In the beginning, there was wood. For untold centuries before kayaking became a leisure sport, Aleut and Greenland natives made paddles from driftwood, and lived or died by the quality of these tools. When Europeans began to dabble in kayaking as recreation, a very few learned directly from the Greenlanders about the design of the native paddle and the technique for its use.
As kayaks were modified, made collapsible for easy transport and reshaped for use on rivers, the recreational paddle was shaped with wide blades on long shafts, to look and function more like the oars and canoe paddles already familiar to the Europeans. As kayaking spread across the non-Arctic world, the “Euro” paddle dominated as the mainstream type.
Eventually, wood was also replaced. Once composite manufacturers began to win the lightweight game, fiberglass took over the market through mass production and promises of maintenance-free durability. Perhaps there were few regrets. On one occasion, I paddled with a decades-old wooden whitewater paddle. Made mostly of ash, with metal guards riveted over the tips of the blades, and badly in need of varnish, it was big, powerful, ugly and tiring. However, not all wooden paddles were so rough-hewn and awkward. Indeed, many Olympic racers never abandoned wood, retaining light spruce paddles until the advent of carbon fiber composites.
A couple of years ago, I wasn’t in love with any of the fiberglass paddles I had used, and none of them was much to look at. I decided to hazard a fling with a wooden paddle, a Bending Branches Tailwind, the wide-blade cousin of the Journey reviewed here. The wooden paddle looked better, the proportions seemed right, the weight was close enough to glass paddles, and it seemed strong enough. The slight extra weight saved me a lot of money, and the retailer had an iron-clad reputation for refunds, so what did I have to lose?
Trying out the Tailwind changed my course with paddles; I now paddle almost exclusively with wooden paddles. The Tailwind has pulled me through a 23-mile day at the end of a one-week trip, splashed through several days of surfing 3- to 5-foot beach breakers, and even bounced down a few Class II and III river runs. Its buoyant blade boosted my roll after many surfing errors, and braced me up on the river with reassuring authority. This less-than-gentle use has left it with a few scratches in the finish and scuffs on the edges, but it needs only a few minutes with sandpaper and a paintbrush to be restored to near-new condition.
Today, as kayaking booms in popularity, there are niches for all types of paddles. Among Euro-style blade paddles, the allure of wood remains. Fiberglass is common, and while carbon fiber has cachet, it lacks the visual beauty of natural wood. Wood appeals by feel and sound as well, with a warm surface under the hand and a mellow tone when the paddle touches a non-liquid surface.
Wood comes in a bewildering variety of species, each with unique properties. Woods are loosely divided into hardwoods and softwoods, but this division is simply based on whether the tree is a broadleaf or a conifer. While some hardwoods, such as oak or hickory, are very hard and strong, and some softwoods, such as red or white cedar, are rather soft and weak, this classification can be misleading. Long-leaf pine and Douglas fir, for example, though classified as softwoods, are stronger and harder than alder and the poplars, which are hardwoods. In addition, properties such as strength and stiffness vary from species to species. Ash and spruce are rather stiff for their weight, so they are frequently used in paddle shafts if maximum stiffness is desired, while red cedar might be used if a very light and more flexible shaft is the goal.
The strength of a wooden paddle depends on many factors, among them, how much and what type of wood is used, and in what direction it will be stressed. Since wood has a comparatively low density—wood floats, fiberglass sinks—a greater volume of it can be used to good advantage in paddles: A thick, flat piece of wood is much stiffer than a thin, flat piece of fiberglass of the same weight. Most glass paddle blades may achieve stiffness through their curved shapes, but the result is a blade that is not as buoyant and that doesn’t produce as much lift during sculling or rolling as a smoothly sculpted wooden blade.
Wood is not a uniform material. It is a naturally occurring composite and, like many synthetic composites, its strengths differ in various directions. Generally, wood is strongest in tension, somewhat less strong in compression, and rather weak in shear or when split along the grain. A hollow paddle shaft laminated from parallel strips of wood may be stiffer out on the water than a tube of woven fiberglass of the same weight, but it is much more easily damaged if crushed—say, when stepped on in a dark campsite. This weakness is somewhat offset by taking advantage of the lower density of wood by using it in greater thickness: a solid laminate can be used for greater resistance to damage with only a moderate weight penalty.
Beyond the many variables of wood as a material for engineering, the differing colors and grain patterns of woods make paddle design as much an art as a science.
Conditions of Testing
I did rolling and bracing trials with nine wooden Euro-style paddles in a plastic whitewater slalom racing kayak in a swimming pool. I tested all paddles in calm conditions in a Dagger Magellan (22.5″ beam). I also tested all paddles except the Malone, Mitchell and Sawyer (which were not available at that phase of testing) while paddling the Magellan or a Mariner II (21.5″ beam) in a 1025 knot wind with reflected waves and clapotis of one to one-and-a-half feet, or wind waves of one to two feet. Neither boat had a rudder or skeg. I made the assessments of each paddle’s gunwale clearance in regard to the wider boat.
Since personal preferences and physical build can unavoidably color reviews, for the record, I am 6’1″ and 155 pounds, and I like a large grip, but a small enough blade so that I can maintain a fairly high stroke rate. For long-distance paddling, I prefer a paddle that has a low swing weight and that works well with a low-angle stroke, so that my arms need be lifted as little as possible. Low swing weight is more significant to me than overall paddle weight, because the effort required to move the blades through the cycle of the stroke consumes more energy than merely supporting the paddle. For harder conditions, I want a paddle that is as short as possible for a strong, high-angle stroke, and that works well in sweep rolling.
The Bending Branches Journey looks like the hybrid of a Greenland paddle and a more typical Euro blade. The shaft is laminated from 18 layers of basswood, a light hardwood. The long blades are laminated basswood and alder. The satin polyurethane finish coat seemed a bit thin, and it had a few rough spots and quite a few surface particles. The finish was not too slippery; it gave a secure feel with a light grip on the elliptical shaft, even though the shaft is slightly smaller than I prefer. The ferrule fit is very good, with little discernible wobble, yet it’s not so tight that the ferrule seems likely to be jammed by the first trace of grit. Inside the ferrule, the end of the shaft appeared to be well coated with resin, but I could see a few gaps in the resin between the wood and the ferrule. With its long blades and a shaft that is thickest where the wood and ferrule meet, the swing weight feels quite light, without the paddle feeling overly flexible.
In a straightforward stroke, I could feel more-than-average slippage of the blade through the water, although the blade entered the water cleanly without dragging much air below the surface (ventilation), which would loosen the paddle’s grip on the water. While the slippage might handicap initial acceleration, it leads to a very comfortable cruising stroke at a high or low angle. An outward-slicing stroke seemed a bit more powerful. The only time I felt any flutter of the blade in the water was during the first two or three strokes of a fast start. Even when I paid little attention to technique, the entry was quiet and there was little splash. Despite the short shaft, the blades cleared the gunwales easily.
Sweep strokes were adequately powerful for steering. In moderate wind and choppy waves, the paddle felt comfortable. It seemed unaffected by wind, and rolled easily into braces. During short rides on wind waves, my stern-rudder strokes were quite effective if I took care to get the entire blade in the water. In the un-feathered position, the paddle could be used with the more horizontal Greenland-style stroke.
When performing sculling braces and sweep rolls in the pool, the Journey felt the best of the paddles tested. The airfoil blade is buoyant and lifted strongly, whether at the surface or submerged. Water flowed over the blade with minimal splashing or separation. The shaft profile allowed easy control of blade angle and, in a light grip, the blade remained steady and predictable. Support for downward braces or C-to-C rolls was adequate.
Overall, the Journey seems to be a fine choice for an inexpensive, general touring paddle. While its overall weight, 39 ounces, is on the high side, its low swing weight and good feel with a low-angle stroke should minimize fatigue at a cruising pace. Although it lacks the acceleration needed for surfing, it’s a playful paddle for rolling and other technical strokes.
The Cricket Mini Spoon has a slim, elegant look. The shaft is black willow over western red cedar, while the blades are cedar with cherry edges and tip veneers. The joint between the blade and shaft is finely carved. A Dynel edge further protects the tip, and the blades are surfaced with 2-oz. fiberglass. The cloth has no pinholes, but the weave is rather irregularly filled, with some areas appearing to have an excess of resin. The carbon ferrule had a barely noticeable wobble, but it was from the same manufacturer as the ferrule on another paddle that was more snug. A layer each of fiberglass and black heat-shrink tubing covers the joint between ferrule and wood. When bent, the shaft feels rather flexible, but springy. Little flex was visible in the blades. The nice glossy varnish finish had a few small runs and rough spots, but not much embedded dust. Although the varnish felt less slippery than polyurethane, Cricket ships a scrap of sandpaper with each paddle and encourages users to slightly roughen the surfaces where their hands lie for an even better grip. This would be good advice for almost any varnished paddle.
With forward strokes, I was unable to get an entry without a bit of a slapping sound and some air driven in at the catch, although a paddling partner achieved a clean entry. There was some slipping of the slim blade. Low-angle strokes worked well, which, combined with the light weight, suggests that the Cricket would shine at the end of a long day of cruising. Sweep strokes were noticeably less effective than with the larger-bladed paddles. Little water found its way up the shaft, despite the lack of drip rings.
When I was sculling, the water flowing across the blade separated from the blade with a lot of splashing, but the paddle gave adequate support for bracing. This was the only paddle tested with which I missed two sweep rolls. C-to-C rolls felt more reliable. Extended-paddle (Palawta) sweep rolls were easy, but the paddle flexed dramatically.
The Cricket seems as if it would be intolerant of serious abuse, but if treated well its understated good looks and cruising performance would be among the reasons you’d appreciate it at the end of a long day.
The Grey Owl Tempest has subtle styling and good performance. The overall construction of this paddle is very good. The shaft is made of ash and spruce, and the mid-sized blades are laminated from a variety of hardwoods and edged with urethane at the tip. The semi-gloss finish contained a moderate amount of dust, and did not fill some of the deepest wood grain completely. The long carbon-composite ferrule fit very well, with almost no play, yet it’s easy to break it down. The overall weight is quite good, and its swing weight feels acceptably light. I liked the balance between its weight and its feel of strength.
The blade profile gave excellent gunwale clearance, despite the short length of this paddle. With a little care, the entry was quiet and unventilated. High- and low-angle forward strokes were quite good. Steering strokes and braces were effective, even in choppy conditions. While the elliptical shaft gave good control, it was slightly small for me and slippery, encouraging an overly tight grip.
The Tempest gave well-above-average support in sculling and sweep rolling, especially considering the moderate blade area and short length. The thick blade seemed to contribute to lift. Vertical braces and C-to-C rolls were good for the blade size, but not quite as impressive. The paddle felt slightly ponderous while setting up for rolls, but this may have been caused, in part, by a less-than-familiar feather angle.
Given the Tempest’s light weight and good performance, its modest price represents an excellent value. The user could give the shaft a couple of extra coats of varnish, then a light sanding, for an easier grip, and have a paddle that meets all of my criteria, at a price that equally nice fiberglass can’t touch. Grey Owl’s slogan, “Life is too short to play with ugly toys,” gets my hearty agreement!
The Malone Black Harbor combines good looks, price and weight into an attractive compromise, especially if you prefer large blades. The shafts are basswood vertically laminated with dyed birch veneers; the blades are basswood edged with rock maple and tipped with polycarbonate. The clarity of the grain and its alignment looked very good. The paddle flexed considerably when pressed against a hard surface, but the flex was well distributed between the shaft and blade. The finish was excellent and virtually dust-free, with the gloss interrupted only by a couple of laminates with unusually porous grain. The fit of the ferrule was snug enough to be free of noticeable wobble, second only to the Mitchell paddle. The ferrule’s unusually large button was very easy to release.
The paddle seemed lighter than suggested by its actual weight. I was inclined to use a high-angle, aggressive stroke. Avoiding a noisy splash required a careful entry, which was rewarded with negligible ventilation of the blade. Although the blade seemed to plant strongly, my stroke felt slightly short, possibly due to some flexing of the shaft. A lower-angle stroke felt acceptable, although, on a few unusually careless entries, the blade tried to turn parallel to the surface. Gunwale clearance was good for such large blades on a short shaft.
The smaller-than-average shaft and slick finish encouraged me to over-grip the shaft, tiring my hands.
Slightly sanding the grip area would have allowed a more relaxed grip.
Sweep strokes felt quite effective, despite the short length, although I had to be careful to bury the blade fully. In sculling braces, the flow of water across the blade separated and made for a lot of splashing, but the support was good enough to keep the blade at the surface. Rolls felt effective, and the paddle was easy to maneuver underwater.
If Malone’s combination of a small-diameter shaft and large blades is appealing to you, the Black Harbor is a handsome paddle for the price.
The Mitchell Sea Blade is beautiful, but burly. The thick, flat blades are laminated from cedar and spruce, surfaced with a tightly woven fiberglass cloth, and edged with urethane at the tip. The shaft is a vertical laminate of spruce and ash, giving a particularly harmonious appearance at the throat. The ferrule lacked any detectable wobble between the halves. The quality of the materials appears to be excellent. The wood grain is clear and straight. Other than a rough area at one side of the ferrule, the quality of the polyurethane finish was excellent. The weave of the glass cloth was very well and uniformly filled, and there were few dust particles.
The Sea Blade felt stiff and powerful, but it was not a joy to paddle. Its weight falls near the high end of the range of paddles tested; its high swing weight made the paddle feel heavy, discouraging a high-angle stroke. A low stroke lacked the sweet feel of some of the narrower blades. I could not get an entry without a fairly loud splash, and the square inside corner of the blades reduced the clearance alongside the kayak when setting up for the catch, despite a shaft already a bit longer than I prefer. Even without drip rings fitted, little water ran down the shaft to my hands.
Sweep strokes with this paddle were very good. The Mitchell turned the boat 180° with one stroke fewer than most of the other paddles tested, with a very steady and predictable feel while edging. The grip is a bit slippery, due to the high-gloss finish, but it could be sanded to make it more secure in the hand.
The big blades of the Mitchell were easy to control during sculling, and support in sweep rolls was good, but the paddle felt ponderous during the underwater set-up.
The Mitchell would be an excellent choice for beach surfing, as it feels as though only the most extreme abuse could break it. Unfortunately, this strength comes with a weight of 41 oz., more than I believe most paddlers would prefer for touring.
The Nimbus Inskip is nice looking, but rather rough hewn.
The joint between the ash/spruce shaft and the spruce/mahogany blade is the chunkiest of those tested, and the thick edges of the blade are nearly square. The blade is surfaced with 6-oz. fiberglass cloth, with many large pinholes in the resin. The semi-gloss varnish has a slightly slick feel and many embedded dust particles. Inside the ferrule, a partially hollow shaft is seen in which bare wood appears to be visible. (All other two-piece paddles tested had solid epoxy coating the end of the shaft.) The Nimbus was the heaviest paddle tested.
The blade had a shape that cleared the gunwale well. I could have used a paddle at least five centimeters shorter. It was easy to get a quiet entry and an unventilated stroke, and I didn’t detect any flutter.
In the pool, the thick throat of the blade splashed noisily. Sculling was effective if I pitched the blade just above parallel to the water and swept quickly, but it took a couple of unexpected dives. This was the most difficult paddle with which to scull. Its lift in sweep rolls was below average.
Although made well enough, the Nimbus is overshadowed by the overall performance of the other paddles and, at 46 oz., it is the heaviest of the paddles reviewed.
The Redfish Blackback is a striking custom model with a luxury price tag. The shaft is a hollow laminate of black maple, and the blades are maple with ash insets and edging. Complex construction details abound in the hollow shaft, the well-faired joint between shaft and blade, and the mirror-image matched grain pattern of the blades.
Both blades and shaft are epoxy laminated with a tightly woven fiberglass cloth and finished with a cross-linked clear coat. The Blackback’s blades are the thinnest of the paddles tested. Strips of carbon fiber run along the front and back of the shaft and down the centers of each blade face. When I bent the paddle against the floor, the shaft appeared quite stiff, while the blades flexed noticeably. In the water the flexibility of the blades wasn’t noticeable; the Blackback had a strong plant. The strip of carbon fiber appeared to be made up of two pieces butted together, instead of a single continuous piece. (The paddle tested was a test model. Normally the carbon fiber is continuous .) The finish had few very small areas of resin starvation. Otherwise, the finish quality was superb. The cloth weave was very well filled, and there were very few pinholes or surface particles.
Forward strokes with the Blackback have a racy feel. The paddle’s light weight encourages a high shaft angle, and its broad blades plant solidly in the water. It was easy to make a quiet entry with very little splash or ventilation. The lower edge of the blade is well shaped to clear the gunwale, despite the large blades and short overall length. I didn’t detect any flutter. When I was fresh, I enjoyed starting hard and sprinting up to my best speed, then stopping to do it again. However, after a couple of hours of paddling while going upwind, I wished for a blade size with a little less bite, to spread the effort out over more strokes.
Sweep strokes felt stable, but steering in wind felt a bit less positive than I expected, perhaps due to the 220 cm length. A 230 cm paddle might have been better for steering. Although the thick elliptical shaft felt comfortable, the paddle was much too slippery for my grip to feel really secure. A light sanding of the grip area would provide a less slippery surface.
The Blackback performed braces and rolls very well. While the blade angle was fairly critical in sweep rolls, the large oval shaft made it easy to control. In a sculling brace the paddle remained on the surface. This paddle offered strong support in a C-to-C roll.
This is a custom paddle, so the purchaser can request almost any feature. I would ask only for a slightly smaller blade and a tackier varnish.
The Sawyer Cedar Sea Feather is unusual in both appearance and length. The shaft is vertically laminated from five layers of western red cedar, with ash reinforcements scarfed into the end of each shaft where it meets the ferrule. The shafts are shaped rather irregularly, with ridges that fall against different parts of each hand, even when unfeathered. The blade is cedar veneer glued to the shaft and covered with a very loosely woven fiberglass cloth. The blade is flat, and the shaft joins the blade without the smooth transition of the other, more sculpted, blades. While the cloth is well saturated, the spaces in the weave form small, but noticeable, pits. The full perimeter of the blade is edged in Dynel. The back of the blade has strips of carbon fiber under the cloth, and is painted black to hide them from sight. The stainless-steel ferrule has little wobble and assembles easily. The finish is a semi-glossy varnish with little imbedded dust, and a better grip for the hand than most. The flexibility of both the blade and shaft are above average, so the paddle is better suited to relaxed cruising than to more aggressive paddling. When in use, the dark blades made this the least visible paddle of those reviewed.
The Cedar Sea Feather paddle was a moderate weight, and the swing weight was moderately light. Gunwale clearance was adequate. The entry was the loudest of the paddles tested. By using a very long entry, I could avoid ventilating the blade. The blade fluttered just a little during hard starts. Low-angle strokes were adequate, but not inspiring. Drip rings deflected a great deal of water running off the blades, and more spray than average was tossed into the air.
This paddle gave adequate support for sculling and sweep rolling. When sculling, even if I slashed carelessly at the water surface, the blade seemed to automatically find a good angle. At the beginning of sweep rolls, the paddle felt heavy, as if it were dragging a lot of water along behind the blade. C-to-C rolls, however, felt good.
Sawyer manufactures a one-piece Cedar Sea Feather that is 225 g. (8 oz.) lighter than the two-piece version tested here. At that weight, I would expect that paddlers of doubles or very wide singles would be the most satisfied with this unusually long paddle. An optional 254 cm version is the longest commercially available wooden paddle I know of.