Sometimes, when I’m fishing without an anchor, I just need to move my kayak a smidge. Sometimes, I just use my hands, but sometimes I need to move farther and faster than I can do with a hand, the double bladed paddle is too cumbersome and tends to overcorrect, and my kids paddle I sometimes use for boat control is to difficult to retrieve from where it winds up getting lodged under the seat. I’ve been thinking about getting a ping pong paddle to use for this purpose. I’m sure there are paddles like that, but have never seen one. Has anyone used a ping pong paddle? My kayak is a sit-in so I’m close to the water.
Ba-da-bing…
I found some little paddles at Academy that were about twice the size of a ping pong paddle. They were about $6 for a pair and came with a couple of little balls for kids to swat back and forth in the yard. Lasted one season.
After that I bought the shortest regular wooden paddle they make and cut the handle down to about 4". It works great and I’m sure it will last several seasons. I suppose if you wanted to you could reduce the size of the blade too. I call it my “sculling” paddle. Works well when ya need to rap a fish iin the noggin too.
Good idea and the short paddles are only
about $5 at Academy or Wally World. When I read your post, it made me think that staying wet all the time would delaminate pingpong paddles unless you poly the hell out of them or glass them.
Swimmer’s Gloves?
I’m sure you can get webbed gloves somewhere.