how do you choose which paddle to use? or Go Greenland

There is a growing group of paddlers who are using the traditional Greenland paddle here in Israel.
It is still a very small group, but the trend is definitely growing.
We had the first Greenland festival in Israel over the last weekend, 20+ paddlers from a number of kayak clubs  gathered at our beach for a few hours of fun and games on the water with our favorite paddles.
Hopefully this will become an annual  event and the numbers of paddlers will grow.
We all had a lot of laughs and fun and even though it was a bit windy and cold at the end of the day we managed to get some rolling done as well
Here are a few pictures from the day.

 See you all again next year

breaking the Aleutian paddle

The Aleutian paddle is a pleasure to use, its comfortable, light weight and has a very nice grip on the water. It feels powerful too.
I have made 3 up to now and all of them have broken in the surf. the first one a couple of years ago while I was playing in the waves with Eli. You can see the moment of fracture in the video at 052--056. I guess there was too much pressure on the blade from coming down so hard.
So I made another and kept it our of the surf, just used it to paddle in flat water, until one day I heard the awful crack and found myself with another broken paddle. I tried to repair it with glue and screws and tape , but its still bust.

Top is the first paddle after attempted repair and it just broke again, bottom is the second paddle also attempted repair

Today I broke number 3, I have been using it for a while now and kept out of the surf

, but there were some cute waves just calling out to be surfed and off I went. As I applied power to the blade I heard that dreadful crack again and if you look at the top photo, you can see the middle paddle with a nasty crack right through the shoulder and into the loom.

So, how do I determine the problem? is it bad wood or is there something wrong with the design, maybe these paddles are not made for rough water.
Anybody got any good ideas.
The next repair will be with a carbon fiber sleeve which I have just received, but I would like to make an unbreakable paddle instead.

how do you paddle

) Heres a short video showing a few of our paddlers doing the forward stroke. See if you can spot the good or the bad bits and suggest improvements. It helps a lot to see yourself paddling on a video, then you can see just how you paddle and find out where you have to work to improve.

So many kayakers so any styles

how to paddle faster

Most of time we paddle forwards, sometimes we need to go sideways or backwards too but mostly its straight ahead.
So it makes sense to invest in getting the right technique in order to become more efficient, to use less energy and to be able to go faster when we want.
I know that there are some paddlers who are not interested in getting better or faster, that's OK too because the bottom line is it should be fun and no one should tell you how to paddle.
On the other hand there are lots of us out there who do want to improve, to get better and faster and to become more efficient paddlers.
I see beginners who join our club suddenly discover that no matter how hard they try they cant keep up with the group. Its not a matter of being stronger or more powerful, its a matter of doing it right
Some look to change their paddles, maybe a bigger blade will help go faster, maybe a wing paddle is the answer?
No its not the paddle, its the paddler and what he or she does with the paddle.

The basics are simple and can be found in many books or on the Internet, its getting them down in practice that's the hard part.
There are good exercises to teach body rotation, my favourite is touching the opposite side of your kayak with your blade before the catch, this helps you to feel how much you can twist your body while paddling.
Paddling with locked elbows is another exercise that also makes you rotate your body to get any forward motion.
Then there is the all important  "catch" when you plant your paddle blade in the water as far forward as you can before you begin to apply power.
This is probably the stage where most people fail . If you don't get your paddle in far enough forwards you waste all that tension that you have stored up in rotating your torso and end up loosing your power and energy.

The exit should also be in the right place, no need to drag your blade past your hips, practice taking it our earlier than you think.
I think its not too difficult to improve, all you need to do is try, and then keep practicing.If you think you need help just ask, there are always others happy to assist and its always a pleasure to see a good paddling style.

a bit more surfing this February

Confused seas but still a lot of fun.
Karl is just getting out in the surf for the first time, thats how we all learned to survive in rough water, you just get out there and play, capsize get in again and repeat. Soon you find that you are less in the water and more in your boat. Then you learn to  roll and the level of enjoyment goes up .

some waves are better than others for perfect surfing

Its no secret , I love surfing my seakayak , and so do a small group of other kayakers. We wait for the days when we can get out there in the rough water and play in the waves. Some days the surf is wild and confused, at other times its well organised with regular waves.
We go out anyway, and take our chances with whatever the sea gives us. Some days we have to dodge all the SUPs, and the small surf kayaks as well.
Last week we had a perfect day, no SUPs, no dodging, great swells and waves and not too many of us out there  either.
Getting a good video is not so easy either, Go  pro is good but it only gives a fixed view, so if its mounted on the deck or on your helmet you get a narrow view and dont get to see the full size of the surf, also you cant really video your friends.
The best place to be is just under the breaking wave , but this is also  dangerous  as the kayaks are fast approaching you and if they loose control can smash into you, and then there is the breaking wave just looking to catch you  unprepared.

Yosi gets a good run

Here I go , Yosi got this one just right
Flat water paddling is nice but there is nothing like getting out there in rough water and having a lot of fun

picnic at the dead sea,

The   Dead Sea is shrinking at an alarming rate, now there is a plan to dig a canal from the Red Sea to bring fresh seawater  back and refill it. Will it work and how long will it take, no one knows, in the meantime we Optimists have an annual   kayak trip here in January. This year we had about 30 kayakers, many newcomers and a lot of oldtimers too.

When I came to Israel in 1979, the water level was right at the roadside, if you look carefully at the picture you can see the road just at the bottom of the cliff

today almost everybody has a waterproof camera and there are hundreds of photos to choose from so I chose a few

The salt crystals are fantastic

The light changes during the day and the mountains over in Jordan come alive

Fresh water springs run from the Judean Desert into the sea creating gullies

If you can get your feet out of the mud you can go for a walk

You can see how the gully enlarges as it gets further from the sea

Once this was all under sea water

And then there is the grand picnic

Everybody brings something good to eat and drink, we put it all together as a buffet and get stuck in like there is no tomorrow.

The group was very well behaved , all paddling together and no one rolling

On the home leg we let go and everyone can go at their own pace, fast or slow and get rid of all the excess energy

Salt is interesting stuff

the hot pool at the end of the day is good for a  relaxing moment before the long ride home. Until next year

Thanks to the photographers, Vered Eyal, Yossi, David, there were lots of other photos but fewer are better than too many