Euro paddle
From KayakWiki
The Euro paddle has a shaft and distinct blades. A Euro paddle is great for rapid acceleration and is universally favored for whitewater and surf paddling. Whitewater and surf kayakers will wonder why anyone is saying europaddle instead of just paddle. The term "Euro paddle" has been arbitrarily coined to distinguish this style of paddle from Greenland paddles.
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Beyond these comments, there are too many variations to list here. Blades may be symmetrical, or assymetrical, spooned or flat and may have a pronounced dihedral angle. Shafts may be bent or straight.
The bottom line is that different paddlers have different preferences and any generalizations are difficult to defend.
Many people prefer long narrow blades with low surface areas for touring. The idea is that if you are going to make thousands of strokes throughout the day, you want the stress with each stroke to be lessened. For whitewater, high speed cruising and surf, wide blades with high surface area seem to be prefered. These blades provide much greater resistance.
The blades are frequently offset with respect to each other (i.e. feathered) or in a single plane (unfeathered). Over time, the offset angle most paddlers use has decreased from 90 degrees to 60 degrees and in some cases even 30 degrees. Using a feather angle of less than 50 or 60 degrees eliminates the advantage of reducing wind resistance (one of the original reasons given for feathering). Most users of this kind of paddle use feathered blades.
You should play around with different feather angles and use whatever offset feels most natural for you. Whether you choose feathered or unfeathered, stick with it. Bracing and rolling skills are highly instinctive, and switching feather angles constantly may weaken those instincts. If you change, commit to changing for a whole season.
Making a Euro Paddle
A number of paddlers make their own paddles.
- For a wood paddle, take a look at Canoe Paddles. This book has a section on making a wood kayak paddle.
- In addition, you can make Euro paddles with composite materials. Take a look at Shawn Baker's vacuum bagged paddle making web page for starters.
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