On a bright sunny day, the Ion blades can pick up a lot of light, and if you take them from the sunlight into a completely dark room, you could read a newspaper by their glow. Nightfall isn’t quite so sudden, so as daylight fades, so does the glow of the paddle blades. And that, as it turns out, is a good thing. If you give the blades an additional charge with a flashlight after nightfall, their glow will become bright enough to be distracting, flying by like ghosts every time you take a stroke. The glow won’t interfere with your night vision, but it could interfere with your concentration on navigation.
can be hard to pick out from the background, and it’s their motion that makes them stand out. Beyond 75 yards, the Ion blades fade into invisibility. The blades will continue to glow all night long, and after you get to camp, they make a great bedside “table” for your flashlight, glasses and other things that the tent fairy often hides after you’ve fallen asleep.
The Ion blades are made of Lendal’s SF, a polypropylene reinforced with glass fibers, with a luminous compound added. The blades are part of Lendal’s Paddlok system and can be used with a variety of different shafts.
Luminous paddle blades may not have a broad appeal—for those who do go paddling in the dark, there are lots of great lighting options. Still, it’s good to see a manufacturer coming up with truly novel ideas and broadening the options we have available.