Blades good for both Whitewater and Polo

[Diarmuid]

Hey lads,

Anyone know a good sturdy set of paddles that'd be polo legal but wouldn't fall to shit on whitewater?

Niall B?

I hear Double Diamonds would do the job but I'm not sure...
I also called into Rough Stuff and Mark has an extremely sturdy, though maybe slightly heavy set, (I didn't have anything to judge weight against so I'm not sure) for 250 quid.

Cheers

[Maryanne]

Dave O'R had rough stuff paddles too, he might have a recommendation to offer about them.

There was a pair of galasport paddles in the trailer paddle cage at the club trip on Saturday, I handled them quite briefly (just to make sure they got the bus home rather than the cage) but I think they had rounded edges.

You could check out the canoes and kayaks for sale facebook page, you might pick up a bargain there, I seem to recall a post from somebody who was "giving up polo" and selling of gear, it'd be worth keeping an eye on.

No first hand advice from me though, I'm on the same set of Werner Players two and a half years later and there's no way those spikey needle fibres are polo legal!

[Diarmuid]

I do go on Canoes and Kayaks a fair bit alright

You thinking of Mongey? Far as I remember his blades would have pretty much disintegrated if they got a bit of bashing off rocks

Polo legal is min 5mm blade thickness and corners are min radius 30mm

[DervM]

GalaSports would probably be grand, but they're not the best paddle for either. They're heavy, they crack along the edge and soak water into the inside of the paddle, they're not really the materials you'd want to be looking at at this stage. They're also not the optimum shape...

[kmck]

To be honest your asking can I use a hammer to put a screw in, you can do it but it won't be pretty. I know some people added a plastic rim to black diamonds a few years ago to make them polo legal.

I'd suggest looking at the second hand polo blade market and buying there and then saving and buying a white water set. Basically you will damage any blade on white water and such damage won't really affect them for whitewater but could make them illegal in a polo match. If you look at any of the werners as Maryanne pointed out the get roughed up.

So my adivce, which is not what you want to hear, is buy a set for polo and a set for the river.

[Douchier]

[Briain]

Rough stuff aren't very helpful if your paddles break. They normally do nothing for you even if its a fault.