Dan,

I'm not sure how much experience you've had with narrow paddles, but it may be that your stroke is too long. The stroke rate of a narrow paddle should be higher than a euro paddle -- fast enough that you shouldn't have too many drips getting to your hands, although narrow-bladed paddling is a wetter experience than euro paddling. With a fast stroke rate, the drip generally doesn't have time to get all the way to your hand. Your paddle should exit the water at about your hip. Beyond that, you're wasting energy. Betsie Bay Kayak sells a good instructional video on narrow-blade paddling by Doug VanDoren. About half of it focuses on straight-ahead paddling efficiency and ergonomics, and about half on sweep strokes, sculling, etc.

The fact that your paddle is bare wood may affect how much water clings to the paddle, too. After giving it an oil or epoxy finish maybe the water will shed better.

Dean

: Today I finished carving my first homebuilt paddle -- built from Chuck
: Holst's plans that you can find in a .pdf file somewhere on this message
: board, or on (I think) Ross Leidy's web site.

: It was phenomenally easy (discounting the quite a bit of sweat that was
: flying), and quite fun.
: I started with just a plain old cedar 2x4 for about $5 (although I did pick
: through a stack to try to find one with fewer knots and such).
: I variously used a mortising gauge, marking knife, metal straightedge, jack
: plane, finger plane, coping saw, back saw, and spokeshave.

: It was quite fun and rewarding to see the curls of cedar cleanly peeling off,
: and of course the smell is wonderful. (By the way, does anyone have any
: suggestions on what to do with about half a yard of wood shavings?)

: And, being that I finished shaping and sanding it and still had a couple of
: hours of daylight left, I just HAD to go try it out for a few minutes at a
: local lakeside park. Results: I'm stunned! Even though I slapped it
: together fairly carelessly (this WAS just going to be a prototype), it
: works wonderfully. Sliding my upper hand up onto the blade provides for
: great leverage and makes a sweep stroke feel effortless.

: It does suffer from a loud "plop" as the paddle tip enters the
: water, and it does sling an awful lot of water down the blade and onto my
: hands, sleeves, and spray skirt, and it does feel a slight bit bendy
: (though only when pushing off a solid object, not when paddling).

: So, a couple of questions: * I believe I recall reading that modifying one's
: technique will reduce the "plop" entry, but I don't recall
: where. Was that on this board somewhere?
: * Does anyone have any suggestions on the slinging-water problem?
: * will it be effective to glass this paddle for added strength? or would any
: forces that would break a bare paddle also crack the center of a glassed
: one?