Paddles in Whitewater Rafting

Video Transcript

"Let me explain a little bit about paddles to you, a basic breakdown of the paddle, the top of the paddle, this is a T-grip, thumb under here, hand over here. This is the shaft of the paddle here, and then down here is the blade of the paddle. Uh, depending on whether you are using a fancy paddle, they have a power face, which is a part of the blade, which touches the water, uh; your hand usually comes out about a hands width up from here so you have a nice strong paddling stroke. This is a basic children’s paddle, it’s about fifty-seven inches long, um, this is about a twenty or thirty dollar paddle, pretty simple, uh, this is more of an adult paddle, little longer, sixty inches, same configuration, it’s plastic with an aluminum tube down the middle there, um, and then this is a guide paddle which is a little bigger, a little heavier, sixty-six inches long, um, you notice it has a much bigger blade so you have a little more control when you’re out there paddling. Um, very strong paddle, useful, um, again, it’s on the lower end, it’s a pretty cheap paddle to have out there. This is a slightly more expensive paddle, it’s a little lighter, a little stiffer, about the same configuration though, you’ll notice the blade is a little smaller, that’s sort of a preference really, um then you start to go up, um, this is again, much lighter again, and uh, slightly different blade shape, um, this is a stiff responsive paddle, it feels comfortable in the hand, the t-grip is a little more molded, a little ergonomically molded and then we have the high end paddles, this is a carbon fiber paddle, um , it’s a beautiful paddle, very stiff, very light, very responsive, a lot of paddlers, if you paddle a lot end up getting a, a, pain in the forearm or shoulder, so if you paddle a lot you tend to want a lighter paddle, you want something that’s going to absorb some of the shock of paddling while you’re out there. This is a great paddle to do that, uh, and then this also, high end paddle, nice wooden paddle, just the same thing, very light, very responsive, stiff and this gives you longer lifetime of paddling without pain in the forearm and shoulder. This is a nice, a nice paddling stick. "