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Thanks for the kind words @raju-bitter! Yes, my wife makes fun of me sun gear as well (As you can see, I cover up like a Bedouin!) but it is the only way to stop sunburn for long days on the water in the tropics. For a downwind session try: th-cam.com/video/sydxjPb_WRw/w-d-xo.html

Honestly the paddle choice is personal - there are outstanding paddlers doing amazing things using any of the 3 main styles (wing, euro and greenland). Most of the difference between paddlers is fitness, technique (relative to their particular paddle choice - a new paddle type takes a long time to master) and experience - not their personal paddle preference. I like the greenland paddle because I find it has a very direct and engaging feel with the ocean and for me it is natural and easy to brace and roll with. I also find it has an efficient forward stroke for me that is great for chewing up the distances.

No worries. The tunes are 'Pneuma' by Tool followed by 'Land of the Bloody Unknown' by The Middle East

@kimbodious they are Glacier Gloves. However if you search the internet for 'fishing sun gloves' you will find a number of brands with similar style. A few years ago there were very limited options for reasonable tropical paddling gloves but there seems to be many options now.

I like your gloves because of the long cuff sleeve. I bought some Uveto Sun safe type gloves, comfy, no blisters, but I wish they had longer cuff sleeves.

Thanks @kimbodious. Yeah, low angle can work well too - really a matter of personal preference as to your paddling style, body type, paddle, boat and paddling objectives. Just don’t let anyone tell you that high angle paddling with a Greenland Paddle is wrong or (the ultimate slur in some circles 😊 ) ‘not traditional’. Neither statement is correct. Greg Stamer explains the low/high angle thing really well from 4:20 of this video (and also explains that the Greenlanders do use high angle when they want to go fast) th-cam.com/video/4gZZ6oJ7RUo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=HGFtoP2C3ffbuF_2 . Another explanation of a Greenlander teaching high angle about 6:38 to 10:00 of this vide: th-cam.com/video/XWaT3ryBLM8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=VO-Rc_wG68jUjHOA . I also really like this video for its explanation of the forward stroke with the GP: th-cam.com/video/mW_Wiak2QrQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=7K0lYjZtWm0Lrml_

Really great info thanks. More to consider and try next outing! I am a scientist by training, I like to investigate and evaluate for myself rather than faithfully follow. I was also a teenager through the 1970’s (punk era).

Totally agree with Kayak Hipster about the versatility of the GP for doing different strokes.

Thank you! The paddle is a Gearlab Kalleq

Ha ha, no shark sightings. We weren't wearing drysuits - I wore a short sleeve 'Sharkskin' which is a type of wetsuit broadly equivalent to 3mm neoprene, but fleece based (so more comfortable for paddling in)

I'm in an Expedition Kayaks Audax, the other 3 are in Mirage 580/582's

That's great - I look forward to seeing some content on that. You video on the trials and tribulations of learning to roll was very true to the experience I thought. Most of these roll have no practical value but they really improve / refine your technique for the standard rolls - and are good fun playing around with as well

No, not at all. They are very rare in the ocean proper where I paddle (they live in the estuaries and rivers). I have heard of the odd one being spotted near a beach but that is not common either

@@tltownsville hey, yeah fair enough. have lived here and fished for over 20 years so was curious to know if you've had any encounters like some other kayakers have had I've paddled out front of pallarenda a few times trolling for Trev's etc but haven't had a issue It is eery though that close in haha. I recall reading about one of the kayaking pages, about a 4-5m croc swimming under 2 kayaks in shallow and then swimming off peacefully, luckily haha

Thanks for the feedback. My main motivation for hashing together this video was to stir interest towards more performance focus when forward paddling with a Greenland paddle and so I always appreciate thoughts. Yes, not the best video with the shooting angles making some things look a bit off. I should make a better one someday. But a few points: Firstly that the angle is too high (/steep). This is a very common myth with Greenland paddles (with the other that they are narrow because the Inuit didn’t have much wood to work with) and something I wanted to dispel with this video. Since putting up this video there is some new material posted to the web that in some ways explains better (e.g. Greg Stamer at th-cam.com/video/4gZZ6oJ7RUo/w-d-xo.html ). Whilst a lower angle stroke is fine for milling around, there is plenty of evidence that even the traditional Inuit paddlers go to a very high angle when racing or needing to accelerate fast. On the top hand, the angle on my video makes this look more than it actually is (I go from about forehead/eye level to about shoulder/armpit level - this video maybe displays this a little better: th-cam.com/video/sydxjPb_WRw/w-d-xo.html&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE) , however I am deliberately trying to accentuate the push in the stroke (this being something that is traditionally a part of the stroke). The Greenland paddle exits a long way back, and this will result in the top hand coming down some. Maligiaq Padila pushes down far more than I ever do (see at about 7.05 of the Greg Stamer video). For background, Maligiaq is a multiple champion Greenland kayaker but more interestingly, had a brief round in kayak/ surf ski races in the USA where he demonstrated he was competitive (podium or winning) using his greenland paddle and borrowing kayaks/skis. I can’t paddle to the extreme of Maligiaq’s style (nor could I manage the sets of 200 pushups he did in training to get the pushing endurance!), but he has proven its effectiveness. Many paddlers with all styles don’t bury their blades enough/ put enough downwards pressure on the blade. Not saying that this coach’s technique endorses what I do in any way, but this is a good outline of the issue paddle2fitness.com.au/podcasts/ (Podcast #35.Keeping-Downward-Pressure). The Greenland stroke is used as a small wing paddle, but one where it is critical to feel the turbulence/lift from the blade and adjust the stroke to play off that (a modern wing paddle locks that in more). The line by feel for me (and many others) is ‘hockey stick’ - fairly parallel to the boat for the first half and then more of rotation/kick in the second half when the stroke is accelerated off the turbulence. Because of the shape and angle (canted) you use a Greenland paddle, the ‘lifting water’ is quite deliberate and jets water behind you - like a fan or propellor. There is an exercise that you can do with a Greenland paddle just dipping the paddle vertically straight down either side, twisting to the canted angle, and lifting again. With this technique it is possible to get up a reasonable speed with no pulling of the blade through the water at all. You are right this late exit/lift would be bad technique for a euro blade (euro is the odd man out in kayak paddles - more a two bladed canoe padde), though a number of wing paddle coaches are teaching a longer stroke (maybe not quite as long as with a Greenland paddle). On the rotation, I will start by agreeing that every good kayak forward stroke engages the core in some fashion. There is slightly more rotation happening in this video then may be immediately visible as the PFD is quite loose and I am rotating inside of it a little. The Greenlanders were very locked into the cockpit - this was a safety thing in their environment to minimize potential water intrusion and maximise the ability to roll (exit into the freezing water was death). So they use a subtle, but still powerful in the core, ‘crunch stroke’ which involves a subtle ‘penguin walk’ of the hip (rather than the major rotation). If you want to accentuate the push / very long stroke features of the Greenland stroke, too much rotation becomes an impediment. However with a seating setup that allows it (rotating much past where your hips rotate on each stroke is not achieving much in any kayak), some rotation can be effective and I typically rotate a bit more than this video these days with a slightly wider flare right on the exit (this directs more of the jet from lifting the blade straight back rather than slightly towards the kayak).

@@tltownsville Thanks for your comprehensive answer. Maybe I should clarify a little what I meant by high angle. I should mention that I have become an exclusive wing paddler and use FSKs and surfskis only now, having mainly paddled British style kayaks with Euro blades and Greenland paddles, both wood and carbon, before that. I admire Greg Stamer for his expertise in both Greenland sticks and wing paddles and his expedition pedigree with Greenland paddles. He is an inspiration especially since he paddles GL sticks, he’s even a pioneer in the non-Inuit paddling world, and wings expertly. As you probably know, wing paddlers generally have the highest angle stroke. It is critical for an efficient stroke with wings to have torso rotation and to avoid dropping the top hand. The position of the top hand relative to the torso or a point on it, e.g. shoulder, should remain constant vertically and horizontally throughout the stroke, forcing you to torso rotate properly. The push of the upper hand as so often shown to beginners is a fundamental misunderstanding. It does not belong in any stroke sequence as it accelerates the paddle’s transition from power face down at the catch via power face +/- 90 degrees to water surface to power face up and thus shoveling water up rather than back, that is for Wings and Euros. That’s one of the reasons why Wings and Euro blades should leave the water at the hip (at the latest). I realize that that rule does not apply to the GL paddle. The video you referenced with Greg Stamer does not demonstrate a high angle stroke. As demonstrated it looks medium high, which is my understanding of how GL paddles work best. No paddle, Greenland, Euro or Wing should slide close, parallel and much behind the hip along the side of the boat. If it does, that means that no torso rotation takes place or that the paddle is kept artificially close to the side of the boat, shoveling water up rather than back, latter being the component that propels the boat forward. The canting of the Greenland paddle makes it similar to a wing paddle and is the beauty of GL paddling style for me, it prescribes a trajectory and avoids flutter. As one British coach put it, the wing paddle is a dumbed down version of a Euro blade. I disagree that the canted GL paddle position is there to “lift water”, it makes it act as an under water wing to avoid flutter and makes its under water path more efficient. Yes, there is of course a “pull down” component that could be interpreted as “lifting water”, counteracted by a slight torso lean away from the paddle, but what I meant when I commented on shoveling water up is having the paddle close to the boat as it slides behind the knee and exacerbation of the whole thing by pushing forward with the top hand while letting your top hand sink down, ending effective forward propulsion and just - shoveling water up towards the sky. Paddling more wing-like means moving the paddle tip away from the side of the boat, rotating your torso and avoiding the “push” with your top hand. These discussions are very interesting and I realize that without actually being face to face in boats there is a lot of potential for misunderstanding each other, we may mean the same thing but are expressing it differently. There are also no absolutes when it comes to technique. It evolves and needs to be adapted to the individual. Someone may be an extremely efficient paddler with the “wrong” technique and vice versa. Check out Ivan Lawler’s workshop on wing paddle technique on TH-cam.

I think there is a lot to agree on there. So totally agree with your statement ‘There are also no absolutes when it comes to technique. It evolves and needs to be adapted to the individual. Someone may be an extremely efficient paddler with the “wrong” technique and vice versa’. Even with the racing wing stroke it is surprising how much variation there is on the margin (core fundamentals - e.g. engage the core - are settled). I watched those Ivan Lawler lockdown videos when he first released them. Ivan Lawler has enough achievements to be carefully listened to and considered. But look amongst his peer level and there is not complete agreement. Greg Barton (2 x Olympic kayaking gold) talks about 25% push effort on the stoke - not quite Maligiaq’s 60% but not Ivan’s ‘pushing has no part in the kayak stroke at all’ either. For the top hand check out Mr Robinson here www.epickayaks.com/post/technique-series at about 2:30 of the first video - from that angle the top hand looks to be dropping from about top of head to shoulder height. Might be partly the angle of the shot - like my video. Mr Robinson is also a K1 Olympic gold medalist, 3 x world kayak champion as well 2 x world surf ski champion so even if valid to use the top hand differently to him, I wouldn’t argue what he is doing is wrong. I don’t mean to imply at any way that I am sympatico or reflecting what any of those above names do with my paddling, just to point out that amongst the very best in the world you are still going to see considerable differences regarding some of the finer points of technique. Evidence from outcomes on the water trumps any discussion, even though the discussion is fun.

Yeah, no storm - was just the sun going down. I did turn back after Hawkings Point instead of going around the island - another 10-15km plugging into the headwind would have made for a long night. Surfing back was nice.

Thanks, not quite the kayaking mecca that is Anglesey but we've got some nice spots. The kayak is an (Expedition Kayaks) Audax. It is an Australian design - in the same rough genre as a Tiderace Pace or Rockpool Taran.

Ha ha, yeah the waves are still there on occasion and fun. Still limit the fishing days however. Probably not as much an issue on the Fishpro?

@@tltownsville fishpro is a lot of fun allowing me to cover a lot of distance while not being stuck on a boat.

Yeah, you'd love it out there Lyn

Thanks, looking forward to seeing some similar footage from Hong Kong one day. Your videos suggest it is an amazing paddling location.

Ha! Yeah, no issue with the critique. Fairly amateurish video with poor angles I agree, but main reason I put it up was to challenge much of the low angle/ slow paddling gospel that is written about GPs. Thing with a GP is they work well enough for most pretty much any way you paddle them. But to get good power and speed you need to paddle them fairly aggressively and work on technique (like any other blade type). You are correct that the GP acts as a small wing - your analogy with a wind turbine blade is good as it also works on a high aspect ratio (which is the most efficient wing form). I actually think a euro blade is more like a paddle wheel (perpendicular to the angle of travel) then a normal boat propeller. A wing paddle maybe is more like a boat propeller. Yes, the angle of attack in order to generate lift with a GP is set by the paddler - once the concept of the canted blade is understood it is best done by feel. When the angle is good, it feels that a solid ball of turbulence forms at the end of the blade that can be leveraged from at the end of the stroke. At the start of the stroke the blade comes almost straight back (it flares out a little) until at the end where it ‘kicks’ out much more. Similar path in the water to many world-class wing paddlers. A long flowing, wing paddle type stroke works really well with a GP - though not the really wide ‘flared’ wing paddle stroke that some use. Either or, or something in between, Maligiaq Padilla’s ‘push’ stroke and a long wing paddle type stroke (with its stronger rotation and leg drive) can work well. Check out ‘Greg Stamer the greenland forward stroke’ th-cam.com/video/4gZZ6oJ7RUo/w-d-xo.html and go to 7:00 and 7:58 of the video to see Maligiaq’s stroke. There is not much rotation (which would be difficult with the tight masik in their kayaks) but there is certainly a great deal of core muscle use (like all good kayaking forward stroke). Can’t argue with Maligiaq’s record in extracting both efficiency and speed from a GP. In the same video Greg Stamer describes the early misconceptions that the GP users in the USA had (low angle, short stroke etc). At 3:54 Greg describes the higher angle for more speed. Greg also has a solid record of extracting both long distance efficiency and good speed from a GP. My stroke is actually a little more like Greg’s than Maligiaq’s, though I hold my hands wider (though nowhere near as wide as Greg's Euro grip demonstration). Lastly check out ‘Greenland Forward Stroke with John Peterson’ th-cam.com/video/OHRADJ1t0ng/w-d-xo.html . Quite strong rotation for a traditional kayak, and top hand pushing out at eye level (like a competitive wing paddler). Neither of these videos were about when I published mine.

@@tltownsville cool response to my response. You clearly thought about this and practiced this a lot! I was a canoe toddler before a kayaker, and kind of miss the flexibility of a straight paddle that you're able to feather, scull with etc with a lot of feel and flexibility that you don't seem to be able to do as well with a euro style kayak paddle, especially if you go for one with dihedral. The Greenland paddle seems to be excellent at those things. Unfortunately agreed land paddles not really viable for me because I paddle 29-in pungo120. Too high and too wide to make use of that kind of paddle. There's a couple of TH-cam videos where kayakers are showing some incredible skills and I'm intrigued by that and trying to learn those. I might for the final bit try to find straight blade kayak paddles or build one of my own which I first did when kayaking in my twenties. As you know most kayakers just kind of fart around and dip the paddle in (I think they called them Lily dippers) and have no clue as to what they're doing. The Greenland paddle fascinates me because of that efficient use of the angle of attack and creating lift instead of the more crude push-the-water-back, as you say like a paddle wheel steamer, of a Euro blade.

Gearlab is the brand, Kalleq is the model

Yeah, Shute Harbour

Thanks, it certainly is. I just checked out some of your videos. Super quality productions and impressive how nice Hong Kong? is out on the water.

Ha, ha, yeah, I'll have to set some content to Justin Bieber instead :)

:) At least you have the excuse of real waves on your beaches down there.

Haha, yes, it is only an amateur effort on the video but hopefully it still is of value. Music is to my taste - not going to be to everyone else’s tastes. The stroke in the video is certainly high angle. As per the notes low angle works as well but too many people think Greenland Paddle is only for paddling low angle. If you really want the power you want to dig the paddle deep and paddle high angle, even with a Greenland Paddle.

Hi Heath. The kayak is certainly intended in its design for rough water work and I would guess that most people that buy them are putting them out in conditions. But it would depend to some extent on the paddler as to how it goes. I haven't yet had mine in particularly rough conditions yet (only to 15 knots or so - in this video there were conditions to a bit over 10 knots) but have paddled enough confused, messy and night-time waters to start to get some sense how it feels for me. Compared to my previous boat there is a bit less primary stability but the secondary stability is predictable and intuitive to access so overall it feels just as stable in the slop. Downhill, I have been impressed by it being a bit easier to control on the fly (on a wave). The boat fits me well and the thigh braces are well designed - solid and even with a slightly rough texture on the surface so your thighs don't slip during a roll - so it is comfortable to brace and roll. The rest is really up to the paddler :)

Heath, I've just added a link to a full review in the Video notes.

Thanks Jacky, glad you enjoyed it. Great part of the world with so many options - I hope you do get there in May. At approximately 4 minutes 30 seconds we are at the north east tip of Hook Island - a couple of rocky headlands point out from there.

I'm using a baitkeeper J-hook. Something with little to no offset is ideal.

@@tltownsville thanks

Thanks, yeah, having fun working the new boat out. Sure is a tough part of the world to play with kayaks in!

Yep, just outside the reefy/weedy bit

GoPro 8. Captures things pretty well for rough amateurs like me who just turn it on and hope things look half ok. I also really like the image stabilisation - captures the texture and dynamics of the water better than any other camera I have used.