: OK I must be missing something here. I picked up a piece of Cedar 2
: x 8 with no knots at Home Depo of all places. :) Ripped it at
: the 3 1/2" mark. So far so good. Now I'm reading through
: Chuck Holst PDF about the sizing. I'm 6'3" and my arms must
: be realy long! I come up with an arm span of 76" finger tip
: to finger tip. Now I'm supposed to add the legth of elbow to
: finger? That's another 20". And a loom of 20". So a GL
: that's 96" long ??? I thought they all come in around
: 82" or 84". Maybe I wrong about that.

: What do you all think?

: Thanks

: Mike

There are so many many variables, especially for your first paddle for your first boat. My comment is the following- it's not like you're spending $400 on a carbon fiber paddle somebody else made. What did you pay for your cedar? My suggestion would be to make something- anything- and paddle with it for a while. From there you can make decisions about your paddle based on your cadence, strength, loom/shoulder, beam, whatever. You can always change your existing paddle as easy as you made it in the first place, or you can keep it as a reference and buy new wood to start from scratch.

m