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we’ll be mostly doing daytrips in our canoe but someday would enjoy the weekend/weeklong trippin thing my ? is…Do you guys ever take along a extra paddle when your out? ever had one break? ever lost one? who packs an extra???
thanx
OBAI don’t usually bring an extra.
I’ve never lost one or had one break. I have found a few though.
We usually have two paddles for each paddler for day type trips, but depending on where the day trip is, we might only carry one. We definitely carry spares when we do wilderness trips. Unfortunately, my paddles are too big for Laura to use. When tripping in solos we usually have a bent for flatwater, and a more durable whitewater stick, as the trips usually comprise both. When you are 50 miles from the nearest road and your only mode of propulsion is your paddle it’s critical. Last year, one of my tripping buddies had his flatwater paddle disappear on the first day on the San Juan in Utah, and had to paddle the remaining 8 days with his whitewater stick. He was obviously bummed, but glad he had something to paddle with.
PK
I always have a spare paddle aboard strapped to the thwarts….I’ve known two paddlers who have lost their paddle and once had a bowmn’s paddle snap…enough to convince me to keep the extra around!
Kirk
Well, we do usually bring along one extra paddle per boat nowadays.
We didn’t always do that. :confused:
Then one day while doing something stupid-like pushing off of a beaver dam-we snapped one. 😡
But, thanks to good ole yankee inginuity, a small hunk of beaver dam material, and about four pounds of duct tape, we soon had a superbly (re)engineered piece of equipment at our disposal.
The grip was a little cumbersome though………for the next eight days.
So now we bring an extra.
One of Lifes Teachable Moments I guess. 😀
pake
Extra paddles sounds like a wise thing to do. I was wondering if solo paddlers ever used a leash on their paddles. But that seems cumbersome and even dangerous if you capsized and got the leash wrapped around your neck.
I always take one extra paddle along on any wilderness trip I do. Most times it’s just extra gear on a portage but it’s not like it weighs a ton.
On one trip, my buddy broke his paddle. If it weren’t for the spare only one of would have been able to paddle our loaded canoe for the rest of the trip.
I consider an extra paddle like insurance. Something you know you might need but never want to use. I’d rather have it and not need it than not take it and wish I had.
Dave
Roger that on the spare/boat.
Reading a book now that says to have a straight and a bent paddle. (when on flat AND whitewater)
Always. The extra is usually my bent shaft, but there will always be an extra paddle.
Once there wasn’t. Six man trip and nobody thought to stow a spare paddle. One guy did a dumb thing, even as he was warned. He used the paddle to steady the canoe as we unloaded, wedging it on a rock downstream. Snap! Some splints and lashings and duct tape, it was still a pretty flimsy affair and he had 4 days to go with it.
One of my personal anxieties is when I lay the paddle accross the gunwales even on flat water. Nothing to stop it from sliding off with just enough momentum that I couldn’t hand paddle to it.
They do break.
They do get lost and float away.
Porcupines love to nibble some of them, yumyumyum!I almost crossed over to the dark side this week….yeppers…double blades!…Crappy tire sells a cheap collapsible kayak paddle at $30 and I was so tempted to get it just to try it out, figure for thirty bucks I won’t be out much if I didn’t like it…..on a solo trip into Algonquin Provincial Park a few years ago (my first solo)
I got caught in midlake when the winds came up hard and fast…in under 10 minutes there were 2 foot swells with white caps from flat calm water. It blew hard enough to force me to shore and set up a temp camp while I waited out the wind….an hour or so later I saw another solo paddler midlake cuttin along with a double blade and handling the rough water quite well….never forget that image…water that defeated me and this guy just trucked right through it like it was just another day on the water!Kirk
I always carry a spare, and I don’t tie it in either, keep it ready to use. I have broken several paddles, and also have had paddles pulled out of my hands in whitewater, or dropped them at a crucial moment…it’s good to be able to whip the spare out right away.
One of the things the other Ontario members did not say was that in Ontario you are required to carry an extra paddle under the Safe Boating Act.
Bill
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