: Haven't noticed anybody using the term but now that I have played with and
: tweaked a greenland style paddle some two months I find myself considering
: it an application of the wing principle.

: That is, with the canted blade technique one gets the bite from the pressure
: differential of the flows over the two blade faces, just as with an
: aeroplane wing. An ancient, or maybe a glider's wing.

You can also play with the edges, some folks have experimented with having one edge very sharp and the other more blunt, but I haven't heard any solid results. Of course during sculling and other techniques, the leading edge changes, and this may cause handling problems. I generally prefer a symmetric paddle, it will act more neutral in rough conditions, and will roll and scull easily without any surprises. Many of the "racing" paddles in Greenland have very sharp edges and felt to provide a very strong "bite". You can also experiment with allowing your stroke with a Greenland blade to flare away from the hull as the stroke progesses, somewhat similar to a wing paddle stroke.

Regarding using the Greenland paddle as a foil, I recently picked up a good book to improve my swimming, "Swimming into the 21st Century", by Cecil Colwin. I was quite surprised to find that the author presents a very detailed discussion of topics of interest to kayakers, such as lift generation, bound vortex and others, in describing how the hand is used as a foil, rather than being used to drag water straight back without spillage, as was taught in the past. The controversy in swimming, of whether the hand is used primarily as a drag or lift device, is amazingly similar to the same controversy in the paddling world.

My paddle stroke with a Greenland blade, rather than pulling straight back, makes a curved path in the water (down and then gradually up, while flaring away from the hull), the feel of the water flowing over the canted blade is quite pronounced, and only a single vortex (whirlpool) is produced on exit, rather than the twin vortices often associated with a "drag stroke". Most tank testing of paddles has been with them held vertically and dragged backwards, quite a poor simulation of the path of a Greenland paddle in actual use. I look forward to more research being done on this topic.

Greg Stamer