New paddle arrived!

It was sad news that my favourite paddle met with an accident on my last trip with it. The person who's car it was in kindly offered to replace it and I just received the new paddle. I was talking with Bending Branches, a company that makes wooden paddles similar to the one I owned and they said they had made that paddle. I was thrilled to find that they still produced a paddle that was very similar to mine. I opted to get a 220 cm rather then stick with the 230 cm I have been using as I simply do not need a paddle that long now that I am in a narrower kayak.

I took out the paddle on last night's paddle and was very happy with it. It is just as comfortable to hold in my hands as the last one, so the shaft is the same diameter. The blades are slightly smaller but still have a very similar feel through the water. The only trouble I had was to get used to the smaller length as I was using my 240 cm paddle until the replacement arrived. 20 cm doesn't seem like much, but it is pretty noticeable in a paddle. Once I started paddling I got used to it quickly. I will be taking better care of my wooden paddles. I will have to see if I can fix the broken one at some point as I think it will make a good spare paddle. I'm not sure it can be fully fixed but I think if I wrap it in fiberglass after fixing it, it will hold well.