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What Paddles do you guys use!

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Hey guys, was just wondering what paddles everyone uses and for what purposes. Nowadays I primarily use my Grey Owl Guide Cherry 60 for most of my flatwater canoe trips and use my Werner Bandit Carbon 56 for use in Whitewater.

Please feel free to share your opinions on the subject and let us know what paddles you primarily use.

On another note,I recently put together a video on choosing and sizing a canoe paddle. I originally wasn’t going to share it with this group as I figured you guys are all experienced paddlers who don’t need a tutorial on choosing a paddle, but decided to anyways as this forum is great for sharing excellent well thought out criticism. Please feel free to check it out and let me know what you think. Also feel free to share your experiences and opinions on all things paddles.

https://youtu.be/BYhewH2d72k

- Cheers


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I only use ash beavertails. My main source is a local wood canvas canoe shop where he gets used paddles from closing kids canoe camps in Maine. I sand the numbers off, varnish them sometimes and good to go.

I have never broken an ash beavertail out on the trail. I used to use a 60" beavertail that I found below a class 3 rapids once, used it for many years, but these days I'm down to 57" and I carry a 55" as my backup on trips.

I paddle wood canvas canoes, not lightweight but reliable and pleasing to the eye, I feel the same about ash beavertails.
 
i've used everything from a 15 degree bent shaft zav, to a sugar island, beavertail, or ottertail. It really depends on the water! For general cruising it's a beaver tail, big lakes it's an otter tail, and in the shallow stuff it'll be a sugar island, all with a 30" shaft
 
Ditto on Gidmark and Warrens book, I have it and is a good guide for use and construction .... now I have more paddles and types than I am sure I know how to use ..lol
 
So...
Like Robin almost all my pleasure canoeing/tripping is in Cedar Canvas canoes.
I really appreciate a finely balanced wooden paddle for lake and river paddling. My go to for years have been Kettlewell cherry Ottertails, 60 inch long. We probably have a dozen or so in the family. Absolutely love em!
I also have a pile of other wooden paddles including a couple of Birds Eye Maple Chestnut paddles- lovely to look at and functional but heavy as heck!
That said, I just ordered a Hunter and Harris 60" Norseman. I'll pick it up end of the month and then give it a workout on Georgian Bay and Algonquin.

The other paddling I do is in 25' Voyageur canoes and I use Grey Owl 12 degree wooden laminated bent shaft Voyageurs for that.Very useful in the Big Canoes but I don't like bent shaft in my recreational paddling.

Bruce
 

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Beauty pics! I also, like Bruce am not a big fan of bent-shaft paddles, I find them too niche and not versatile enough, at least for style of paddling. But to each their own.


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Always seems to be changing. I have a paddle problem..

Right now:

Flatwater tandem is a straight shaft ZRE in the stern and a bent GRB in the bow.

Solo Flatwater the ZRE Straight and a Werner Kaliste Double.

Rivers.. A sugar island blade or I have a Sawyer Voyageur I like..got a new Werner Bandit I will be trying out next week.
 
I'm a solo paddler and a kneeler and I mostly use a ZRE straight shaft, a Black Bart Troublemaker (my favorite) which is like a ZRE straight but with symmetric blade and grip, and I have a Bending Branches Sunburst XL (the old model) with laminated wood blade and carbon shaft that also gets a lot of use because it's light and clean in the water. I have other paddles that get occasional use but these three are hanging right by the door so I can grab a pair and go. I don't do serious whitewater.
 
mDouble blade or short bent for Rapidfire
Sugar Island for Freestyle or slower cadence paddling
Narrower modified Sugar Island for tripping
Beavertail Maine Guide Paddle for Northwoods or standing paddling
Bent shaft Zaveral for sit and switch BTW bents are not niche paddles but are for the masses Most paddlers sit and the bent has the best attack angle for the seated paddler.
Not much use of ottertails except for Style paddling. My 26 inch shaft 32 inch long ottertail blade excels at that
 
Shaw & Tenney, six foot, ash, Maine Guide. I do a lot of fishing, where I am the only one paddling and maneuvering the canoe. The big paddle does everthing I need it to do, provides just the right speed for trolling.
 
I have several varieties of Tremolo wood straight shaft cherry paddles, by Caleb Davis. All have a fine thin knife- edge finish to the blade. A couple versions of Ottertails for deep water cruising, which are especially useful for the Canadian stroke. A Willow leaf (a very narrow blade) because it is a fun paddle and can be paddled with a fast cadence. A slightly shorter shaft beavertail just for a change and a shorter blade for shallower water.

Otherwise, for racing or training, I use one of several carbon bent shaft paddles by GRB (Grass River Boatworks) that I have in lengths of from 48-52 in one inch increments. It all depends on which boat I am in, which race, which seat, boat trim, and who are my paddling partners.

With just one exception, that being in my Hornbeck, I never use a double blade paddle while canoeing.


Tremolo cherry wood paddles.
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good catch, Mem! I didn't even notice that ;)
I should also mention that I have severe back problems, so when tripping I prefer my ottertail on lakes and deep rivers because I can keep a faster cadence without loading up a lot of water which quickly causes pain.
 
Now I paddle exclusively with paddles I make my self!, be traditional one piece hard wood or sitka spruce, or full on multi lamination ww paddles! you can see some exemple on my page
https://www.facebook.com/28419192841...type=3&theater
The one in the picture bellow is my personal one off a batch of five I made, it was with me on a 17 day trip on the Wind River one the Peel watershed up here. 17 days of abuse on a river that was really low water due to a poor snow pack this year. That paddle is pretty amazing, really smooth catch, really fluid in water recovery, super powerful, easy on the body, no fluttering, and really strong!! Not a super light paddle by any means, but not super heavy either kind of average for a ww wooden paddle. I will be making more and improve on the weigh drastically!!
 

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For general paddling I use both a Grey Owl Fleetwood and a Wenonah BlackLite bent.

For deep water relaxed paddling I use a Grey Owl Northern Light (ottertail).

For the casual rivers I paddle I use a Bending Branches Explorer Plus.
 
Ottertail. We paddle on the ocean in BC, so our days are long. The ottertail allows us to keep a high cadence without tiring. As the stern, I do a modified J stroke and still match my bow's cadence because the ottertail slices out of the water cleanly and easily. The only downside to deep water paddling with the ottertail is the time needed to bury the full blade at the catch. It does take some effort to make sure to bury that blade fully before unwinding.
 
Zaveral Z Light, 12 degree bent, 8-1/2” wide for me and 8-1/4” for my wife. Our spare is an 8-1/4” wide one.
We paddle in what I call a modified sit and switch.
In the bow, my wife paddles on one side until she gets tired or the wind requires her to change.
In the stern, I paddle at a higher cadence and switch as needed to maintain our course.
It probably isn’t very pretty but it works for us.
 
I have a bunch of different paddles.

I always take two with me ! One is always an old Bending Branches BB. It was my first bent blade. I've redone it several times. An old friend !

Jim
 
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