C-Forum

Please recommend a youth canoe paddle.
It has to be light and have a smaller blade than an adult paddle.
A 48" Bending Branches Twig would do nicely but BB stopped making them.
There seems to be a hole in the market between little kids' and adults' paddles.

Tom

After looking for a bit I gave up and made my own - a pine board, traced the shape I wanted based on down-sizing an adult paddle, cut the basic shape out with a saw, then an hour or so with a draw knife followed up with some sanding and a few coats of poly. I've made 5 so far as the kids have grown this way; next up will likely be putting a layer or two fo S glass on the blades and make a sleave on the lower part of the shaft.

If you find a paddle you like that is cheap enough also realize that if the blade is plastic you can trim it, and often you can remove the T-grip, cut the shaft down, and replace the T-grip. If you can't get the T grip off you can always cut it and make a new T grip. Seems odd to do that to a new paddle, so looking for a used one might make you cringe less than taking a saw to a brand new paddle. I haven't gone this route yet as the kids hands are small and I wanted a narrower diameter shaft for them, but depending on your kids are / size this may be a lot easier.

I too was thinking along the lines of Sir Adam--find a broken or used ww paddle, trim the blade smaller and cut down the shaft to the appropriate length.

You should contact all the ww paddle manufactures and ask them if they make kid sized ww paddles.

Exactly. A Werner Bandit or Nantahala with half a blade remaining would be ideal to cut down. I've been offered a Bandit.

I need a couple more, in Atlanta, if anyone nearby has a seriously worn out Werner.

I tried reducing a new Mohawk paddle. It still weighed too much after removing a lot of its original blade.

Here is my small and light-weight Carlisle blade. Physics can tell one how much those holes alter strength and water-resistance...but, there is no predicting whether kids will tolerate such an oddity.

Roy

Adam, I love this. What thickness board did you use? ...standard 3/4" or 1"?

It started out as a rough sawn true 1"; if purchasing finished lumber you may need to purchase "5/4" depending on what shaft diameter you want (with the shaft the thickest part that is where to start).

You're good with that draw knife.

The image is one Roy posted of a drilled out plastic paddle, not a wood one. I'll try and track an image of the wood ones down - I couldn't find it yesterday (too many images of paddling, skiing, and of course kids!)

Totally clear on that. I'm impressed by the amount of wood you removed from the 5/4 using the draw knife. Now, Roy...Roy is evidently good with the bow drill.

A nice sharp draw knife is a joy to use:)

I find continually flipping the piece I'm working on helps me keep it mostly even on both sides. My first paddles were pretty rough, mostly as they were "paddle shaped objects" that the (very) young kids could play with / dip in the water to feel like they were paddling too. As time went on I spent more time finishing them off as they were actually being used more and more. The challenge I have now is that my daughter would prefer I make her a paddle than purchase her one for better or worse!