Once you get used to the bent shaft you won't go back to a straight shaft.  The bent shaft is more efficient.

Solotripper,

To your point, here is the LAST page of an account I wrote of my own very first trip into Quetico, a LONG time ago ("Wet Behind the Ears" in the QJ "Campfire Stories" section).  There were three of us heading down Nina Moose Creek and we had just finished a long, frustrating night dealing with nocturnal pests in camp:

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We broke camp on our tenth and last day in the pre-dawn twilight, surrendering the site to the fishers. Tired and frustrated from our lack of sleep, we wound our way slowly along Nina Moose Creek, making our way towards our appointed rendezvous with our outfitter. Our thoughts drifted to civilization and to the first beers we might be able to get our hands on. Little did we realize that the Quetico held one more "newbie revelation" for our small fleet, adding insult to the injuries already sustained by our pride.

A weathered little old man, sporting ragged clothes, a white beard, and a baseball cap glided towards us easily in his solo canoe, apparently just heading into the Park. His short greeting quickly deflated what little self-respect we had accumulated as paddlers during our ten day trial.

"Hey, fellas!" he chuckled. "Why don't you flip those bent shafts around and use them the way God intended?"

Ugh. We had never seen bent shaft paddles before this trip. I suppose it might be reasoned - in some universe - that the proper application of a bent shaft paddle is not exactly intuitive. Regardless, we had a full ten days and a 50-50 chance of making a correct decision on this question. Sadly, as newbies to the Park, we got this one wrong, too. Yikes!

Humbled, but wiser in the ways of the North, we flipped our paddles around and resumed our trek homeward. Somewhere, not far ahead now, there would be cold beer in which to drown our sorrows.

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My paddling party was - at the time - from North Carolina & Texas.  Despite being somewhat experienced paddlers (southern swamps, whitewater, Maine's Allagash Waterway), none of us had ever seen bent shaft paddles before.  In fact, among us was a damn good "engineer"... & even he didn't figure it out!

During that first trip we did just about everything wrong that one could possibly get wrong... starting with putting 3 guys into a tandem canoe and TOWING a solo canoe laden with all of our packs.  That, too, was a dumb-ass nightmare but, after 5-6 days, our engineer DID figure that one out.

Our first Quetico experience exemplified the wise old adage that I often repeated and learned to embrace during a lifetime in the HR profession: "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE MORON FACTOR."

It's a bit of a wonder that I/we have been back 30 - 40 times since that first humbling experience.  I think that has something to do with the positive charge I get when learning something new.

A "smart" moron knows when he is licked.  Shortly after discovering "QuietJourney" (almost exactly 5000 days ago), I began to trip with QJ'ers who had a great deal more experience in northern waters than me. 

"Positive charges" came in rapid succession after that... one of the smartest moves I've ever made.

Jimbo   

After four seasons of use of my 8oz ZRE I think it is probably the best bit of gear I've purchased. Two years ago when my brother agreed to a trip I had to buy another cause I figure he'd be super pissed off if he ever discovered the difference between the Zav and the paddle I stuck him with.

Be careful when you set it on the gunwales on breezy days. I always secure it to the canoe (like it was going to be portaged) when in camp.

Last year on Quetico Lake a father and his daughter passed me on my campsite.  They were close enough that I could see that they were using the bent shaft paddles backward.  I yelled to them that they were using the paddles backwards.  They heard me and flipped the paddles so they were using the paddles correctly.  The father yelled thank you and they continued on their way.

solotripper wrote on Jun 14^th, 2016 at 12:16pm:


I feel bad telling my wife I want to do a two week solo.  Verlen was like "Honey, i'll be back in 3 years".  "Oh, and my new paddling partner is this nice woman I met who's 30 years younger than me.  See ya!"