: I am planning to build a short recovery style kayak for use in mild
: whitewater as well as some lake paddling. I was wondering what type of
: paddle I should make. There is a great deal of info on making the
: Greenland style paddles...but those are designed for sea kayaking right?

: How wide of a blade should I use? How long should the paddle be (roughly...in
: comparison)? If it helps I'm about 5'8" and when I reach above my
: head the tip of my fingers hits 80".

: Thanks!

Generally whitewater paddles have fairly large blade area and are fairly short. You're not worried much about getting tired trying to move the boat with a large paddle blade since the current is moving the boat, the paddle mainly is just for manuvering. Sometimes you need alot of force in a hurry in whitewater so you need a large blade to get that. The stroke is also usually pretty vertical so you don't want a long shaft length.

For my height, with a conventional euro paddle they usually recommend a 220, for whitewater I use a 190.

Bill H.