Stand Up Paddle > Gear Talk

Paddle suggestion for SUS with bad shoulders

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SUPvol:
On my recent trip to CR, my carbon fiber paddle shaft snapped in half. I have had it for 6 years and my guess is it got pressured dinged in the travel. Thank goodness for rentals! So back home now I'm in the market for a new paddle. I have had shoulder surgery on both shoulders, so wanted to ask for suggestions that might help keep pressure off the balls of my shoulders. Someone told me to maybe look at a smaller blade to help relive some of the pressure. I'm 50 years old, 5-7 and surf mostly in Virginia and OBX about a dozen times a year. Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

Green Water Sports:
Definitely a smaller blade will help. A flexy shaft will also help. How flexy will depend on the paddling you do. I just upgraded my surf paddle to a 2107 Starboard Enduro 2.0 S40 flex with S blade. More flex and smaller blade. My shoulders are happier.

PonoBill:
Most important is the shaft. You need flex that takes up the initial shock, but if you have too much flex you'll be pulling harder and your technique will suffer. This is an old topic here, you could search and find hundreds of answers, and the overwhelming majority will be KeNalu xTuf(S).

I don't know of any other paddle company that has used Unidirectional carbon over a fiberglass core this way. The xTuf shafts "stack" which means they flex initially to take up shock and then get much stiffer. I find the standard xTuf shaft to have too much flex and it gets stiffer too late. The xTuf(S) is just right--for me and a lot of folks with bad shoulders. I prefer stiffer shafts in general, and I switch back to the 100 flex full carbon shaft when my shoulders feel better, but the xTuf(S) is good medicine.

I really like the new Mana blade for surfing--very forgiving blade. I'm using the 95, but a lot of people really like the 82. I haven't tried one yet.

If you had a KeNalu to begin with, you wouldn't be changing your paddle, you'd just replace the shaft. They are component based--five minutes with a heat gun and you're back in business.

Reads like a pitch, but I like the paddles. I was a co-founder of KeNalu but I haven't had anything to do with the company for many years. other than still liking the products.

SUP Sports ®:
You should definitely look at a smaller, more efficient blade...fiberglass flexes more than carbon...more joint friendly, less stiff shaft...and, correct shaft sizing for yourself so that you don't have a shoulder impingement...as well as making sure that your paddle stroke and technique is fundamentally correct...

If you are using a paddle with a blade that flutters...you will work your shoulders and joints more trying to correct it...

Using too stiff of a paddle can cause joint/muscle inflammation problems even if a paddler has never really had them...and, a too stiff paddle will definitely exacerbate a pre-existing condition...

I've used quite a few paddles on the market...in fact, I was the first mainland dealer for Pohaku (C4) SUP paddles back in 2005...waaay too stiff...OUCH!
Then we carried Sawyer...Quickblade...Werner...KeNalu...etc...some have evolved and improved with wider offerings...but, it's still up to the end user to pick the paddle that's right for them...

Through lots of trial and error...we have arrived at a point with our shaft and blade combos, that has virtually eliminated the soreness issues that we experienced in the past with others...while delivering a very cost effective high quality product competitive to anything on the market...

http://supsports.com/sup-paddles

surfafrica:
I had shoulder surgery in the fall and my shoulder is still not fully recovered.  I just had a 10 day trip in Mexico and used the Black Project Surge paddle.  It was great.  I went with the  77 sq in (also comes in 82) and the soft flex shaft.  I'm  5'7 & 148 lbs.

http://www.blackprojectfins.com/sup-paddles/surge-wave-sup-paddle-lightweight-carbon/

http://www.blackprojectfins.com/2016/09/12/surge-re-defining-sup-wave-paddles/

I LOVE the reduced shaft diameter--picking up my old paddle feels strange now.  The 77 sq inch blade was nice on my injured shoulder too. The rounded edges on the blade seemed to help protect my boards' rails a bit.  The ergo-t handle was comfy. And the red handle is a nice touch.  I dropped my paddle after taking a fall and the handle was easy to spot in the impact zone.

This paddle is LIGHT.  I cut mine to 68" and it came to 375 g.  My 84 sq in Ke Nalu Konihi with the XTuf shaft cut to 70" and comes to 490 g (I assume though that the Ke Nalu would come in lighter with the Elite shaft than the XTuf but the XTuf has more flex).

Black Project did some good work here on the design--nice to have a paddle geared 100% towards surfing.  If you sign up for their newsletter online, you can get 15% off your first purchase (at least you used to, not sure if that offer is still there or not).

I also had great luck over the past couple of years with that Ke Nalu setup mentioned above and I think it's also an awesome option for sore shoulders (I liked the Konihi but would probably go with the 82 sq in Mana if I bought today). 

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