“Like paddling with an iron bar”, was how it felt going back to our old paddles after using the Werner’s this weekend.We were spending Easter with friends on Skye. Gordon & Morag Brown, who live down the road, leant us an Ikelos, with regular shaft, and Cyprus with a smaller shaft.
It is not ideal paddling conditions when you have to scrape snow off the kayaks. With high winds we didn’t get out of the bay but we were please that the paddles did not feel like they were about to blow out of our grasp. The positive buoyancy of the foam cores made the paddles exquisite to us. “Oh yes”, said Liz after just three strokes.
A couple of (freezing!) hours were spent trying to decide whether we liked the larger or smaller blade size. Liz likes the Cyprus, I prefer the larger Ikelos. Actually, when trying to brace into a leaning turn using the Cyprus I went over! However, at the end of a long day, tired arms would far sooner pull the smaller blade.We really need one of each! It’s not such a daft idea to switch paddles for different conditions, keeping the ones not in use as splits. Although it’s expensive to set up.
Before we came off the water, Liz suggested we swap back to our old paddles. Oh dear. We’ve been spoiled.