CMC said...
From the minor research that I have done the ultimate combination would be more wood shaft and foam or balsa/carbon blade or even lighter. Even with crude experiments with heavy shaft timber the light as possible blade does not create any pendulum affect with the even slightly heavier blade being so far away from your hands. Even these paddles felt heavier to hold but great to paddle with ultra light blades. (first variation was vacuum bagged PU foam blade)
Wood blades look great aesthetically of course but with all of that laminated timber will add weight right at the end of the paddle and from what I can feel feel heavier than they are. It seems that if the blade is light the paddle feels light to paddle with.
My $0.02 anyway.
i think the wood shaft is the key, but some timber in the blade i think would give you that nice sucky thup sound into the water. my $0.02 worth so far on the oc1 if you get that thup happening you are motoring. sure there is a lot more to it than that, but it appears to be a good cue for me
cheers
ps it's about time you make another paddle cmc
