Plumbing tube
We attach a pvc tube to the racks with a swivel cap on the end. We can hold three or more depending on size.
I agree Greg…local trip i just throw
in my car…but it’s the other persons car or with passengers. Not everybody gets how high a regards some of us hold our paddles. I love my paddles…especially my GP.
Exactly!
Nothing’s ever gonna hit my paddle on the top of my car that compares with the dings it gets from just using it. I guess I just don’t get the concern over carrying it unprotected on the roof rack. Do you have a neoprene cover or pvc tube around it when you paddle??
Graphite is a conductor of lightning…
I wouldn’t keep it outside.
…and inside it stays warmer. It blows off…a graphite paddle isn’t the most bombproof material…imho.
$.01
It’s all wood…thanks though.
If it’s in a tube then it keeps
prying eyes and hopefully hands off from it. sorta like putting things in a trunk…they can’t see what is in it unless they open it. Just 1 reason i would perhaps put my GP in a tube. I like the idea of putting my fly rod in there also. More space in the car for people and dogs etc…
just keep it on deck…
I just keep my GP under the fore deck bungies on the kayak. The GP then gets tied down even more when I run straps over the kayak to secure it to the roof rack.
In my opinion that wooden stick just isn’t a target for theft, since it’s not carbon fiber and no one seems to know or even care what it is…
Yes, pictures please!
Stretchy velcro strips
The GP’s are in cloth bags as well but I expect you’ve already made that yourself. We use mostly stretchy velcro strips, used redundantly. If you look carefully at vacation photos of the fully loaded car, you’ll see them sticking out between the 4 boats, in the middle under the stackers.
This is so fastidious and complicated …
… that I’ve decided not to get a GP, though I’m convinced it’s the most versatile and sophisticated stick for open canoe freestyle play. Seriously.
I’ll stay with my quasi-GP breakdown Mitchell Coastal double blade.
Seriously?
A GP takes less storage space than a big blade or wing. Try shoving a wing (or three) into a 4" PVC tube. If storage is an issue you can buy two or three piece GPs, just like other types of paddles.
That said, you don’t have to baby them. Many of my GPs are oiled cedar or bare cedar and they aren’t harmed at all by strapping them to the roof rack, exposed to the elements. Of course, once you find a paddle that you really love, especially if it was made with your own sweat and blood, you are sometimes inclined to be protective of it, whether it needs it or not.
Greg Stamer
I Just Tie Them to the Crossbars…
…fore and aft with short lengths of 1/4’ yacht braid. No muss, no fuss, no problem, no expense. Great believer in the KISS principle, I am…
My “seriously” referred to OC freestyle
… using a GP, which I haven’t seen anyone do except me.
The issue of carrying a GP in or on a vehicle seems trivial.
Mine is tossed
in the bed of the pickup. Has not blown out yet.
In Newfoundland…
… you have to be careful of throwing your paddle in the car! On my trip around the island I gave my wood paddle to a couple on the East coast (to take some gear back to St. John’s). They put it in their car, bridged at an angle, and their huge, blank Newfoundland dog jumped in and snapped it clean. Neil Burgess has that paddle now. It was an experimental paddle that was one of my favorites, a dihedral (blades angled upward like a bent shaft canoe paddle), very sharp edged Greenland paddle.
Greg Stamer