Ok, so I took the advice of the group and carved up a greenland paddle over the past weekend. I finished it on Saturday night and took it out for a paddle on Sunday. I think I'll need to paddle it a few more times to truly determine whether I like it or not. I found it to quite different from my Epic CF paddle.

The first thing was the flutter. I may have been pulling too hard to get going, but the paddle seems to flutter and want to dive for the bottom. Eventually, I seemed to get that under control and found that it seems to be a matter of subtle changes of angle on the attack of the blade in the water.

The other thing I noted was that it seemed harder to keep the boat on a straight track with this paddle. Again, that may be just my trying to figure out how to use it, I'm just not sure at this point. I've been paddling for over a year now with the european style paddle and only about 2 hours with the greenland style. It doesn't seem quite fair to really judge until I get some time under my belt with the greeny.

It came out weighing around 31 oz, which seems pretty light, but heavy compared to my CF paddle which was around 23 oz or so. I may lose another couple of ounces making final fitting adjustments. I think I may have to carve a bit of the blade base to extend the yoke, but I'm not sure. When I'm paddling, the natural position of my hands is slightly up on the base of the blades. My little fingers are the only things touching the yoke. it feels like I have a lot of control over the blade angle, maybe too much. I guess time will tell.

As far as making the paddle, it really was pretty easy. Although I wish I had a band saw to make the initial cuts, it would've been much easier and probably smoother, at least before I got to work with the spokeshave. I used a japanese backsaw and while it cut pretty well, I had some pretty good gouges to contend with. In the end it turned out well though, a little more work with some sandpaper and the spokeshave should make it about perfect.