[Paddlewise] Wooden Paddles/LL Bean Wood Paddle

2 Jun 2000  "Sailboat Restorations, Inc." (Mark Lane) wrote: Subject: Wooden Paddles. . . 

...then I was in the LL [Bean] Store in Maine... and they had a bunch of wooden paddles.  The ones 
with the LL [Bean] Store logo were relatively inexpensive ($129)...  So I bought one.


I have that paddle.  I've used it exclusively for my entire sea kayaking career which spans six weeks and two trips including the famous PaddleWise West Point to Bear Mountain Bridge And Beyond Expidition led by Ralph Diaz this past Memorial Day.  


I like the paddle so far, but at the end of that last trip, when I was forced to sprint the last half mile by a sadistic member of the expidition  (note this is the same person who would replying to my inquiries if this was extreme kayaking yet when 1. we did an open water crossing of the river, 2. we landed on a remote beachhead where we found a number of 3 foot high rock piles that were probably built by indians to mark burial grounds, and we were in definate danger of being subjected to a curse, 3. we were buffeted by 18" swells from boat wakes, including mighty commercial shipping that came within 600 feet of running us over, and 4. when I was pinned momentarily against a rock at the foot waters of the mighty Popolopen waterfall, and I would say... "are we extreme kayaking yet?", and he would roll his eyes and mumble things, and tell me to stop zig zagging.  The same guy who when he would observe me attempting some course correction stroke that I saw a picture of in Derek !
Hutchenson's book, would roll his eyes, and mumble things about people who come from Brooklyn.  Anyway, despite my weakened condition from paddling 17 miles.  (Everyone else paddled 14,  but I was zig zagging out of control most of the way down and did an extra 3.)  Fortunatley, I had an LL Bean compass strapped to my LL Bean Kayak so I had no fear of becoming lost on the river, and besides one kayaker or another kindly took turns paddling with me as I tried to keep up.  And despite the raw chopmeat that was formerly my underarm skin caused by my LL Bean anti-chaffing shirt,  which later required medical treatment by Dr. Volin.  He plied me with beer as an anesthetic, and gave me a six course dinner to distract me during this treatment, which caused me to stumble wildly around his house, as my legs no longer functioned properly anyway after sitting in a kayak for such an extended period.   


So what was I getting at, oh yeah.... I noticed that when paddling real hard, the paddle wobbled.  It didn't just bow and snap back, it was a definate wobbling.   Is this normal, or something that wouldn't happen with a higher quality paddle.  

Maybe it wouldn't happen if I didn't weigh 240 lbs?  Of course if I lost weight, I wouldn't have as wide a girth to block the wind from disturbing delicate things carried on my back deck.


Tom Dowling



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