Makes sense.

Aleuts were doing mostly open water paddling, reputedly fast (often BIG) open water paddling over long distances. Currents and rocks to deal with occasionally, wind nearly always, but not like much play boat action going on.

For WW/Surf - a big blade Euro makes more sense. WW and rivers is what the Euro was designed for, and what as primarily driven it's refinement.

Aleut doesn't demand certain things, and your WW background won't preclude any adaptation - but it make makes sense to take advantage of you WW instincts/habits. Maybe even a shorter than 220 for ocean...

As for "overpowering" - it's often more of a subtle difference in technique/timing/application thing - and less about raw power - or the Aleut being "slow to accelerate" - but that's are as it relates to touring/fast cruising. In your applications it's more about delivering that power via fastest grab to maneuver than about getting up to and holding speed when cruising. So again, Euro likely makes more sense for you.

I have no tide races or WW. Closest things are found in/around the ports and inlets - where you really can't just hang out and play without law enforcement being called - and small short sloppy shore dump surf that's not really much good for play - beyond some rescue/recovery practice. Basically, stuff that's best just punched through as quickly as possible. Aleut's good for that, and really rocks for ticking off miles whether outside or flatter inland stuff.

Kris

: I can quite believe that I overpower - but the sort of paddling I do does
: tend
: to mean that I expect to accelerate to full speed inside two or three strokes
: otherwise I am just not going to rockhop safely. If the aleut paddle demands
: a
: technique that accelerates more slowly then I am not going to find it to my
: taste.

: I normally use euro paddles with big blades - a 220cm Lendal paddle with
: Nordkapp blades for sea paddling and a 197 Werner Player for whitewater. I
: am never going to be using an Aleut or GP for whitewater, and it's mostly in
: W/W that I do my most challenging paddling and where my technique gets
: ingrained. If this is going to preclude my ever adapting to an Aleut paddle
: then that's how it's going to have to be - I'm not about to give up playing
: in tide races and rockhopping in the swell (and the swell here is typically
: short - not often over six seconds) :-(

: Andy