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 Gillespie Stand Up Paddles                                                            

The sudden, seemingly explosive growth of standup paddling has created an entirely new area for just about any person to engage themselves on the water.  As with any sport, standup paddling offers opportunities for anyone of any level to enjoy themselves .  Along with this newness comes a lot of confusion about what equipment to select.  Essentially, all you need is a standup board -- of which there are too many varieties to keep track of, and a paddle, where the confusion isn't such a strong factor. 

The length of a standup paddle affects the way it will feel, and this will also affect how heavy it is.  .  Compared to canoe paddles, the shaft is very long, while the blade is about the same size, if not smaller.  All that shaft length creates a lot of leverage on the blade, as well as more weight in the shaft.  Hence the strong presence of carbon fibre paddles with standup paddling. 

 There isn't much reason to have a large blade, just because it will be cumbersome and less wieldy; it will also make paddling more tiresome.  Blades around 7.5" -8" are usually quite enuf.  

An all wood paddle will be heavier than hybrids or all carbon paddles.  Hybrids are mixes of wood and carbon fibre (or kevlar perhaps).  The wood can be in the shaft, or the blade.  The lightest hybrids would have carbon fibre shafts with wood blades; the blades generally would be lighter layups (like balsa or cedar) -- The  Cobra or Balsa would be examples.  

What is good about wood?  It's all natural!  It has a very natural, lively feel which can't be duplicated with synthetics!  It has flex, warmth, can be made to your specs; it is fashioned by hand (at least mine are), shaped by hand, worked, felt, and tweaked, by hand.  Plus, with wood, you can incorporate all the various glories of mother nature as they are cut, glued, shaped, sanded and finished -- into a truly unique product. 

 

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   The New Pro B -- an all wood SUP.  Lightweight, and easy on the eyes...

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An all wood paddle also offers the most flex.  Just about any paddle that is 80" long will flex! -- but some find the all carbon paddles to be too stiff, and like the shock absorption offered with wood.  Hybrids offer less flex than all wood, but more than all carbon. 

All Carbon paddles are the strongest for their weight,  and the lightest paddles.  Having a lightweight paddle (15 ounces!) is super if you need really quick, snappy returns;  for racers, being able to keep the cadence churning, without much time at all between strokes, is critical to board speed.  This becomes less important for those less interested in racing. 


  New super light, super strong, all carbon fibre paddle!  15 ounces, with the best carbon fibre blade available.   


  






Bent Shaft Wood Canoe Paddles 
You can feel free to contact me with any questions. I'm pretty much it here. I make all the paddles, take care of the email, and answer the phone.  I am the person you deal with, and I am the one who makes your paddle. (I have a couple of part-timers, who do a bit of gluing and finish sanding, and who do their best to keep the dust from building up too much.)


Your paddle is your connection to the water.  You may sit in the canoe, or stand on the board, but your butt  and feet aren't really translating in a very sensitive fashion what is happening in the water.  The paddle is.  It is connected to your hands and arms.  You feel what is going on in the water thru the paddle.  A good wood paddle does this best!  When things are going well in the canoe, you can feel it in the paddle.  Its a very sweet feeling!  But if the paddle doesn't feel, you will never know...

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Shipping info:
Generally, shipping prices are in the $25-35 range.  The length of SUP paddles obviously makes them more expensive than regular canoe paddles to ship.   If curious, just email me. brad@gillespiepaddles.com 



Other Thoughts: 
Most people feel some affection for wood and love to incorporate it into their lives to some degree. It represent something very natural and most of the time it is quite delicious to look at, even if we don't quite understand what is so neat about it, or what qualities it has. I know that when I first started racing canoes, I fell in love with the whole idea of angled wood paddles -- and I started racing just when the angled paddle was taking off. The sexy angle made the whole wood thing so much more alluring. Wood in a paddle adds life and character to it, as well as the enticing visual aspects. Although my background in canoeing is racing, I've always hesitated to embrace the very questionable value of having a stiff paddle that doesn't lose energy during the stroke. I may not race now, but I use a wood paddle (balsa/cedar layup) with a lot of very pleasant flex -- and feedback! -- yes, that flex is great on my joints, it also allows me to interpret the water and my relationship to it. In short, it has feel! If having the lightest, stiffest paddle isn't your major goal, wood should be your first choice. I also think that, yes, like shock absorbers, a wood paddle does absorb energy; but the blade does flex back, as the blade is relaxed, so for the most part, the energy is returned. There's also the issue of how much do you want your elbows to absorb impact? This may not be an issue so much with young supermen. But with aging supermen(women!!), it sure can be!