Too many athletes use paddles that do not suit their individual requirements. Instead of being told what to use I thought I would provide an overview of what each blade does, so the paddler can make there own decision.
The length of the shaft is a crucial factor in the decision making equation for blades, along with the following.

• Boat Width and Speed – Wider/Slower = Shorter Shaft
• Paddler Height – Shorter Body/Arms = Shorter Shaft
• Paddler Ability – Better Strength/Endurance = Longer Shaft
• Paddling Style – Technique/Cadence = Use length to suit preferred cadence and technique. NB – Assuming basic principals of kayak technique are held constant.
• Blade Type – Larger/Deeper Blade = Generally means a shorter shaft will be required.

Remember the purpose of a longer shaft is more reach and more power up front. We all need to be honest with ourselves here – the ego boost of having a long paddle will be crushed by having a poor race from a paddle that’s too long for your strength and paddling capability.

Marathon Blade

As you would expect, these are designed for distance paddling, it is a long parallel edge type blade with a relatively high feather (angle the blade comes off the shaft at), with the purpose of providing even power throughout the stroke. This is good in multisport for 2 reasons:

1. Multisport boats are designed for a constant speed and not to be accelerated ensuring you are not making the boat move fast by using a lot of energy and constantly accelerating the boat.
2. The feather on this blade means that the ‘catch’ is more gentle, thus less taxing over long distances.

The long blade means that you will tend to lengthen your stroke too much unless you have a good exit (this is bad as your power decreases rapidly towards your hip). Because this paddle isn’t designed to accelerate the boat (short stroke), the paddle does need to be in the water for a reasonable amount of time to utilise its design, due to the power phase being in the middle of the stroke. This is generally where people will go wrong with this blade. When used at a shorter length with a very good catch you will fully utilise this paddle. When people are not using a good catch they will generally increase shaft length to achieve the extra reach. The result is incorrect technique making for inefficient energy use. Result; you end up paddling with a low cadence.

My personal view on this blade is that for a paddler with good technique (specifically a good catch) at the correct length means it is a good distance paddle. With the power phase of this paddle being in the middle of the stroke, there is no room for a poor catch as the power phase will be where the blade should be exiting the water – hence the importance of not go for a shaft that’s to long. When used correctly it’s a great long distance blade due to its forgiving nature (soft catch) but still powerful for the strong paddlers. Adjust length to suit.

Wildwater Blade

This is based on a down-river type paddle. The blade comes almost straight off the shaft, hence its ability to provide a strong and secure catch. It’s for this reason that makes it an ideal paddle to learn with, as it allows the paddler to feel secure at the catch phase, especially in moving water. However as the paddlers technique becomes more refined the same properties that make it great to learn with also make it a very taxing blade. The depth of the blade and low feather mean that with a good catch the paddle will bite the water very hard thus be hard to paddle efficiently over long distances. It’s at this stage that the paddler should think whether or not the blade is for them, if their technique is good and making the blade too powerful they may revert back to a poor catch as they’re simply not strong enough to use the blade with good technique. It’s normally here that the question ‘marathon or wildwater?’ arises.

Because it is based on a DR paddle, it likes to be paddled up front with a fast exit. However The downfall to this is that if you aren’t getting a good reach the paddle will enter and exit the water very quickly, rendering the paddle almost inefficient, this may be due to you achieving a higher cadence, this seems to be why some paddlers want to change from the marathon to wild water. For the average paddler (with a good catch) you should rate higher with the marathon than wild water. If this is not the case it will most likely be that your catch is a little weak. If you’re in a boat where you need to shorten your catch to keep cadence up – think about getting a shorter shaft.

My final spiel is find a blade with properties that match your technique and other personal factors. Without entering the world of GPS and heart rate data the best paddle for you is the one you feel most comfortable with, not someone else!