seems
like a few good comercial ideas were presented. Maybe You missed the fine steel mesh idea made for locking backpacks. or the drill a hole in the blade theme.
Otherwise a few companies do make 4 piece paddles that would go with you in a small backpack.
Best Wishes
Roy
Better to take the paddle with you!
There’s a strong case for getting a bag and taking the paddle with you. Not so much to protect the paddle but to NOT encourage any mischieving youth from paddling your boat away for the fun of it!
I don’t know the area well enough to know what you really need to worry about. But if you’re concerned about people stealing your paddle, you’d probably also worry about people taking your boat, PFD etc. A cable lock is really a “gentlemen’s lock”. It can be cut pretty easily.
Tried it Out Today
Well, we liked Randy’s idea about using bags from folding chairs and tried it today. This worked GREAT!!! We paddled across and down the river to a nice little park, hoisted the kayaks out, and had lunch.
We’ve got a really stout cable that fits through scupper holes in both kayaks and around any relatively thin fixed object (sign post in this case). We carry two cables in case we have to lock them around something stouter like a tree trunk. The cables go through the PDFs (not expensive ones).
Anyway, the chair bag worked great. All four paddle sections fit into the bag with the blades down. No problem at all to tote them along. A small back-pack for other sundries and we were in business. Beer and hot Italian subs and no worries.
Thanks all.
Y’all might be paranoid . . .
. . . on my trip down the Mississippi had had no choice but to leave boat and gear unprotected in dozens of little towns and many big cities to include, Minneapolis, Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Natchez.
I would take stash stuff that had pawnshop value or kid appeal like gps and binoculars in the cockpit. Sometimes I would put the pfd, skirt, paddle taken apart in cockpit with cover on.
Most folks have no use for paddle and don’t have anyway to move kayak.
BTW, paddles were Swift carbon two piece
all set
I use an inexpensive over sized backpack that fits most of my gear and paddles…
So
Are you implying that non-christians are inherently not trustworthy?
I agree
Most of my paddles are in those folding Captain’s Chair bags. They are pulled closed at the opening and the shoulder strap lets me carry then over-the-shoulder or as a suitcase.
Later I found a camo bow-bag for a compound bow (I am a traditionalist but carry a 30# take-down in my kayak for plinking).
So I sewed an extra name-tape and some webbing for handles and use that for my fave paddles as the bag collapses to pocket-sized when empty.
BUT, and here is the neat thing… I found a padded snow-board case at a yard sale for $3 which holds 6 take-down paddles! And it pads them plus has a hand-grip and shoulder strap. THIS is airline safe but does not fold down.
Christians . . .
. . . aren’t trustworthy.
Cheap locks
The little curly bike locks from Wally World can give the appearance that they are locked up tight and the locks are pretty cheap. Put the paddle together and let it curl around the shaft several times and secure it to something. You and I know that you don’t have to unlock the lock to get the paddle, but most people wouldn’t know that.
For most thieves, the appearance of security is enough to convince them to move along.
No way I’m buying a $50 hard case for a $100 paddle.
jim
suggestion…
Paint the paddles the ugliest colors you can imagine …no one will take them !! 1st, cause the diff colors will make them easily ID’able and 2nd, cause no one else is gonna want the ugly things!
That technique . . .
. . . worked on bicycles.
Another way is to use a “Python” lock
and cable—these are usually 8’ length of 3/8" steel cable covered with plastic. They are hard to cut(unless the thief has a grinder with cut-off blade). The cable fits thru your scupper holes easily and you could drill a 1/2" hole in one of your paddles or run a small clamp around the shaft to pass the Python cable thru. Not a completely theft-proof system but will stop most mischievious sorts.