We had a paddle trial of the wooden paddles in 2005, in which Typhoon8 came out slightly tops.
Some comments I recalled
- "Typhoon8 is most comfortable in terms of recovery among these 3 paddles - flipping is easy."
- "The polycarbonate piece at the blade of the Typhoon8 paddle was not designed to increase durability. Rather, it allows more hardcore paddlers to sharpen the edge more so that it can slice into the water easily. Some NTU paddlers mentioned that it may get rough over time and affect paddle entry. For durabilty, I have not used it sufficiently to make a comment..."
- "The Grey Owl High Performance is relatively light. However, more weight rests on the blade, making recovery less comfortable."
- "Weight of paddle - The idea of a light weight paddle is so that the paddler exerts his/her strength in the water during paddle entry rather than relying on the weight of the paddle only - I guess it makes paddler make the effort to have a meaningful paddle entry rather than follow through the motion. Of course, it will also affect amount of energy required during recovery - think it becomes more obvious on long course races."
- "Carbon vs Wood - The difference between the materials besides price is the amount of flex in the material. The carbon paddle will offer very little flex/is very stiff while paddling, so the force exerted by the paddler will be transmitted to the water rather than being lost in flexing the paddle. I have read some forums discussing how the stiffness of the paaddle may be tough on the shoulders or joints. whilst some paddlers prefer the flex in the wood to get a feel of the water"
- "Competition paddles vs. SDBA paddles - At the end of the day, the paddler is the engine and the paddle is just a tool. If you put Lance armstrong on a cheap bicycle, I think he will still whoop my ass even if i was riding his high tech bike..(I just watched the tour de france on cable..)...Having said that, I think that badminton, tennis even soccer players have their own racquets/boots and it makes sense for paddlers to have their own paddles."
I hope you might find some of these comments useful. Incidentally I am using a Grey Owl, only because the supplier only had them in stock at the time of purchase.
