yellowcanoe That makes sense with some of the things I'm noticing when paddling. It may be that I've got to long a paddle shaft. As I said on another thread, I tend to dig deep. My shaft hand is almost always wet to the wrist, and the top hand is definitely above my nose - more like, forehead height. I'm definitely digging too deep to do an in-water recovery without some modification. Sounds like I'm in your ballpark comparing blade area to your freestyle. I'm going to have to try the beach ball thing.
pblanc As originally intended, I meant switching grips. I had no idea that anyone would do a cross stroke in flat water, I'd kind of filed it in my mind as something that whitewater guys did when they needed to make a quick stroke on their off side. The way that this discussion has broadened to include cross strokes is a good thing, though.
With my current setup, I doubt I could do a cross stroke at all, at least without doing some odd reaches.