Too long. I’ve an eagle ray in
220 length, more than sufficient. Most use paddles too long.
Question
When I buy my 1st paddle, How do I choose length? Would I use my height or arm length for my decision, or would the width of the yak I buy be the deciding factor?
I’ve got the same paddle as Jerry
When I was paddling with my Harmony Estuary aluminum paddle, I thought carbon fiber paddles were a luxury item for gear snobs. Then I decided to give one a try, and now I can’t believe I ever hefted that 54 ounce monster.
I prolong my running shoes
by putting new gel insoles in them periodically
wood!
I like wood. It’s moderatly priced, good looking, warm in the hands, and in the right lay-up, lighter than most. However, I found a HUGE improvement when I switched from my origional 240 cm 41 oz Bending branchs wide blade paddle to my Walden Paddlers 33 oz narrow/turing blade paddle. Both are laminates but the weight difference and difference in water resistance keeps me from fatiguing MUCh longer. I now use this paddle for all my SOT and SIK fishing kayaks. In fact, I liked it so much, I’ve bought 3 more “back-ups” 
wood
Weehooker, I’ll have to check out the wood paddles if i can find them in a sporting goods store. The sporting goos store that is the largest around my area, doesn’t have a wood yak paddle in stock. The weight doesn’t sound bad.
Gander Mountain used to carry a
Bending Branches wooden kayak paddle. I didn’t care for the feel and thought it a bit heavy. Sawyer makes a nice wooden kayak paddle with composite blades, fairly light and very nice. Its not cheap, around $250. Only a specialty kayak dealer or online retailer would carry it, though.
Wood DIY
I’m pretty good with my tools. Don’t have a planer or jointer, but for thin strips, I’ve made a router jig that does a great job jointing for glue up. I think building a paddle would be also be a nice time and using it would have a pride factor. However, I wouldn’t want to just do it blind. Hardwood is too expensive to try it four or five times to get the right feel. Anyone suggest a way to get a good template first? And what are some of the lightest hardwoods available?
Cedar, but it has to be good clear
cedar. Search on the Advice forum for Greenland style paddles, lots of threads, or search on Google, they’re the easiest to build. Might not be the best with a wide rec kayak, though. I’m not sure how they work for fishing. The blades are narrow. You may also want to check out some of the kayak builder sites.
Ditto on the Aquabound
At $179, it ain’t cheap but it’s a whole lot better than 300 to 400!