells you. Great video BTW and can only agree with the observations. The information on GPs being put out into the general domain seems to be getting noticeably better in recent years.

[@communicationiskey-]

Great channel. Very informative videos. I was going to buy the Kalleq but coincidently fount the Inuksuk Carbon Greenland paddle made in Finland. it seems like an older design yet has similarities with the Gearlab Ipik. Any thoughts on the Inuksuk paddles ?

[@capefalconkayak]

I haven’t used either paddle because I just don’t see how a shouldered carbon fiber paddle could possibly have enough flex to feel comfortable, also I feel like they got the loom width really wrong on the Ipik. I either prefer the kalleq or one of my own paddles.

[@tuberider1171]

I wonder what your thoughts are on the newly released Ipik given your preference for shouldered paddles? And how would you compare it to the Kalleq?

[@capefalconkayak]

I think the Ipik has the potential to be a good paddle, but right now the loom lengths (and therefore the hand placement) that are offered are WAY outside of what I consider to be a good fit for the sizes of paddles they are offered on. It also doesn’t seem like they could maintain the same flex in a carbon fiber paddle that shape, but I can’t verify that. We decided to wait to see if the design changes over the years before we order any. For now I’m sticking with the Kalleq.

[@tuberider1171]

@@capefalconkayak thanks for the response..I appreciate your thoughts.. you've helped consolidate my choice of the Kalleq so if you'll pardon the pun .. and putting on a Kiwi accent.. you might call it an Ipic failure bro 😁

[@2testtest2]

​@@capefalconkayakI haven't tried any carbon greenland paddle, but I have studied mechanical engineering, and I think it should be possible to design almost any amount of flex into any shape of paddle made from carbon fiber. The trick is simple enough, carbon is ridiculously strong and stiff along the fiber direction, but across the fiber direction the epoxy is doing most of the work. Epoxy isn't nearly as stiff, so to make the paddle more compliant, you can simply change the direction of the fiber so that it doesn't go along the length of the padle, but rather criss-cross in a diagonal manner. The angle of the weave relative to the length of the paddle can even be varied throughout the length of the paddle to tune the local stiffness. With the use of clever weaving patterns one can even "program" the paddle to not only bend, but change its shape when force is applied. Granted it takes increasing amounts of engineering and production effort the more granular the design becomes. The latter is mostly used in high performance applications such as Formula 1 wings.