SOLO

A curve blade canoe paddle for whitewater canoes. Not a new paddle, the first ones were made over a decade ago but renamed as I recently made some breakthroughs in weight reduction and increasing durability. I didn't have it on the website as I regarded it as nothing special with almost no market, then I loaned a new version to a friend who promptly but 50 days of use on it in about 2-1/2 months and set aside his two big name carbon paddles. I thought I might have something really special.

The blade shape is pretty much the standard shape you'll see on the river, I believe it originated with Kober Paddles in Germany for the 1968 Olympics. My version has rounded corners on the tip which sacrifices a little bit of power on the catch phase of the stroke, but also doesn't demand a vertical stroke entry for the paddler that reduces torquing of the blade. This is a more user friendly, not a racing oriented paddle. With a rounded Dynel tip, it wears away gradually and can easily be rebuilt and not just be shredded like many of the composite paddles.

The SOLO is made in two constructions with the option of mixing the two. The SD is a standard construction with a solid 4 piece shaft and black willow blades. The edging is the standard 1/8” Dynel and the tip is the standard 3/8” Dynel Shaft sleeving is either Dynel or fiberglass. Dynel is heavier, but recommended for use with either wood gunnels on an open boat or composite seams on a deck boat and Esquif's Tareau. The blade reinforcing is Kevlar seam tape reinforcing the power face of the shaft and the a 4 oz S-glass facings. The weight of the paddles has been running in the 28-30 oz. range

The XL is built for lighter weight. The shaft is a hollow core construction with 24” of the shaft hollowed out. This save about 1-1/2 oz of weight. The blades are now thin strips of Western Cedar, a lighter weight replacement for black willow. By using thin strips I avoid the bending and fatigue cracking that occurs when using wider strips of cedar. I have repaired many paddles for one other large wood blade paddle maker. Edging and tips are the same as the SD. Reinforcing has a partial 1.8 oz Kevlar sheet and full 2 oz fiberglass sheet on the power face and a full 2 oz fiberglass sheet on the back face. The Kevlar counteracts the tendency of wood shafts to crack due to fatigue and the Kevlar facing resists blade flexing and eventual cracking on the power stroke. The standard shaft sleeve is fiberglass with Dynel as the option. Weights have been about 26 oz.

Construction Details

SHAFT

The shaft is a laminate of 2 pieces of pine sandwiched between 2 pieces of ash, most of my older ones were sitka spruce which has gotten hard to get and is tough to machine and sand. For all of Sitka's supposed superiority, none of the pine shafts have broken yet.

GRIP

The grip is made from alder. I used to make the sort of standard hot dog shape more common on the older paddles like Norse and Silver Creek, then several years ago I switched to an asymmetrical grip that I got from the late Mike Galt(a flat water canoe guru). People look at it and say this is different, I'm not sure I like it. It takes about 3 minutes to grow on people as better than the standard hot dog and broom stick grips. If you insist I will make the older style grip.

Reinforcing

The first thing that stands out is the white Dynel edging. It is only about 1/8” thick, but I've never seen it wear out. Other paddle makers use fiberglass rope and other edging that is much thicker, and more brittle and heavier. No more comments needed I think my way is the best. The tip is also Dynel, but consists of over 30 layers of fabric, that is over 3/8” thick. It wraps around the corner of the blade and is a true wearing surface. The Dynel wears slowly and is very rebuild able, particularly if it isn't worn completely down to the wood which is still repairable, but takes a few more steps and never as neatly finished. There is also a Dynel or fiberglass sleeve on the shaft. The Dynel is thicker, heavier, and tougher but really doesn't contribute much additional strength, if you have plastic gunnels on the boat a fiberglass sleeve is quite sufficient. If you know where you wear the shaft I can put on an area specific dynel sleeve and not waste the weight of unneeded reinforcing.

The blade reinforcing is where I recently made some breakthroughs. On the XL The shaft is now reinforced with a partial layer of Kevlar on the power face and then a complete sheet of light fiberglass. The non-power face has a partial and full layer of fiberglass. The idea behind all this asymmetrical reinforcing is that Kevlar is very strong in tension and not very good in compression, while the fiberglass is just the opposite, strong in compression and not strong in tension. All that is engineering talk as during the paddle stroke the power face is trying to bend placing the Kevlar under tension while the back face is being bent putting the fiberglass into compression. This is the best system I've ever found.

The SD standard reinforcing is a layer of 4 oz S glass on each face, it is expensive but very tough system and heavier system. The 4 oz S-glass comes from the surfboard industry.

Sizes

The paddle normally has a 8”x18” blade. As they are largely hand made, I can build them either larger or small on request. I have made them from 8-1/2”x18” to 7-1/2”x17”. Overall lengths range from 54” to 60” with most of them either 56” or 58”.

Prices: SD $225

XL $250

Shipping is currently $15. All paddles are built to order although I sometimes have a paddle without a grip on hand.