Paddles

[gbthejoiner]

Hi gentlemen called in at desperate measures shop on Saturday and I was having a look round at the different paddles, they where real busy so I didn't get chance to talk to the guys so I thought I would ask you guys. The cost seem to range from £50 to£300 plus I was under the impression that the more you spent the lighter the paddle would be but there seems to be little difference until you get into the real expensive stuff. So why buy an expensive paddle? The answer may well be staring me in the face. The other thing that I noticed was the cranked shaft is that a personal thing or is there an advantage? I noticed Phil mentioned he has one in one of his posts.
Graham

[philpot]

You are so right, the more you pay, the lighter the paddle can be.
The paddle is overlooked by a great many kayak anglers and is no more than a tool to assist you getting to your fishing spot. It is not until you try other paddles that you can see and feel the difference. Yes I have a Lendal cranked shaft with Nordkap n12 blades and I love it. I have tried both Werner and Lendal paddles with different blades and both straight and cranked shafts.
It is not until you actually get on the water and test them that you find the right one for you, I was lucky to have the chance to test 6 different paddles and they really felt different.

My advice is to try out as many as you can to establish which suits you best and linked to that some coaching to ensure your paddle stroke is correct.

Phil

[Izzetafox]

Graham.

I brought Steph a Carlisle Magic which has a glass shaft and is two piece.

I have a Robson Driver with a carbon shaft and a Kaskazi Endorfin full carbon.

Which do I use the most? I have to confess it is the Carlisle!! Shop around and you should get one under £70 and in my opinion you would have to probably spend £100 more for you as a comparative novice paddler to notice a difference.
Some people buy paddles as ' go faster stripes'! An expensive paddle will not make a poor paddler go faster but a good technique will make a poor paddle work better. Stick with a Carlisle for twelve months then you will have a better idea of what you really want and know if a £300 paddle is really what you need.

Terry

[philpot]

Sorry, I had to cut the response Graham as I was about to leave the office.

We have a member called Buddy who like Terry and myself is part of the admin team on 'North Wales Kayak Fishing ' site, Buddy and site owner Zebra gave me a very valuable couple of hours on the canal. Zebra (Terry ) to the rear of me and Buddy (Steve) to the side of me. Between them, they watched my paddle stroke as we paddled for a couple of miles advising me of the corrections to make, which I did and that really made a hell of a difference to my paddling.

Now linked to the coaching I was far better placed to take a judgment as to whether a more advanced paddle would in fact help me. The trials on the different paddles that I mentioned earlier started to come into their own as I was able to make a much more informed decision about the paddles on test.

As an example, I paddled with Zebra's Werner cranked shaft paddle which I was going to buy but I have to say while it was a lovely paddle it did not seem to work for me as well as Buddy's cranked Lendal. This was confirmed when I tested the other paddles at Flamborough one day and again the Lendal cranked shaft worked very well for ME. Shortly after I bought Buddy's Lendal.

There are two points here,
1) just because the big name paddles are more expensive does not mean they are well suited to you. You have to try some first.

2) Without a good paddle stroke, you will not benefit from an expensive paddle. The Carlisle Simply Magic paddle is a good value for money paddle and as Terry said, you will have to spend at least another £100 to get something seriously better.

I hope that is of some help.

Phil

[spadulike]

I have a basic assymetric paddle.with a slight feather. I recently took.the blades off, moved them out by 1" each end and put them back on in line...its a massive improvement ...for me anyway.

[philpot]

Mar 4, 2013 20:26:41 GMT spadulike said:

I have a basic assymetric paddle.with a slight feather. I recently took.the blades off, moved them out by 1" each end and put them back on in line...its a massive improvement ...for me anyway.

Phil, does your paddle have an aluminium shaft with blades rivited on.

Phil

[keithyg]

Paddles suffer from price gaps formed by the fairly uniform cost of materials. When I was at brookbank I always used to sell 2 prices of paddles - cheap £30 ish and £100/110. Not much worth it inbetween and not much worth it above until it jumps up to carbon.

Glass/nylon blades with a carbon/glass shaft will more than cover most peoples needs.

[stonefish]

paddles are things that ya get what ya pay for in terms of material and user function ,,like adjustment etc

a cheap alloy paddle is cheap to make and nearly every new yakker has one so they make millions of them the high end cranks they make less and you pay a lot more

the more you spend the better the wieight but it costs a lot to save a little in the weight

cranks are great to reduce pain in the wrists

if you hold a broom stick out with your arms spread a little like paddling you will see your wrists are at an angle
all day paddling that angle can hurt or even cuase damage

the crank puts this angle back to were it should be although it take a little getting used too

all day paddling the lighter the better coz when you ache think how much you could of ached or how little

though summer i will the water every day and paddling a lot ,,a crank will help this no end ,,but expext to pay 100 more for a carbon paddle with the crank

i have to kinda promote the gear we sell so have a full carbon crank and i love it
i can paddle all day and its light very light
put it this way i sent one the lady at the post office reset her scales becuase a pakcage that size is normally a lot heavier

i got a fibre glass version like mine made for some one and had a go it was very nice it was a little heaver than mine but felt similar

sometimes when ya paddle you get a sort of pendulam rythem going
i cant do this with the carbon crank it seems to be balanced or wiegh that little it dose not happan

[spadulike]

Phil. Yes its ali and riveted...it was riveted..i drilled them out..its now adhesive...marine grade wit st/st self tappers.

[philpot]

Mar 5, 2013 20:58:30 GMT spadulike said:

Phil. Yes its ali and riveted...it was riveted..i drilled them out..its now adhesive...marine grade wit st/st self tappers.

Just be aware Phil that you have weakened the joint by quite a margin, something to remember when out in 6' breakers on the east coast paddling like hell. Hope you have a spare tucked in your kayak.

Phil

[spadulike]

That was something that had me concerned but the loading is very low and threre is still 3 3/4 " of shaft inside the blade socket.The shaft and blade are are a good fit with the blade socket in full contact on the shaft.
Using a high strengh adhesive also ensures tye load is uniformly distribute from.the blade to the shaft.

I do have spare tucked inside the yak anyway..just in case.

[philpot]

Nice one Phil