Glad you are enjoying the blade.
It was sweet with it centered on the shaft. I only gave it up because I wanted a carbon fibre paddle with a larger blade suface area, and managed to obtain one with slighly larger area in my Black Bart Trouble Maker; though with a little weight gain. I was actually in discussions with Bud Moll about him fabricating an even larger blade with a staight shaft before he met his unfortunate, untimely demise with a black bear in the Michigan U.P.
My Zav bent is definitely a keeper.
Oh you Freestyle Guy’s
you with your big blades…
The Black Bart is not a large FS blade
The bottom line is that with my extra (unfortunate) body weight,I found I needed a paddle surface area to afford a little more grab to move me and the boat along. A big FS blade would kill me for general touring stuff. The Black Bart is my everyday all purpose blade, and my guess is that the surface area is about 10-12% more than that on the Zav.
We need another carbon alternative
The primary attraction of the ZRE straight is simply weight. However, as this thread shows, there is dissatisfaction with the asymmetrical grip, the offset blade, and even the shape of the blade.
Whitewater carbon paddles are too heavy and have too much blade. That Chinese carbon flatwater paddle marketed by Grey Owl and (I think) Wenonah is too heavy and has an asymmetrical grip.
The world could use a carbon paddle with ZRE weight, a nice symmetrical grip, and a centered blade that is more of a rounded edge Sugar Island style of medium blade area.
Someone could and should make such a paddle.
My Grey Owl has a Tee grip, which
I don’t like. But, it is symmetrical.