On 25-Sep-2003, Bill Tuthill wrote:

but when I tried out a
bent-shaft in a store, my wrists rotated just as much.

It doesn't prevent wrist rotation - that is due to feather angle
relative to stroke angle. It aligns the wrist so that your hand
is in a straight line with your forearm. To fine tune your
wrist rotation, get a variable feather angle and play with
different feather angles. I find 25-30 degrees works well
for me with a relatively low stroke and 50-60 with a
high stroke.

. break more easily due to deformed shaft

??? Never heard of this before.

. make sculling and draw strokes more difficult

Only running draws are trickier in my experience. Once
you get used to it, no big deal.

. cannot be made of wood

ISTM that Bending Branches and a couple of others make bend shaft wood
paddles. They use a laminated shaft.

but if I don't have problems with a straight shaft,
how would switching help me?

It won't. The supposed ergonomic benefits for paddlers (in terms of performance)
are overstated. They do provide a more comfortable grip for those with joint
problems because they align the wrists better. If you don't need this, you might
as well stick with a straight shaft.

Mike

Michael Daly wrote:

. break more easily due to deformed shaft

??? Never heard of this before.

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. 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.

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

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/