My wife and I had our first canoeing experience together on a circuit of the Bowron Lakes many years back. The approaching trip served as the motivation for building a canoe. Before the canoe was finished, we went down to a local canoe dealer on the Willamette River and tried a few paddles in one of their canoes. We ended up with a pair of Sawyer bent (about 15 degrees) shaft paddles. Since that first set, we have progressed through several more, each a step up from the previous ones in looks, feel and performance, and a step down in weight. Although we have a pair of straight shaft paddles, we now use bent shaft Sawyer Cedar Egrets as our first choice for the paddling we do (flat to swift water in a light weight touring canoe).
Why bent shaft? The physics of paddling are fairly straightforward. A paddle works best at moving the canoe forward when the blade is vertical to the water’s surface. During the power portion of the stroke, the blade of a bent shaft paddle is, on average, closer to being vertical than a straight shaft paddle. So, all else being equal, for straight ahead paddling and for the typical flat-water paddler, the bent shaft paddle will be a bit more efficient than a straight shaft.
Our bent shaft Cedar Egrets have fairly large blade area and are relatively light in weight (about 20 oz.), though not as light as some of the carbon fiber paddles. We have tried carbon fiber paddles, but they all seem to have a much smaller blade area than our wooden paddles. The result is with the carbon fiber paddles we have to paddle faster just to maintain the same speed. For us it seems more efficient to use paddles with larger blade areas and stroke at a slower rate.
I have heard the sales pitch for carbon fiber paddles at a local paddle shop - lighter weight, smaller blade, higher stroke rate equals more efficient paddling. Choosing a paddle is a personal thing and you should try them out and get the one that suits you best. But, if you believe that sales pitch and buy the carbon fiber paddle, don’t be surprised if you are later passed by a couple of geezers stroking at two thirds your rate with Cedar Egrets.
There are many more aspects to choosing a paddle than whether it should have a bent or straight shaft. John Winters has an excellent article on selecting a paddle on his web page, which you can access at http://www.greenval.com/jwinters.html. I highly recommend you check it out before you buy your next paddle. If you want to know more about the hydrodynamics of paddles, he also has devoted an entire chapter to that subject in his fine book The Shape of the Canoe.
The attached pictures show bent and straight shaft paddles of about the same blade area. If the majority of your paddling is flat water touring, try a bent shaft paddle. You'll be glad you did. Attachment: Two Paddles.JPG (Downloaded 39 times) Last edited on Tue Apr 26th, 2005 06:57 pm by Thom V |
