I bought a Nixy Monterey G4 iSUP after I had my SE 370 as my kayak. I plan to use it standing AND as kayak and got the seat as well. Both are around 34"wide, so my 250 cm Aquabound hybrid paddle ($150) should work fine for kayak (seated) operation.
The Monterey came with a decent SUP paddle . So my plan is to bring both the above kayak and this Nixy SUP paddle and switch them as I switch between sitting and standing on 4+ hour tours.
But to make life less complex and have less to carry and less clutter, I also could buy the Nixy Kayak conversion blade for $45 and don’t have the hassle of schlepping 2 paddles with me.
Did anyone try this or similar SUP hybrid paddle and can tell if kayaking operation is acceptable? One issue I see is that the SUP side of the paddle is in the 7° angle and is shaped differently from the kayak blade. But on the pictures it looks like they are very similar.
I don’t know yet what % I will be kayaking vs. standing. If I stand 90% of the time, some limited kayaking performance may not matter. If I sit 90%, it will.
The design of an efficient SUP paddle is different than that of an efficient kayak paddle, so 2 paddles would be better. Exception would be if you find yourself doing mostly one form of paddling and the other could be considered secondary (so a less efficient paddling in that secondary would be fine).
I got the Perception Hi-Life convertible paddle to use soloing my canoe (sitting and standing).
The Hi-Life is also a bent-blade paddle, as many SUP paddles are. When being used as a kayak paddle, the bend at the blades makes the weight prone to rotating the shaft in your hand, so that the paddle blades are parallel to the water instead of perpendicular, which means you have to apply some extra grip to keep the pitch of the blades correct. I found that to be pretty annoying. A lighter weight paddle might be less annoying.
The other thing I discovered with the hybrid/convertible SUP/kayak paddle is that no matter what, you have a spare object rattling around. When standing, the extra blade is loose. When sitting, the SUP handle is loose. So is that better than just having two paddles, especially if the paddle only does one thing well? (As suggested, the SUP blades really are different from a kayak blade shape). The answer probably depends on how often you’ll do each, and how much storage room you have, but I ended up going back to just bringing two paddles that are good at their respective jobs. But I’m in a 15ft canoe with extra space. Maybe not storing a full length paddle on your board would be worthwhile, especially if you’re mostly going to SUP and only need to store the extra blade (and assuming you have a good way to secure it).
For what it’s worth, I’ve gotten very comfortable using a kayak paddle while standing up in a canoe, holding either the tip of the top blade or the shaft just below the blade with my upper hand. Yes, it is not as efficient as an SUP paddle. But I think it works pretty darn well, at least in a canoe.
(Full disclosure, I’ve never been on an SUP, just standing in a canoe, and a lot of seated canoe and kayak paddling.)
Thanks for the responses and good points. I reached out to Nixy to ask about the shape of the blade attachment and they stated it is the same shape as the SUP blade. So at least it wouldn’t be lob-sided.
I think I just wait out next season and see how it goes and what % I will kayak vs. stand. I also will see how I store the 2 paddles, how I schlepp them and then can see if it is a hassle or not. There also is a chance that i eventually want to buy a fancy full-carbon SUP paddle, who knows. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my paddle is relatively good IMHO. If I didn’t have a kayak paddle yet, or only had a cheap aluminum paddle, I would give that attachment a shot.
I see the following downsides of the convertible:
shaft is round vs. oval for kayak paddles
the blade shape and especially angle will cause some worse hydro-dynamics and paddling efficiency
the angled blade will make the paddle turn to parallel to the water
Advantages:
cheaper (if you don’t have a kayak paddle yet)
less to store in the car and carry to the water
overall less weight
must be somewhat easier to store on the iSUP the handle or paddle attachment than a full 2nd paddle.
I held the paddle in my hand to see if the round shaft or the inherent imbalance would bother me. It didn’t, but I suspect a second holding it at home isn’t representative for an hour of paddling on the water.