Question: What length of paddle do you use .

ezwater · Post by **ezwater** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:08 pm

I'm 6' 5" and use 61" paddles in both c-1 and OC-1.

I find it interesting that Jon Lugbill and Davey Hearn, neither of them tall, used 59" paddles for racing.

I use wood core curved blade Mitchell or Clinch River paddles, two with carbon shafts, one with a wood shaft.

Todhunter · Post by **Todhunter** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:19 pm

5'10", 140lb

I am using a 56" Werner Bandit (carbon shaft / carbon blade)
I have a 56" clinch river on order (wood shaft with carbon sock / wood blade)

Jim Michaud · Post by **Jim Michaud** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:19 pm

57" - C-1 on creeks
58" - C-1 on rivers
58" - OC-1 on creeks
60" - OC-1 on rivers
62" - Whitesell OC-1 in Grand Canyon
62" - Shredder

Mitchell all-carbon spoon blade paddles.

Louie · Post by **Louie** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:01 pm

Flexability is the key, not in your paddle but in your ability to change to meet the challange presented to you.....If I find or are given a 54" paddle I change my paddlein to meet those challanges a shorter paddle gives you, 60" paddle same thing I change what I need to make it work. I envy you all that have despoible income to where you can buy boatin gear.

During ALF Will came uop to me and said "Louie I got a paddle from Warner for you and I got three different lenghts which one do you want?"

I said " the newest"

Louie · Post by **Louie** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:02 pm

Flexability is the key, not in your paddle but in your ability to change to meet the challange presented to you.....If I find or are given a 54" paddle I change my paddlein to meet those challanges a shorter paddle gives you, 60" paddle same thing I change what I need to make it work. I envy you all that have despoible income to where you can buy boatin gear.

During ALF Will came uop to me and said "Louie I got a paddle from Warner for you and I got three different lenghts which one do you want?"

I said " the newest"

Cumnock · Post by **Cumnock** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 5:35 pm

SO

It's looks like the following

54
56
and
58

Thanks for the intel : )

craig · Post by **craig** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:14 pm

57.5" wood curved blade Mitchell. You giving some away???

Motoari · Post by **Motoari** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:42 pm

6' , 188lbs
using a 60" echo Pursuit curved wood blade with carbon shaft paddle.

mahyongg · Post by **mahyongg** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:08 am

Absolute paddle length would be of interest for a producer, rental outfit or shop trying to find out which lengths to stock, right? But then people here either dont buy finished lenghts, dont rent, or do with what they can find or get (good one louie!).

Relative made the most sense for me in this regard, although gathering all (and all means height, arm length, basically like for a bespoke suit - plus boat stuff!) measurements and do a nice info graphic on paddle lenghts. Plus spreads for Style, location (shorter in the north, longer in the south?) and stuff. There is material like that out there for penises, so why not for paddles - as a designer I can totally see the fun in that. alas, I have no time to do it myself, because I have to work on my new paddle blade to get shorter by pushing off the gravel on my local river floors.

;D

(will measure my paddles sometime.. promised, maybe next rotation of that story?)

(speaking of rotations, does anyone keep a log to do a timed statistic on most use paddle lenghts? dont forget to correlate with usual height growth in populations etc.. and spread out between euros and americans pls ;D)

Cheerio,

Jan

xmas0c1c1k1 · Post by **xmas0c1c1k1** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:26 am

no not 2 inch increments I paddle with 57 inches an inch is a big enough gap between lengths I hate how manufacturers always do 2 inch increments I know they have their reasons but I don't like it cause I fall in between

marclamenace · Post by **marclamenace** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 8:20 pm

xmas0c1c1k1 wrote:no not 2 inch increments I paddle with 57 inches an inch is a big enough gap between lengths I hate how manufacturers always do 2 inch increments I know they have their reasons but I don't like it cause I fall in between

Right!

I have a couple 58 for my OCs and a (custom echo paddle) 57 for my C1 and YES I do find a difference too. Guess it was just another reason to treat myself with an echo paddle! Love their reaction paddle.

mattm · Post by **mattm** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 8:34 pm

54" for the GyraMax and ForPlay, 56" for the Flashback, 58" for the Pyrana and 56" or 58" for the Encore, depending. Handpaddles for the Rave/ForePlay and 12' poles for the Dumoine and Reflection. It's a jungle out there. AB Edge glass and carbon paddles primarily. 6'2" 210 lbs last I checked.

TheKrikkitWars · Post by **TheKrikkitWars** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:42 pm

Louie wrote:Flexability is the key, not in your paddle but in your ability to change to meet the challange presented to you.....If I find or are given a 54" paddle I change my paddlein to meet those challanges a shorter paddle gives you, 60" paddle same thing I change what I need to make it work. I envy you all that have despoible income to where you can buy boatin gear.

There's a lot of truth in this, in fact for running rivers and creeking I daresay I agree completely (though I've always find it easier to adapt to paddling my open with the short blade, than to paddling closed cockpit with the long blade); However I still have a preference for different blades in different situations (I reckon if I only ever paddled on deep powerful rivers my preferences would be reversed.)

I also know for a fact that it's unwieldy to playboat with a big long paddle, (unless you playboat with a big long boat too) and definately I couldn't go using my normal blades in my squirtboat.

Anyway, getting back to the point I was going to make originally: Louie:- In all your adventures in adaptablity have you developed a preference for a particular length of stick in combination with a certain boat, or is your sole preference for the cheapest, newest paddle?

Louie · Post by **Louie** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 1:17 am

MIT MIT USE TO ALWAYS PUSH 60" ONES. I guess if I had money too spend on gear and didn't have to reley on the kindness of strangers I would use a 58" but lenght is fourth consideration after blade shape (Fan Tail Spoon), shaft material (some of Chad really stiff carbon shaft kills my shoulder), weight, and believe it or not tee grip shape.

I have dreams about new gear but like my poly pro from 1984 I guess I will just make do with what I have.

coloradopaddler · Post by **coloradopaddler** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:06 am

i used to use 62" blades in my open boats, but recently i've been using 60" ones. i use a 58" paddle in my river runner c1 and i'm thinking i need to get a shorter one for my ez, starting at 56" probably.