: Greg,

: Many thanks for these comments, as well as your earlier ones. You sure seem
: to know a lot about these paddles. Any pictures of your paddles that you
: have would be appreciated by most who post here, I would imagine.

Kelly,

If you've seen one toothpick, you've seen them all! I don't have a scanner at the moment, but I use Chuck Holst's directions as a general guide when making my paddles and they look authentic enough that while competing in Greenland my unused spare paddle disappeared several times. I always found it in the rafters of the boathouse, laying side by side with scores of Greenland paddles from the Nuuk kayak club. The only major difference that I noticed between my paddles and those of the Greenlanders is that many of the Greenland paddles used for racing had very sharp edges and very thin tips.

I saw a great deal of personal variation in paddles. Steffen Olsen, the leading racer in my age group used a paddle that was about five inches wide. On the other hand, Maligiaq Padilla, a top racer for the younger men's group, uses a paddle just over 2.5 inches wide. The paddle shafts ranged from about 19 inches to the long 24 inch shafts favored by Maligiaq, as prescribed by his grandfather. I prefer a paddle shaft length of 21 inches.

I hate to tell you, but the only way to find the correct custom shape for you is to make several paddles, altering them slightly each time. If you make the shaft too short, you can increase the shaft in increments until you find what you like. Your paddle dimensions will change as your stroke technique evolves.

The Greenlanders were not too big on fancy finishes but some of the paddles had very exquisite whalebone inlays, anchored with bone nails. My favorites were bone tips integrated into a "V" shaped cut in the ends of the paddles, similar to the bone tips on some throwing sticks.

Greg Stamer

Orlando, Florida