Paddles

The paddle consist of 2 main parts, the blades and the shaft. Each blade is set into the shaft at approximately right angles to the other. This is called feathering. The main purpose is to reduce wind resistance to the upper blade when the lower blade is pulled through the water.

Feathered paddles are either left-handed or right-handed, according to the way the curved blades have been offset against each other. The general rule is that right-handed people prefer right-handed paddles and vice-versa.



To diffentiate left or right-handed paddles-place the paddle vertically with the drive face of the lower blade towards your feet. The other drive face of the blade above should be facing towards your gripping hand.

The paddle can be constructed with any combination of the shaft and blade material:

1) Aluminum shaft, Wooden blade
2) Wooden shaft, Fibreglass blade
3) Fibreglass shaft, ABS Plastic
4) Alloy shaft, Cored glassfibre (sandwich construction)
5) Carbon shaft, carbon blade
6) Kelvar shaft, Kelvar blade
7) Graphite shaft, Graphite blade

Types of blades

The paddles are your means of power and it comes in different shapes and sizes.
There are 3 types of blades:

1) Flat blade
2) Curve blade
3) Asymmetric blade

*Information from this post is taken from Sea Sports Club 2 Star Award Handbook.