Paddling the Greenland power paddle

Last sunday I had the chance to test my new Greenland paddle with the experimental 'power blade'. I took my normal Greenland paddle as spare paddle on the deck to be able to compare. It was a nice day with a wind of about 3 Bft. I took the Shadow and enjoyed paddling this boat. Certainly on the way back I made quite a speed of about 9 km/h in a downwind 'surfing' over the waves. That was with the power paddle by the way.

The power paddle feels a bit less elegant to the hands as it is heavier (1000 g) compared to the normal paddle (800 g). I think now 1000 g is about the maximum weight for a fine Greenland paddle. More heavy and you will loose flexibility like my Schlegel Ozean paddle (1400 g) that is only suited to make simple forward strokes, no 'slicing and dicing', probably not only caused by it's weight but also the different cross section of the blades.

Rest on Hooft isle

The power paddle has also a slightly thicker loom (shaft). But the overall feel is the same, it is clear that both paddles are twins. So switching between both paddles is no problem. And the power? Well, it certainly has more power. No overkill, there is no need for downsizing. And it is not that I now missed power with the normal one, you compensate automatically with a higher paddling frequency to get the same back pressure. However I can imagine that in strong headwinds I will prefer the smaller one and the bigger one on downwind courses.

For now I expect the Greenland Power Paddle (GPP) will become my main paddle, and the normal GP my default spare paddle.

Nice, two wooden sticks on deck