On 13-Jul-2004, Bill Tuthill wrote:

It's an interesting datapoint that racers are NOT using bent shaft...

Anymore. Bill, the bent shaft moved from the racing community to the
recreational over the years. Then the racers stopped using them. While
the hypothesis that the bent shaft improves performance sounds good, in
practice it doesn't really add a benefit.

I use a bent shaft Euro paddle (Lendal Archipelago) and have often advised
folks, on this forum and others, that it's only useful if you have a real
problem with your wrist/arm. It doesn't help for RSI, or more specifically
for carpal tunnel, since that is more greatly affected by feather angle.
However, if your joints aren't quite right (like most of mine) then using
a bent shaft to reduce wrist misalignment problems helps. Otherwise, save
your money and get a straight shaft.

I also use a Greenland-style paddle and it is easier on my arms. Slightly
worse on my muscles though, as it is less efficient and therefore more
tiring. The ease on the joints is due to the fact that I control the
paddle more with my fingers than my wrists and that the technique uses a
closer hand position than does a Euro paddle (hence straighter wrists).

Mike