Boats and Gear > Boats and Gear
Paddles :D
Conor Mohan:
I paid €30.00 for my rough stuffs, which is the price you'd expect to pay for club paddles. I waited for a good deal to come up on the canoes & kayaks page.
They're extremely well worn, and look it too; but they're still a massive difference from club paddles.
Anything you get will probably be an improvement over club paddles.
Douchier:
Rough Stuff:
--- Quote from: Aoife S on May 11, 2014, 11:56:22 ---As far as I know there's only a certain generation of RS paddles worth getting because the rest have shafts that break very easily...the older the paddle the better as far as I know :)
--- End quote ---
Well...there's a bit more to it than that.
This is the reason that Mark(the person in question) gave for the business going belly-up. The truth is that he's a nice guy and made some of the best paddles that you could get 10+ years ago. Unfortunately he had some issues in life. This effected how well he was able to run the business, and ultimately the quality and consistency of the paddles, on an ongoing basis. It's sad, but it's life. The business has been semi-closed for about 5 years and last year he decided to close shop and move to Australia. I get the impression that he's been doing better for the last while, but really, what the fuck do I know about the guy's life.
TL:DR - there's no real pattern to their production quality.
Rough Stuff paddles now?
The good:
What he was best at was designing paddles. IMHO blade shapes of the paddles are nice to use and compare well to what's around at the moment.
The less good:
They haven't changed in ~15 years. Compared to modern paddles, they're quite heavy. Many/most? of the black "carbon" paddles have very little carbon in them and thus don't have any of the weight or strength advantage. Even the paddles that were well made are getting quite old at this stage and increasingly likely to break (this is true of anything made out of composites, that gets used).
Buying them?
Are they cheap?Go for it!
I'll assume that you're talking about spending €50-80 (I wouldn't pay more than that for rough-stuff)?
What's the worst that can happen?
Two things are likely to happen:
1. You break them, probably about a year from now, you'll have learned lots, had a proper feel of what a decent set of paddles feel like and you haven't spent too much. Your first set of paddles are always going to be the ones that you're most likely to break.
2. You decide that you want a different set. You haven't spent much on them so you' won't lose much (you may even get all of your money back). Happy Days.
Buying your first set of paddles?
My personal advice is not to worry so much. Most paddles are good paddles, most are reasonably priced.
There's lots of different paddles out there, but as a newer paddler you haven't really developed much of a style yet and you won't really know what suits, because nothing really does. Whichever paddles you buy, you'll adapt to and enjoy.
If buying new, some paddles are terrible and shouldn't be bought. most are good.
If buying second-hand, most things are worth buying at the right price, so long as they're noticeably better than club paddles. Some will last you longer than others.
Notes on Rough Stuff:
1.My first two proper sets of paddles were rough-stuff. I broke both of them. Both of them broke too easily. One of them was the supposedly good vintage. I liked both of them, I don't regret buying either.
FYI: I had a set of Tempests and a set of Black-Magics.
2. He made A LOT of different blade shapes. He liked to design and experiment.
3. He also liked to experiment with materials, this is why a lot of the "carbon" paddles aren't that carbony - he used a lot of mixes in an attempt to give the consumer an affordable "carbon" paddle.
4.The main Rough-Stuff white-water paddles you'll find are Tempests and Kinetics.
Tempests have a traditional-asymmetric blade shape and Kinetics, oddly enough have a kinetic shape.
5. The blades are usually joined to the shaft with a big chunk of aluminium. This means that they're all heavy, all of them.
Specifics about paddles?
If anyone would like to ask about the details of paddles then feel free to ask. The difference that different blade shapes, paddles length, materials, manufacturer etc. make is interesting...but for buying your first set of paddles it's probably completely irrelevant.
Douchier:
--- Quote from: DervM on May 02, 2014, 20:00:41 ---
ATs ...tend to be a bit heavier than Werners
--- End quote ---
I'm thinking this is a reference to the former mid-range line(white blades with black shafts)?
If so then you'd be totally right, they were terrible. Thankfully they've been discontinued.
They were really heavy, excessively flexible and really, really overpriced.
They've been replaced by a new mid-range line which are very similar to the mid-range Werners. Build is identical and blade shapes are similar, but a little less expreme( ie. the Geronimo is a little less traditional shaped than the Powerhouse and the Samauri is a little less extremely kinetic than the Player).
Prices are slightly cheaper than the mid-range Werners.
(Comparing AT Eddies to Werner Players isn't a fair price comparison as they're a very different construction)
--- Quote from: Diarmuid on May 11, 2014, 13:39:23 ---Adventure Technology seem yo be getting a few returns recently.
--- End quote ---
This seems to be a bit of a problem. But luckily seems limited to the connecting spigot. I'm guessing that whatever glue they're using just isn't up to scratch. It might be best to just factor in an extra few euro for a tube of epoxy. Everything else on them is very durable.
The white ones that Andrew got were end-of-line and aren't made any more.
--- Quote from: canoekev on May 02, 2014, 20:27:18 ---it gave me sherpa (194cm) which is actually what I've been leaning towards for a while.
--- End quote ---
I have to say, I think that app is a load of shite.
The length is a no-brainer and the rest is just fitting you into whichever marketing bracket they want to put you.
It pushes the fallacious notion that traditional-asymmetric shape paddles (Sherpas, Powerhouses, shoguns, stikines etc.) are the better/the only paddles for river-running. Codswollop.
Of course, they're still good paddles and would be suitable.
--- Quote from: canoekev on May 02, 2014, 20:27:18 ---I tried Nialls AT's a few weeks ago, they were nice but I think i prefer werner. (They might just have been too big) also forgot to mention that I'm about 5'8.
--- End quote ---
Maybe worth keeping in mind that you're comparing very different blade shapes too.
DervM:
--- Quote from: Douchier on May 11, 2014, 15:41:03 ---They've been replaced by a new mid-range line which are very similar to the mid-range Werners. Build is identical and blade shapes are similar, but a little less expreme( ie. the Geronimo is a little less traditional shaped than the Powerhouse and the Samauri is a little less extremely kinetic than the Player).
--- End quote ---
Oh yeah! Forgot these came out. The marketing video on the composite they're using (Innegra) for these made me really interested, but haven't seen them out on a river yet to have a look.
Douchier:
For some reason I don't think many shops are stocking them. Weird.
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