A 100% double blade paddler is joining in the conversation. Because of an old work injury I could never enjoy using a single blade and did not paddle much. I tried a double blade and have never looked back. I use a 260 Werner Camano that is all carbon and less than two pounds for good tripping waters. If I am bushwhacking up unknown streams I go back to the 275 Carlisle beast that weighs over four pounds. The intended trip dictates which one stays home. I carry a Carlisle single blade but it never gets used other than as a walking stick while portaging a canoe and pack. Unless it is really windy my canoe stays dry by keeping a low angle and having the blades unfeathered. This way the blades act as drip points and the water runs off the edge of the blade and not down the shaft. It disappoints me that most shops do not carry a double blade over 240cm. Fortunately Werner and others are seeing the demand for longer paddles and allow you to special order them.
I often times used my double in the rear of a tandem and now I even use it from the front. In the rear it is really useful when the paddler up front is really young or just not an experienced paddler. In the front it allows me to power ahead. It seems crazy but much appreciated by the stern paddler. It requires a little adjustment to get the most out of it but well worth
A 95% double blade paddler belatedly joins the conversation.
For all intents and purposes I may be Marten’s twin; an old injury to my wrist precludes using a single with any kind of correction other than the gooniest of goon strokes, even sit & switch hurts after a short session.
Back when I paddled tandem with a variety of partners I found the same as Marten - a double blade in the hands of even an unskilled bow paddler can provide good propulsion and less need for stern correction, especially into the wind, and the bow station doesn’t need a giant-length double blade.
I first picked up a canoeing double blade in 1988 to use in a pack canoe after 20 years of using only a single blade tandem or solo (in big, clunky canoes). After injuring my wrist I found I could wield the double-blade all day without pain (at the time paddling with big, clunky double blades in those same big, clunky canoes).
The canoes have gotten better and so have the paddles. My go-to double blade today is the same as Marten’s – a custom 260 Werner Camano in carbon, although in the wider soloized-tandems (Penobscot, Explorer) I use a carbon 280. The Camano, in some composite and appropriate length, seems to be a common stick of choice for schmegging*.
*A term coined by my single blade purist friends for double blading a canoe. They refuse to call it paddling.
Like Marten, I use a beater double blade on shallow rocky waters (aluminum Mohawk or laminated wood), and I always carry a single blade, The 5% single blade use is largely confined to stuff so densely woody and narrow that there isn’t room to swing a double, pushing across rocky shallows or landing on cobble bars, and occasionally as a rudder when I have a sail up.
Over the years I have amassed a collection of long double blades, many of them wood, including some oddities (Nashwaak solid cherry double, old Kleppers, etc) and the first thing I notice when I take one of those instead of a carbon stick is “Oh my god, this thing weighs a ton”.
Paddle weight is even more important with a double, since you are lifting one end of it out of the water with each stroke. And not just overall weight; I had a Shaw and Tenney Herreshoff double that I liked for a variety of reasons, but the swing weight was all wrong for me (surprisingly it was too light in the blades/too heavy in the shaft, it just didn’t feel balanced).
Back in 2004 I reviewed the (then) few canoeing double blades available and borrowed a triple beam balance on which to accurately weigh them. Some of the weights for the comparable length doubles:
Mohawk (aluminum) 277cm – 3 lbs, 4.2 oz
Shaw & Tenney Herreshoff (spruce) 280cm– 3lbs 7oz
Bending Branches Tailwind (laminated wood) 280cm– 3 lbs, 8 oz
Bending Branches Day Breeze (carbon) 280 – 2 lbs, 6.6oz
Next time I have a triple beam balance available I’ll weight the carbon 260cm Camano. It is at least a few ounces lighter than the 280 carbon BB and a few extra ounces of weight adds up over a day of lifting one end of the paddle out of the water, even with a low angle touring stroke.
There are more composite canoe-length doubles made today than 10 years ago, and so more options to swinging a heavier aluminum or wood paddle.
Schmegging.
