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Special on shorties! |
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Shipping info -- New! -- Shipping free on 2nd and 3rd paddles ordered...info about pricing and other goodies...
Welcome to Gillespie Paddles!!  Double Balsa... very light, wonderful feeling, nice flex...why or why not...the double angle? -- I've had several chats this week with paddlers wondering about the double angle. This am I was talking with a paddler from Hanalei; he loves doubles. One of the reasons is that the lower angle allows him to relax him wrist more. Since this was the very reason I made the original double angle, way back in the late 70s, for my girlfriend/now wife, I just had to tell him. The double angle a way to refer to a known paddle now. But the wrist relief was the orginal reason for it's creation. The lower angle on my double angles is more radical than on straight shafts -- because the upper angle tends to straighten the paddle out, since it goes the opposite direction for about a third of the overall paddle. The overall angle is around 12 degrees, slightly more than my Standard angles. This really provide optimum purchase and comfort with this style paddle. I've been building paddles for many years. Someone asked me the other day what has changed for me over the past 15 years or so. Of course, I didn't want to sound like some out of touch idiot, but honestly, my thoughtful reply was not too much! -- if the question meant how much has changed in the way I make paddles. This is not mass production here. I do 15 -20 paddles per week; my techniques have always been very hands-on. When you move much beyond the 20 paddle range, your focus has to be having others make your paddles for you, while your focus becomes marketing and managing -- things that certainly weren't on the front burner when I began making paddles, and really aren't now. Sure, I have made changes. I constantly modify aspects of my paddles and hopefully improve them. I am always using different layups -- mostly, mainly, wood! -- because honestly, there just isn't another medium that has the feel of wood and offers so many different working satisfactions (I mean you really can't get too excited about sanding down carbon fibre or fiberglass!!). Your paddle is your connection to the water. You may sit in the canoe, or stand on the board, but your butt and feet aren't really translating in a very sensitive fashion what is happening in the water. The paddle is. It is connected to your hands and arms. You feel what is going on in the water thru the paddle. A good wood paddle does this best! When things are going well in the canoe, you can feel it in the paddle. Its a very sweet feeling! But if the paddle doesn't feel, you will never know... For many years I have made paddles that work to fullfill the above statement. They are all hand-shaped with small machinery. I pretty much do most of it alone. As much as I love wood and working with it, there are certainly some paddling situations where having carbon fibre or kevlar parts (blades, shafts) makes a lot of sense. So I mate them and this produces some fantastic paddles...hybrids. Thoughts from Cary Ritt, who has 10 of my double angles....has paddled quite a bit, and has an interesting perspective... " Here's a testimonial you can use: I went back and tried the all-carbon paddle again yesterday, too. Light is great for long-distance, sure, but it just didn't "feel right" at all, felt "weird" actually, and even a hybrid just doesn't feel right to me now. Yea, if you've Mr. Marathon Racer Dude, OK, suffer w/ an all-carbon paddle, or race w/ a hybrid if you want to shave some time, of course, but otherwise, just for pure paddling enjoyment, go all-wood. Even the "carbon reinforcement" trend here is bogus to me, just make the paddle w/ the right woods in the right amount of thickness for stiffness, and you're golden. That's where the "craftsman" part comes in, knowing just the "right" balance. Heck, your wood paddles are ridiculously light already, there's almost no need to bother w/ all-carbon or even a hybrid, I'd be giving up too much "feel" for a tiny bit more in "performance", not a worthy tradeoff since I'm not out trying to kill myself in competition, but even if I was, why not stay healthy w/ all-wood anyway vs. risk tearing up my shoulders and back?! SOS, you've heard this for decades I'm sure, but took me 2 years and a dozen paddles to figure it out for myself. Now, if I can just find the right damn size ". Cary Ritt, Maui  Ultralites -- super pretty lightweight paddles laminated from darker western red cedar.Hybrids  You can feel free to contact me with any questions. I'm pretty much it here. I make all the paddles, take care of the email, and answer the phone. I am the person you deal with, and I am the one who makes your paddle. (I have a couple of part-timers, who do a bit of gluing and finish sanding, and who do their best to keep the dust from building up too much.) Just remember this one important thing when you are deciding on what paddle you want: its not a lollipop. (what's that mean? It means that how its made, what its made of, and how it paddles are more important than the how many colors the blade comes in.) I have a variety of paddles available for Outrigger paddling, recreational and Standup paddling. You can click on the links below and find several designs to choose from. Please feel free to ask questions. I am mainly a custom paddle builder. Outrigger paddles can be found at the Medium, Lightweight/hybrid, steering, and outrigger club/team links in the menu at left. Recreational/touring Paddles These are essentially the same paddles, only rec. paddles have palm grips and narrower blades -- 8.5" mostly. You have options to for wider or narrower paddles, and you can also chose a T grip. My T grips are all hand fashioned and very comfortable. The transition is more sudden from shaft to grip with T grip -- and mine are shaped more like a D. SUP Paddles All wood, hybrids, and carbon fibre. I make some really nice all wood paddles -- the shafts are larger than regular canoe paddles, but are not huge, nor are they squarish. They are comfortably ovalled. If you are really hot after the speed, a lightweight SUP paddle is important. If you are just a fairly serious paddler, who wants to have a paddle with feel, a shaft that is oriented, and a paddle that is not the same as everyone else's (like all the carbon paddles -- virtually indistinguishable, most of them made in CHina, shafts that are round and small (too small, and dense -- not a good feel for carbon), then try a handmade, laminated, wooden paddle. I make hybrid SUPs, with wood blades and a carbon shaft/ or, a carbon,kevlar weave -- these are ovalled also, and the overall weight of the paddle is no more than an all carbon -- my paddles just have life, also! -- and they aren't identical to the 20 or so other paddlers around you.  Hybrids I offer a couple of different options are with hybrid paddles (generally regarded as a combination of wood and carbon fibre). You can find wood shafts combined with Carbon fibre blades, or Carbon fibre blades combined with very lightweight wood blades. I offer two different kinds of cf blades -- both quite aggressive, one slightly heavier than the other, and with a somewhat shorter blade (17.5" vs. 18"), and also less expensive. (Gillespie CF) -- this is a very well priced paddle with super blade characteristics. If you wonder about the wood blades with cf shafts, I've had excellent feedback on these. The flex is mainly in the blade, and the weight of these is very similar to the CF blades/wood shafts, just distributed differently (more weight in blade, less in shaft).  Cobra revised!!Shipping info: Shipping canoe paddles is a little different than shipping other items, because the cost is based on the dimensional volume, not the weight of the box. I ship mostly with the Post Office, just because it is the best deal and frankly the easiest, especially for air freight (hawaii, guam, somoa). I'm just charging $20 for the lst paddle -- paddles 2 and 3 will ship free (if you order that many); the checkout system will charge you for additional paddles, but I will refund the $ to your acct when the order comes in. Shipping one paddle to New Zealand is around $45, to Australia about $75 -- 2 paddles are slightly more. Feel free to contact me with any questions. I have to charge more for larger paddles if they go air (us mail, rather than UPS) -- larger paddles are paddles over 9.5" wide, and longer than 52" -- this automatically places them into a higher air freight category -- so if you order a paddle with these dimensions, or larger, the shipping cost will be more like $35 of if it has to be sent by air, so the $20 won't cover that. You can order the paddle, and I will invoice you (paypal) for the difference. If you have any questions about this, just ask: Brad Other Thoughts: Most people feel some affection for wood and love to incorporate it into their lives to some degree. It represent something very natural and most of the time it is quite delicious to look at, even if we don't quite understand what is so neat about it, or what qualities it has. I know that when I first started racing canoes, I fell in love with the whole idea of angled wood paddles -- and I started racing just when the angled paddle was taking off. The sexy angle made the whole wood thing so much more alluring. Wood in a paddle adds life and character to it, as well as the enticing visual aspects. Although my background in canoeing is racing, I've always hesitated to embrace the very questionable value of having a stiff paddle that doesn't lose energy during the stroke. I may not race now, but I use a wood paddle (balsa/cedar layup) with a lot of very pleasant flex -- and feedback! -- yes, that flex is great on my joints, it also allows me to interpret the water and my relationship to it. In short, it has feel! If having the lightest, stiffest paddle isn't your major goal, wood should be your first choice. I also think that, yes, like shock absorbers, a wood paddle does absorb energy; but the blade does flex back, as the blade is relaxed, so for the most part, the energy is returned. There's also the issue of how much do you want your elbows to absorb impact? This may not be an issue so much with young supermen. But with aging supermen(women!!), it sure can be! |
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 Really nicely contoured T grips...way beyond the ordinary grip! These are fuller grips and I do charge extra for them. Just ask! 
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