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Boundary Waters / Quetico Discussion Forums >> Strictly Gear - Gear specific reviews and ideas. >> kayak paddle for solo canoe
https://quietjourney.com/community/YABB.cgi?num=1250478789 Message started by Canoe Sponge on Aug 17th, 2009 at 3:13am |
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Title: Re: kayak paddle for solo canoe Post by Mad_Mat on Aug 17th, 2009 at 12:53pm
I've never used one - my not so humble opinion is you should learn to paddle a canoe with a single blade paddle - using a kayak paddle is akin to using training wheels on a bike.
Having said that, I'll add I don't care how you or anyone else paddle, but I think you'll earn higher karma points, have more satisfaction with your ablility, with a single blade I just led a club trip yesterday - a short 7 mile run down the S Platte River. It was an open trip - 3 solo canoes, and two solo kayaks. The water is low this time of year, and the floatable channels are narrow - lots and lots of sweepers blocking the channels. In some places, you had to paddle within a foot of the bank to find enough water - the kayaks had some trouble manouvering in those tight spots- nowhere to put thier paddle in - the canoes didn't. Kind of a synopsis of a lot of threads about double blade vs single blade - in the long run, it is more strenuous to use the kayak paddle; a kayak paddle will help you to paddle into strong winds, somewhat easier than a single blade (due to a higher cadence and not needing correction strokes - true, but you can go to a higher cadence with a single blade as well - that's what I do). The learning curve for paddling a solo boat with a double blade is about zero. here is link to a thread that is a pretty good read on the subject- scroll down past the adds to see the posts (You need to Login or Register I think it boils down to whether you really really like paddling or not - if all you want to use your canoe for is transportation - to get into some lake to fish, it doesn't make any difference how you get there - a motor is the easiest and most efficient way to go (and you can do that in some parts of BWCA). IF you paddle for the pleasure of paddling, the art of paddling, then why stop half way ? I paddle with a lot of different people - one guy who paddles both canoes and kayaks (he seems to prefer kayaks for everything but white water) is always telling me that I should try the kayak, to cross over to the dark side. I'm sure I'd enjoy paddling a kayak - problem is, I really really like to paddle my canoes - can't do both, so no thanks, I'll stick to my canoes, and to my single blade paddle. This guy is into racing and doing upstream paddling to avoid shuttles and for the workout - his kayak (he's a boat dealer, has all kinds of boats) is better for that than his canoe. |
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