I find that I personally like s shorter paddle. I like a faster cadence, it's more aerobic, less muscle power. I tend to ride my bike this way, too, with smaller gears and higher pedaling cadence.

I have a longer paddle, and it's got great power, but, yes, it puts far more strain on my arms and wrists. I've tried to address it by thinning the blade width, but it just keeps feeling a few inches too long.

So I go back to my shorter paddle, that's actually got 1/8th inch wider blades, and I still go with a higher cadence, and feel better with it. I feel like I cruise faster too.

If you are hurting your shoulder, I think you should try more torso rotation. Follow the angle of your bow wave with your paddle in the water. The only way to do this, for the paddle to get progressively farther away from the side of the boat as your stroke moves back, it to get torso rotation. I learned this from John Peterson at SSTIKS this year...

Brian

: Tried out my new paddle and as pretty as it is, I don't like it. It
: preforms well, probably my best paddle yet but I couldn't figure out what
: was different. Finally realized that it was shorter than the one I was
: using. It has less resistance (bite) and I found I was paddling with a
: faster cadence. That made my shoulder hurt.

: So I am thinking about trimming the ends square and adding a hardwood tip(s)
: which will add some length to it.

: I was really surprised at the difference too. I sized the paddle by standing
: and stretching the fingers over the tip. So it should be right. But I am
: guessing that since I have used one longer that I have just gotten used to
: that.