Bent Shaft Wood Canoe Paddles 

        Four Balsa tear, double angle, l0"ers suddenly available!! --- 50 and 51"ers, full blades, very light.....all four for $650; individually, $175 ea. 

Highschool paddles:  for those extra rough situations!!  These are still very handmade, and really nice -- they are just a bit heftier than the Standards, although they are very much the same essential paddle....so....    go here X



 

Carbon Fiber Paddles and Hybrids

 New hybrid style available.    These are really well balanced  paddles with carbon Fiber shafts and balsa blades!  I make these either as Outrigger canoe paddles or SUP paddles.  The SUP paddles weigh about 20 ounces....hybrid outriggers, 16-17 ounces.  Check them out in the lightweight paddle section.
    If you want a super paddling Hybrid, with a totally symetrical blade, front and back, both foiled, you can't beat my Outrigger model at $195!    For a more aggressive blade, the Hybrid Powersurge is unbeatable.  The powerface lip literally pulls the blade into the water while the spine balances the blade, preventing waffling and providing stability.  Available to 9.75" wide. 


If you need assistance ordering, or deciding, feel free to contact me -- I tend to the email thing with incredible regularity!! If you click on the 'Selecting a paddle' link above, I answer a lot of questions there also. And, there are just some keen insights on that page


Handmade Bent Shaft Paddles 

Welcome to Gillespie Paddles. I've been building wood and composite paddles for just around 30 years now. Mostly, I build really sweet bent shaft - laminated wood paddles -- the composite thing means that I use synthetic reinforcements like fiberglass, phenolic laminates, and carbon fiber to make things lighter and more durable. I am always tweaking them, so paddles improve all the time. I am very much into custom paddles, so feel free to contact me about any special paddle needs.

I personally make all my paddles. They are all handled and shaped by me; I mean, they are trully, handmade! What this means is that when you order/buy one of my wood outrigger canoe paddles, it will be slightly different than another...and another...and so on. They are not duplicates shaped by machines -- I realize that there are certain advantages to the machine thing -- like making exact clones paddle after paddle, but since I like making paddles, and my goal isn't to be a mega paddle building corporation, I want my wood paddles to 'feel' like I made them and not a machine. I will grant you, that most builders, after having built paddles for 5 years or so, will go to the machine route, if they can justify it. This allows the builder to pump up production, and eventually, what you have is a builder who is really running a larger business, and no longer actually handling his paddles. I haven't done this, although the possibility has always been there. I never dreamed of being someone who just put his sticker on the blade and spent my time handling accounts...I like making paddles too much to move away from it like that.