Premium canoe paddle

Second the Dog Paddle
Functional art. Extremely light and quiet. Slices perfectly in water. However, I am not wild about using it in shallow or rocky places, because it’s too nice (not too delicate). But if Santa is bringing you a lake paddle, you should check them out.

You can get a straight shaft cant you?

– Last Updated: Dec-06-12 8:09 AM EST –

You can get ZRE paddles with a straight shaft if thats the issue. You're right that the power surge might not work for him, but the regular flat water blade should be symmetrical.

I usually dont kneel, so you are right about that GBG.

Surreal or Tourning Special.
The Mitchell TS is all wood awesomeness. But if you want carbon in the stick too, the Surreal is great. The light weightness of the western cedar, base wood laminated shaft balanced off the carbon blade is sweet. Just the right amount of flex.



I’m bias. Lots of great paddles out there.

3rd
I third Dog paddles. Marc Ornstien is a freestyle canoe champion and really knows how to make a sweet straight shaft paddle. One of his custom made paddles would be an ultimate xmas present. I love mine. Also,I have padled with Marc in rocky streams where he uses one of his paddles. I belive he is planning a paddle just for that type of use.

Turtle

Yes, and with a symetric palm grip.

Hmmm. I just checked their website…
… and unless I missed something, every paddle listed was a bent-shaft. They had a whitewater paddle that appeared to have a straight shaft, but I didn’t check too closely once I noticed that the blade itself was curved, and meant to be one-directional.



Maybe a straight shaft can be custom-ordered? I wouldn’t expect a company with “Racing Equipment” in their name to make traditional, bi-directional paddles.

Its under “shaft angle”

– Last Updated: Dec-06-12 3:04 PM EST –

You can select a custom shaft angle (0* in this case) in the drop down box labeled "shaft angle".

12* is default and he charges an extra $25 for anything besides 12*, but that can be offset by selecting a factory second. I just looked at 4 different models and they all had this option. Even the power surge, even though I know he still wouldnt want this blade due to its non symmetrical nature.

I just noticed too, you can order a T grip so you could get that on a normal blade and have a fully straight, symmetrical paddle from him.

Sawyer Straight Shaft Manta
I’ve been paddling for years with a Quad Bend Sawyer Manta Paddle, that I liked very much, and ordered another one, with a straight, no bends shaft. Now, I can use both the front and back faces as the power face and like it even more. This is a very powerful paddle, but very smooth feel when using the back face as the power face. Unfortunately, the straight shaft version feels a lot heavier than the quad bend shaft, which might be due to denser wood used in the straight shaft?

recreating or racing

– Last Updated: Dec-07-12 10:29 AM EST –

When racing I use what everyone else does, a graphite bent shaft. My preferred paddle is made by Grasse River Boatworks (GRB). On several moderately long races (such as the Adirondack 90-miler), and ultra long 460/360/1000 mile Yukon races, it is important to keep a consistently fast and powerful stroke all day long without tiring or killing your muscles and joints. My crew and I train to maintain up to 50, not less than 40 strokes/minute for fully up to 18 hours a day in the case of the Yukon 1000 miler.

But for recreating I much prefer a well made wood straight shaft with a feather thin blade edge to cut through the water for advanced strokes. I've used Caleb Davis Tremolo ottertail and willow blades for more than 20 years and wouldn't want anything else. Caleb describes his paddles and paddle making classes on his web page here:
http://tremolopaddles.wcha.org/tremelopaddles/Welcome.html

Than ks (nm)

There are more than a few choices.
Obviously, Santa wants you to be very good next year, too. And the year after next.

I love my Mitchell Surreal
Very light, very thin, very stiff. And you can customize the grip should you so wish, unlike Zavs. And if you ever do in-water recoveries you will be amazed at the nearly totallack of resistance and quietness of the blade slicing the liquid.



That said, Dogpaddle makes beautiful sticks. I limit myself to one stick per year - 2012 was the Surreal, 2013 might be for a Dogpaddle.



Jim

Foxworx
Dale Fox at Foxworx makes nice wood and composite paddles for a reasonable price. http://www.foxworxpaddle.com/straight_shaft_canoe_paddles.html

ZRE, but look at Gillespie for hybrids
There was no bigger wood bigot than me until a few years ago. I have now narrowed a lot of paddles down to two: a 48.5" bent (outrigger light Powersurge) and a 57" straight (WW blade, symmetrical grip) ZRE, both with flex shafts. With these two blades I go on any waters – shallow, deep, flat, white – for a total weight of 25 oz. I cringe now at the weight of even my finest wooden paddles.



Even though I am lifetime kneeler, I use the bent 95% of the time on flatwater.



The Cricket Gemini IV is a giant retro blade. Do you really want that big of a blade?



If you want a hybrid paddle – wood shaft and carbon or kevlar blade, or vice versa – Brad Gillespie will make just about any variety and color you want. His wood shaft on a ZRE blade is popular.



http://gillespiepaddles.com/shop/hybrid_paddles.php

57" ZRE Straight? That’s a 38" shaft,
that’s huge!



I bury the blade about 4" with my 56" ZRE Straight. It feels way too long.



You mush have a long torso or keep your top hand way above you forehead.

It’s a compromise length, more for WW
It is too long for a flatwater cruising straight paddle. I would probably use a 54" ZRE for that. But I only want two paddles for everything when tripping.



The 57" is mainly for WW and any swiftly moving water where I need to make moves. Paddling on the flats, yes, I’m pushing slightly upwards with my top hand, rather than downwards as with my bent. Not optimal, but I get used to it.



The length is actually useful for strong weather-cocking in beam winds, which I experience on windy lakes in my SRT. The only way to correct is with big sweeps on the upwind side or strong stern pries on the downwind side. The extra leverage is very helpful.

I’m a ZRE convert.
I’m with Glen. I switched to ZRE bent about 6-8 years ago for everything I do which is basically tripping in big royalex and kevlar boats in all kinds of water including white water. The only problem is on trips like the Allagash where standing is often the best approach so I carry a big long wood beaver tail on that trip. But I am so accustomed to 12 Ozs now that I simply cannot go back. I have beat the cr*p out of my ZRE and it is just beginning to show some danger signs along the blade edges. Question is can I get another 10-15 years out of it. Probably not. We’ll see.

That makes sense.
I’ve retained the length on my 56" ZRE straight for those very few times I encounter large wave trains so I can keep some paddle in the water.

Paddles
It is hard to beat a paddle that you have made yourself.

Saltwood Sweet T or Kialoa
Both make good straight shaft single blades.