Gotta love engineers.
I can relate one subjective testimonial: I was paddling solo at a local reservoir and encountered a young couple in rec boats from the on site rental franchise. Apparently it was the female’s first outing and she was complaining loudly about how much she hated the activity and how hard it was to paddle and why couldn’t they turn around and leave now. I noticed that the paddle she had looked both too long and extremely heavy: one of those $29.99 discount store monstrosities with a metal shaft and black square plastic blades about an inch thick. I had a spare 220 Werner Sultan on my deck and offered to swap with her until we got back to the dock.
With her first stroke with my paddle her eyes lit up and she took off across the pond like a bat out of hell. I watched her boyfriend try in vain to catch up. By the time our paths crossed again on the way back to the ramp she was gushing about how much fun kayaking was and how she wanted to get her own boat now.
Before we swapped back I did try the livery paddle that she had handed off to me just from morbid curiosity – freaking thing must have been 6 pounds and I felt like I was going to dislocate my shoulder after just a couple of strokes. Was like paddling with a barbell.
@willowleaf said:
I can relate one subjective testimonial: I was paddling solo at a local reservoir and encountered a young couple in rec boats from the on site rental franchise. Apparently it was the female’s first outing and she was complaining loudly about how much she hated the activity and how hard it was to paddle and why couldn’t they turn around and leave now. I noticed that the paddle she had looked both too long and extremely heavy: one of those $29.99 discount store monstrosities with a metal shaft and black square plastic blades about an inch thick. I had a spare 220 Werner Sultan on my deck and offered to swap with her until we got back to the dock.With her first stroke with my paddle her eyes lit up and she took off across the pond like a bat out of hell. I watched her boyfriend try in vain to catch up. By the time our paths crossed again on the way back to the ramp she was gushing about how much fun kayaking was and how she wanted to get her own boat now.
Before we swapped back I did try the livery paddle that she had handed off to me just from morbid curiosity – freaking thing must have been 6 pounds and I felt like I was going to dislocate my shoulder after just a couple of strokes. Was like paddling with a barbell.
There you go. About as subjective of an observation as you can get. A non yaker who wasn’t enjoying it at all now wants her own Kayak based on nothing but the weight of the paddle and the good deed of one paddler!
I’m still trying to find that balance in budget / paddle weight to see what I want, although I’m really starting to like my Greenland paddle more and more, depending on what kayak I take out.
Yeah, GP’s can be addictive. I almost never use a non-GP since getting my first one 10 years ago. I have several Werners and Aquabounds that only hang out on my decks as spares or are loaned to friends. There are a few people I know of who have tried GP’s and decided that they prefer conventional paddles, but they seem to be in the minority. I have never tried a wing paddle long enough to get the hang of it so I stay open-minded about those, but any time I use a standard paddle I am greatly relieved to get a GP back in my hands.
For me it depends on the conditions. If I see wind and waves I still have a little more confidence in my Werner Cyprus. If it’s calmer I’ll typically use my GP. But the GP is fairly new to me so things may well change with more experience.
I really like the cranked shaft of the Werner, but I also like the larger diameter, super smooth WRC loom of the GP.
Weight. Cheaper EURO paddles are up above 34 ounces. Better ones weight in at 29 to maybe down to 24 ounces. Typical wood greenland in the range of 27 to 33 ounces. Best in “MY Opinion” greenland is 22 ounces made by Superior kayaks. My two piece weighs exactly 22 ounces measured on high end scale BUT $$$ all carbon. i use Euro on shallow creeks, a 210 length 28 ounce Aquabound I got for 120, carbon shaft blades fiberglass mixture of some sort , take rock abuse ok , whitewater paddle much heavier and one piece, even all carbon whitewater can be in the 34 ounce range .
@kfbrady said:
For me it depends on the conditions. If I see wind and waves I still have a little more confidence in my Werner Cyprus. If it’s calmer I’ll typically use my GP. But the GP is fairly new to me so things may well change with more experience.I really like the cranked shaft of the Werner, but I also like the larger diameter, super smooth WRC loom of the GP.
Sounds about where I am on the GP. I went out a couple weeks ago to go camping and decided I would paddle the 7 miles with the GP. Conditions were a bit rough out on the water when I took off in my “new” used boat and I was missing the Euro blade! lol Nothing like some bumpy water to make you want what’s more familiar!
I enjoy the GP but I’m still learning it’s ways and haven’t made up my mind about how much I’m going to be using it yet.
Generally speaking, buy the lightest paddle that your budget can support. As you approach the lightest paddles available, however, small decreases in weight equal large increases in cost and for the typical paddler the weight difference is not noticeable unless you are doing multi-day trips with upwards of 20 miles per day. Selecting the proper length for your height and kayak, as well as the proper blade style for the type of paddling you intend to do, are just as important for comfort. also, bent shafts are not for everyone. I find bent shafts force my wrists into an uncomfortable position when compared to straight shafts. I also use Yak grips because I have large hands and most paddle shafts are too small in diameter to be comfortable. BLUF - try your friends’ paddles to figure out what you like before spending serious cash.
@SharpsRifle said:
I enjoy the GP but I’m still learning it’s ways and haven’t made up my mind about how much I’m going to be using it yet.
That’s pretty typical when making the transition. You not only have to learn GP technique, but you have to un-learn habits you may have formed with the Euro paddle. The most common issue is using a “control hand”, which isn’t necessary with a GP (or an unfeathered Euro, for that matter).
@bnystrom said:
@SharpsRifle said:
I enjoy the GP but I’m still learning it’s ways and haven’t made up my mind about how much I’m going to be using it yet.
That’s pretty typical when making the transition. You not only have to learn GP technique, but you have to un-learn habits you may have formed with the Euro paddle. The most common issue is using a “control hand”, which isn’t necessary with a GP (or an unfeathered Euro, for that matter).
Unlearning bad habits is one of the things I like about learning the Greenland paddle. I learned by buying a cheap rec boat and going fishing. I learned and took up an interest in the long boats. Three boats later and I know I need to learn proper paddling technique and I find the Greenland paddle is different enough to give me a reboot on the technique. There are other things I like about the paddle and plan on making one or two this winter.
At least one from Cedar and maybe one more exotic, heavier for the wall behind the bar.
I built a beautiful GP by laminating maple and mahogany. Heavy as a brick, relatively speaking. A wall ornament for sure.
The lighter the more expensive they are. So without spending a small fortune the fiberglass shaft paddles are a happy medium under $100 usually. Like the Bass Pro Ascend Tournament Kayak Paddle $79.99.
The paddle you mention weighs 2.5lbs. 40 ounces is too heavy for me, and I suspect too heavy for most serious kayakers.
Plus it only feathers 60-0-60 and I have no need for a “Convenient tail fin lure recovery hook built into blades”.
Anything heavier than foam core is too heavy for me. I had to actually use my spare paddle for a day at a training due to a last minute issue with my foam core paddle. Don’t have the weight, but the backup paddle was a credible but still heavier than the foam core fiberglass paddle.
I was hurting by the time I got in.
I ordered a foam core paddle within days of being home so that both my main paddle and the backup were foam core. Different brands (older one is Epic and the one I ordered then was Werner) but both very light.
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Celia, was the back up paddle the same model and dimensions (other than weight) as the foam core paddle that it replaced for that training session?
If not, it may have been more than the weight that responsible for the extra hurt of that session, though I definitely notice a difference between my all carbon Epic Relaxed Tour and the Hybrid construction of the Relaxed Tour with the same dimensions.
It was not the same anything, though not at all a bad paddle. Forget the make. But lam quite sure however that the major increase in weight from a foam core to a solid plastic and carbon fiber paddle was the primary culprit.
To be picky there is a major difference in “carbon” and “carbon fiber” and some ads interchange the terms. “Carbon” could be anything from adding graphite to the epoxy in a shaft or blade to using some carbon fiber in the paddle. With “carbon fiber” you will see the weave of the cloth everywhere and you will pay the price for quality. Not all black paddles are carbon fiber you have to look for the weave.
That’s why I use a Shuna as my normal paddle on day trips and keep the Cyprus only for multiday trips. The two are not identical but close enough so that when I switched for a trip, any difference in feel didn’t bother me. The lighter weight always felt like a treat.
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Heavy sometimes good…
Many moons ago I found a Cobra paddle stuck in the Mangroves. After looking for the owner for a long time I put it on EBay. It was the heaviest paddle I had ever seen and had advertised it as a war club. When I advised the eventual buyer he said he was a beginner and paddled rocky streams and it would be perfect.
The shipping was a lot!
This discussion seems centered around Euro paddles, where the majority of weight is blade oriented. In a Greenland Paddle, the weight is many times located between the hands , in the loom. Amount of perceived weight during paddling is completely different and so would acceptable paddle weight be. Other than impressing your friends when you hand it to them to look at, between the hands weight is more acceptable.