C-Forum

+1 on wood shaft
+1 on a dynel sock - it does reduce maintenance
+1 on carbon faced blade - i've had two, liked 'em, but also have paddled with a wood blade with just a glass face - liked it, too
-1 on aluminum tips - have had 3 mushroom repeatedly
+1 on dynel edging - replaced the aluminum tips on two paddles with dynel and there is no mushrooming and they are wearing much better
+1 on oval shaft cross section - my two Climax paddles had hockey stick profiles and even though the "indexing" isn't critical with a t-grip, I still like the feel

@ philcanoe: I like my 300$ woodie much better then an AB edge for multiple reasons including some you mentioned, just saying that for about 100$ I am still impressed at what you can get. And a carlisle is a piece of shnut IMO, period.

Also the H2O is pretty good, just an extra flex I don't like on the blade but that's personal liking. At the price they sell for around here (150$ or so) I wasn't impressed, round shaft, but they have a lot of fans in my club (for what it's worth...)

The flex is a big point to me, wood has awesome presence and perfect flex, a carbon blade with similar flex but lighter would be perfect; Bandit carbon are incredibly stiff, the old white plastic AB edge was much too flexy but their black edge (is it really carbon btw?) seems very well balanced in that regard. Echo paddle carbon also has great feel but is pricey.

A stiff paddle kills me (shoulder, joints) and if it flexes too much you loose responsiveness, power... Carbon material, depending on the resin blend, can vary a whole lot.

I used to love my plastic AB paddle. Then I got a real paddle (wood with carbon wrap blade).

A couple of months ago I passed my paddle over to a friend for him to try, and took his plastic paddle in the meantime. It felt like paddling with a pool noodle, and I was upside down practicing my roll before I knew it.

Plastic paddles might be nice and cheap and forgiving and durable, but once you go to a nice wooden paddle, you'll never go back.

Worth the extra $$, in my opinion.

craig wrote:Wood is; warmer,flexes nicely, can be repaired and is nice looking. Just don't use it for poling:) I've had mine for 12 yrs and had the edging done over twice. Next time it is in for service I'll probably have the blade covered with carbon, cause I'm doing more creaking now.

I pole with my Mitchells. I beat them on the rocks and generally kick the bejesus out of them. They don't last 12 years without repair but I never worry about them failing on the river.
I have one with glass over wood and one with carbon over the wood blade. They're a lot heavier than my Zaveral and they sing a little when I slice. But I can't abuse the Zav like I do the Mitchells.
For the money they're the best sticks I've had.

This threads gone off topic a bit but whatev

A 3 or 4 hundred dollar paddle isn't always feasible. Especially if you need a different one for deep water, creeks, C1... I d rather get another boat or use that money to go paddling somewhere. Different priorities I guess. A helmet upgrade might be a better idea for some.

I use a bandit... it's not pretty and it's wears fast but it's cheap, stiff, and probably won't break.