Bill Tuthill wrote:

I saw some posts on Boatertalk.com alluding to it. When AT paddles
first arrived on the market with bent shafts (were they the first?)
many stories appeared about them breaking easily. Wilko posted that
he broke a bent-shaft paddle.

Although I broke *two*, those were testpaddles, designed especially for me.

Since then I have used the third one (with a thicker and stronger shaft)
for well over two years now, and I like it a lot. For me it has several
advantages, the main one being that it lessens my RSI (kind of carpal
tunnel sydrome due to too much driving and using the computer). I also
like the ease with with I can feel that I have the paddle correctly in
my hands (no more "is it turned" moments) when setting up to roll.

Having paid 140 US$ at the time, and with the paddle lasting for over
two years already, I would buy a Double Dutch paddle again (actually I
did, I bought one for my girlfriend about a year ago), and for me it
would again have a bent shaft.

My local kayak shop, where they push
the Lendal paddle-lock system, said that even ovalized shafts (e.g.
Werner or Lightning) cause weakness. So I put 2 + 2 together.

Relative weakness sure, but if the general layout is strong enough,
that's no issue. I don't hold back when using my paddle, and it
withstood everything I threw at it, including trips by airplane and lots
of miles of shallow creeks!

Laminated wood bent shaft, my gawd. Thanks for your help!

That would make me less comfortable as well. :-)


--
Wilko van den Bergh
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.
http://wilko.webzone.ru/