"Dave Van" wrote in message link.net...
"Peter" wrote in message
news:04sub.236885$Tr4.697183@attbi_s03...
andrei wrote:

My wife, who has the same kayak, is having a hard time. Our kayaks
came with 30$ paddles Carlisle. The next paddle model up (judging by
price) was already at 90 bucks! Should she consider changing?

I mean, what does the paddle do? It "grabs" the water so the kayaker
can pull himself forward, right? So what's the big deal about
paddles?! I don't imagine that two buckets on each side of a broom
would be very pleasant to use, but is it worth spending 90 bucks or
more on a paddle? Would that help my wife?

Depends on what problem your wife is having. Cheaper paddles are
generally
heavier and holding up the extra weight can be quite tiring on a longer
trip, especially for a smaller, lighter paddler.


They also tend to have blade shapes that don't do a very effective job of
preventing flutter in the water and they can tend to want to slip one way or
another. Also leading to fatique and just being a pain in the butt in
general. Cheaper blades that are made of non reinforced thermoplastics tend
to bend a lot in the water, putting the energy of the paddler's stroke into
bending the paddle rather than moving the kayak forward.

Which is not always all that bad. I had a very cheap plastic paddle
for a while (I am a real newbie with less than 50 paddling trips, day
trips at that). It was a little short and hard, with a bad shape and
it really sucked. I went ahead and took some Black Walnut I had and
some Maple for the blades and made a paddle 240cm. I did some research
before shaping the blades too. Looked real hard at Jimistix website
for this. This thing is pretty heavy but also very flexable. I don't
seem to have problems holding it up for a day though. If you put one
end on the ground and push the middle of the paddle, it will easily
flex almost 2 inches (5cm). Yes, you spend a lot of energy "bending"
the paddle during the stroke but if you hold the end of the stroke for
a beat, you get it back. The biggest thing is for me, this is much
more comfortable. A little longer than maybe it should be for my size,
with a good size head, the softness and round entry on the head makes
for a very comfortable stroke. I do all flat water and am in no
partucular hurry most of the time. My neighbor picked up a carbon
paddle this season, I did not get to ask him how his shoulders are
doing but my concern, with all the joint problems I seem to have was a
real soft entry and easy on the shoulder. So for me a flex paddle
changed things for me and eliminated sore shoulders, even if I do lose
a little top end speed.
In the case of the origional poster, I suggest two things. Get your
wife a better boat, or let her slow down to her own pace instead of
chasing you while you "go into a headwind for three hours". I have
also found that a long teather to my 9yo when things get a little
snippy is really not such a bad idea. Helps her steer, gives her a
little break from full force paddling, makes her day a lot nicer all
together.
Scotty