Another consideration is that while you can’t make a short paddle long, you can often use a long paddle as though it were short.
You do not have to hold a paddle over the end of the grip. Indeed, Northwoods-style paddles are designed to be held on the side of the grip, not over the top end, and the grip is purposefully long so the effective shaft length can be changed simply by moving your hand up or down along the side of the grip.
Further, there is no requirement to hold any paddle over the end of the grip – you can hold a paddle below the grip by simply wrapping you hand around the shaft just below the grip – effectively making a long shaft “shorter” by “choking up” on the shaft, just as you do when the only baseball bat available is too long or too heavy.
Early photos of native Americans paddling often show paddles that have no “grip” at all – the round shaft goes all the way up with no flaring – effectively a continuously variable-length shaft.
The photo below shows some of my paddles, with various blade lengths and shaft lengths, but all can be used comfortable and effectively if you are willing to move your upper hand up and down and sometimes around the grip/shaft. Note that the
shafts of the four paddles on the left (2 Alexandra Conover Northwoods style, a Dale Tobey Grand Lake Stream style, and a Steve Cayard Malecite style) appear to be significantly
shorter than the shafts of the next three paddles while the
overall length is greater than the three -- a modern style Grey Owl paddle (multi-colored blade) and the two traditional Old Town and White paddles, the shafts of which are much alike and are conventionally “correct” for me. However, the
effective shaft length of all of these can be virtually identical or vary widely, depending on where and how you hold the paddle -- which can (and should) vary depending on whether you are standing, sitting, or kneeling, and depending on what you are doing with the paddle. The next two paddles, much shorter, are used by my wife who is quite a bit shorter than I am. And among others not shown is one carved by Rob Stevens that is some 4-5 inches longer than any of these.
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I can and have paddled comfortably and effectively with all these longer paddles (except the Conover paddle painted by Jerry Stelmok) – and while I have played around with my wife’s shorter paddles, they are just too short for me, and there is no way that I know of the make a short paddle longer. My absolute favorite to paddle with is Steve Cayard’s Malecite paddle, but it is much too nice to use regularly. Otherwise, my two favorites are the undecorated Conover paddle, and a Shaw and Tenney Penobscot paddle (not in the picture) – similar in appearance and performance to the Old Town and White paddles, but significantly lighter, being made of spruce instead of ash.
Overall length matters -- but so does shaft, grip, and blade length -- as well as other issues such as weight, blade shape, grip shape, material, etc., etc., etc.