I have used the AT and Lendal crankshafts and have come to like them both. On the Lendal there is no apparent angle between the shaft and blade ( in the sense of a bentshaft canoe paddle) but there seems to be some on the AT. The Lendal has a more pronounced kink in the shaft. The AT's kink is less extreme but is 3 dimensional as Gerald mentioned. I resisted acquiring either for some time despite seeing many of the paddlers whom I admire most using them routinely. I feared that if I grew to like the "donkey leg" paddle (as Leon Somme' of 'round Vancouver I. fame calls them) it'd make my other paddles obsolete. And, to a certain extent, so it has. Anecdotally: When a partner and longtime crankshaft fan and I switched paddles back and forth several times while paddling at a subjectively steady pace the crankshaft bearer consistently went faster. This is admittedly a very subjective test but... it was quite consistent. A few observations: The AT touring paddle is only available in a long but smallish surface area blade which will probably appeal to many but detracts for me. I usually paddle with a 120 cm paddle but found the distance between the hand grip areas on the 120 cm. AT to be too narrow. The 130 on the other hand was just right. The AT is beautifully made but the variable angle/width joint on the takedown version is , to my taste, a bit clunky and often take some time and repeated tries to set properly. Also, it came with no marked feather angle notations at the joint. ( This is easily remedied of course.) The Lendal crankshaft (like all of their paddles I've seen) lacks elegance but seems sturdily enough built. I bought one marked 116 cm. (as was recommended by an admired paddler) but it turned out to be 120 when measured later. I've not had it long enough to abandon my awesome Epic paddle altogether but if it performs as promised it may come to that. Larry Koenig Baton Rouge *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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