There are many well known makers of whitewater paddles. All of them have their fans and their detractors. When someone asks for recommendations on which paddle to buy, seasoned kayakers can rattle off the likely names as fast as the names of their favorite rivers - and generally predict who will rave or rant about a specific brand.
But one name - Lendal - seldom appears in such discussions despite their being one of the largest paddle manufacturers in the world. Worse, those paddlers who are aware of Lendal generally don't have a positive opinion of their products. But if you ask why, most of them will admit they've never used or seen a Lendal paddle... they've "just heard they have problems" or "they don't have innovative products".
In other words, these paddlers are simply echoing rumors without having any personal, hands-on experience with Lendal's products.
When I attended the Outdoor Retailers (OR) show in August 2002, I made a point of visiting Lendal's booth. Like most paddlers, I'd never personally seen a Lendal paddle (unless it was labeled with another company's name - the OEM segment is a big part of Lendal's business). I wanted to see for myself what it was that caused these rumors to appear and continue to circulate. I expected to find cheap plastic blades, aluminum shafts, "your logo here" style advertising, and the like.
Instead, I found the same modern materials (carbon, kevlar, polymers) and the same modern shapes (complex blade patterns, bent shafts) displayed by other, more "respected" paddle brands. I even found several innovations unique to Lendal that deserved closer inspection. Click here to read my Lendal OR2002 writeup on BoaterTalk.
Yes, Lendal makes some inexpensive paddles. There is a market for such things and someone has to make them. But that doesn't preclude the ability to make top-quality products, or to advance the state of the art.
So where did the rumors originate? Lendal, a Scottish company, believes it stems from poor handling of their products in the United States some years ago. Apparently their US people at that time didn't give their products the necessary promotion and support. Since bad news travels fast, they believe this left many in the industry with a "bad taste in their mouths". The rumors fed on themselves until they became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, with few dealers willing to carry Lendal and thus little opportunity for the US market at large to judge for themselves.
Lendal's relationship with that old crew is gone, having been replaced by the likes of Scott Lynch. As a freelance reviewer of whitewater equipment, I interact with a lot of people in this industry and I can honestly say that Lynch is among the best, most supportive, and most helpful vendor employees I've ever known. People can make or break a company faster than good or bad products. With Lynch heading up Lendal's US operations, I suspect the US market is finally going to start learning the good news about Lendal's products - and it's about time.
Based on what I saw at OR2002, I decided to include Lendal in my review schedule. I already had some one-piece paddle reviews lined up, and wanted to include a breakdown paddle in my June 2003 "review trip", so this article covers their solution for the breakdown paddle market: Paddlok.
Paddlok is both a device and a product line. As a device, it is Lendal's answer to that "loose, wiggly" feel common to the joints of breakdown paddles. If that were all Paddlok accomplished, it alone would be enough to revolutionize the multipiece paddle market.
But Paddlok as a product line creates a system of components which permit you to literally assemble your paddle of choice on the spot. A small number of components can be interchanged into a large number of configurations in mere seconds, and the result always feels like a dedicated, one-piece paddle - solid, monolithic, and reliable.
It's important to mention here that Paddlok is not just a better way to build a backup paddle, one to be used only in emergencies when your primary paddle fails. The Paddlok joint device makes the Paddlok product line work so well that it truly can be your primary paddle. All of the usual tradeoffs and compromises associated with multipiece paddles are essentially eliminated. The one thing that is lacking is a bent-grip shaft; Lendal makes them, but not in the Paddlok product line. (It is whispered that Paddlok bent-grips may become available in the future, which would be the icing on the cake.)
Since Paddlok is a product line, let's examine it as a series of components. Later we'll review them as an assembled whole and cover their on-the-water performance.
For this review, Lendal provided three sets of blades.
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| Figure 1 |
First up is the Kinetic Power blade shown in Figure 1. As its appearance suggests, this is a carbon composite blade intended for freestyle work or moderate river running (up to Class 4+). It is very thin, very light, and has that futuristic crosshatch appearance for which carbon paddles are known.
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| Figure 2 |
Figure 2 shows Lendal's Kinetik XTi blade. This is an ultra-rugged blade fabricated from carbon-reinforced Nylon12 (hence the "N12" label on its shaft). Compared to the Kinetik Power blade above, the XTi is thicker and heavier - and incredibly durable. Lendal recommends the XTi for creeking or any run where rock gardens may nip at your paddle. The XTi essentially trades a little more weight for a lot more ruggedness.
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| Figure 3 |
Lendal's Mystik blade, shown in Figure 3, is optimized for surfing (river or ocean). Like the Kinetik Power blade, the Mystik is made of carbon composite and enjoys all of the related ultra-thin, ultra-light benefits. Its shape and profile are different, to suit this blade's intended use.
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| Figure 4 |
Figure 4 compares the Mystik blade (top) with the Kinetik Power blade (bottom). The Mystik has a more aggressive cutaway at the lower corner where it first engages the water. It also has slightly less total surface area, since in surfing the paddle is more often a rudder than an engine. This reduction in surface area theoretically lowers the swing weight a bit, though quite frankly both carbon blades were so light the difference was indistinguishable.
In addition to three types of Paddlok blades, Lendal provided two types of Paddlok shafts.
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| Figure 5 |
In Figure 5, both shafts are shown disassembled with the joints to the right and the grips to the left.
The top pair is Lendal's standard carbon shaft (known in their catalog and on their website as "Grade 2F"). This is a fiberglass/carbon shaft that strikes a balance between strength, flex, and weight. It is all black but has that woven texture commonly seen on carbon-based shafts.
The bottom pair of shafts is Lendal's "High Performance Shaft" (HPS). Here Kevlar (i.e. aramid) is substituted for fiberglass to yield a carbon/kevlar stick that is stiff, light, and tough. The kevlar lends a gold accent to the otherwise black shaft, but the near-weightless feel of this shaft probably means no one will be able to see the gold because your stroke rate will be so high [grin].
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| Figure 6 |
Figure 6 is a closeup of the center joints of both shafts (HPS on the left, Grade 2F on the right). You can see the traditional inner and outer shaft sections with the traditional-looking button that rests in a hole. Somewhat less conventional is the hole in the button itself, through which the joint is tightened after assembly.
In use, the shaft is assembled in the normal manner until the button pops through the hole. The joint is then tightened (more on this below) to achieve total rigidity. The process is repeated for each blade to yield an integrated paddle.
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| Figure 7 |
Figure 7 shows the paddle ends of the two right halfshafts. The grip area is visible as a conformal coating (really, specialized heatshrink) around the basic shaft material. Also visible is Lendal's "fingerboard", their offset indexing device, beneath the heatshrink. This solid object, which feels similar to but better than the old "pencil under the duct tape" of years gone by, rests under the second knuckles of the fingers on your right hand. It is about nine inches long, so you can slide your hands around a bit and still have excellent indexing.
It takes a moment to really grasp how much flexibility results from the Paddlok component system. The ability to select different blades for different conditions is just the beginning. When you realize that the blade offset is determined by the location of a single hole in a single halfshaft, and that Lendal halfshafts cost $40-45, it suddenly becomes economically feasible to have a low offset halfshaft for freestyle and a higher offset halfshaft for running waterfalls, creeking, etc. Another possibility is to have separate right-hand control and left-hand control halfshafts for loaner or rental programs. I'm sure there are other variables I haven't even considered.
In all such cases, the flexibility costs under $50 rather than the price of an entire separate paddle. No longer do you have to choose between a "creek paddle" and a "play paddle". Buy those components which are different, share those components which are common, and away you go.
Lendal also makes a very cool carrying bag for their Paddlok components.
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| Figure 8 |
When closed as shown in Figure 8, the Paddlok bag is a tight little package with both hand carry and shoulder straps. A zipper around the outside of the bag can be opened from either end.
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| Figure 9 |
Once unzipped, the bag opens into three compartments. Two of the compartments hold blades; these have specially sewn seams that form pockets for the blade shafts to keep the blades oriented and prevent them from knocking around too much while in transport. The tops of these compartments have tuck-in flaps secured with Velcro.
The third compartment (top-most in Figure 9) has four separately sewn "tunnels" to store halfshafts, thus permitting you to carry two complete shafts in this one bag. With the two sets of blades and two shafts shown, you can assemble four different paddles... even more if you carry differing halfshafts (more about that later).
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| Figure 10 |
If that's not enough capacity for you, the bag also includes an internal zippered pocket. As you can see in Figure 10, the pocket is large enough to carry even more blades or shafts, plus Paddlok keys (the yellow objects on strings) and other knick-knacks.
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| Figure 11 |
Figure 11 shows my preferred use for the zippered pocket - particularly on an equipment review trip where I need to be taking notes all the time! [grin]
To the Puritans amongst us, a bag may seem like unnecessary "accessorizing". However, keep in mind that the Paddlok system is based on multiple components. By the time you have four blades, four to six half shafts, a couple of keys, and so forth knocking around, it's handy to have a way to keep them all together. The extra room in the Lendal bag also permits consolidation of other paddling necessities (sunscreen, sunglasses, tools, etc.) into a single easily-carried bag.
Lendal's Paddlok joint is used in the center of the shaft and at the base of the blades. The result is a four-piece system that truly, honestly feels like a one-piece paddle.
The basic Paddlok joint works like any other breakdown paddle joint: One section slides into the other, and a spring-loaded button pops through a hole to prevent the two pieces from separating or rotating unintentionally. In fact, if desired you can use Paddlok just like a regular breakdown joint - complete with all the wobbling you've come to know and expect.
The genius of Paddlok makes it possible to eliminate that wobbling by tightening the joint once the two parts have been joined. The traditional button has a hole which gives you access to a hex screw inside the shaft. Tightening that screw with a hex driver (or a Paddlok key, included) causes the inner shaft to increase in diameter ever so slightly.
This increased outside diameter (OD) does two things. First, it increases the pressure between the two parts beyond that which would otherwise be possible. Obviously, the pressure between the two parts cannot be very high if you are supposed to be able to connect and disconnect them in any normal manner. Paddlok solves this by increasing the pressure only after the joint has been assembled.
Second, the larger OD increases the area of the mating surfaces between the two parts. This strengthens the (temporary) bond between the two parts by distributing any torque or flexing load over a greater surface area.
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| Figure 12 |
It doesn't take much to achieve this increase in pressure and surface area. Figure 12 shows the OD of the untightened Paddlok joint to be 1.061 inches...
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| Figure 13 |
...and Figure 13 shows the OD of the tightened Paddlok joint to be 1.073 inches. That's right, just twelve thousandths of an inch. But what a difference it makes.
Look carefully at Figures 12 and 13, and you'll notice a pair of slots cut into the shaft right where the caliper jaws are measuring the diameter. Those slots are what make the diameter change possible. When the Paddlok assembly is tightened, it expands within the shaft and presses against the sides in line with these slots. The slots relieve the stress just enough so that the Paddlok assembly doesn't need to actually deform the closed section of the unmodified shaft (which would require far more force and potentially induce stress fractures in the material). By opening the otherwise closed cross-section in this manner, less force is required to accomplish the desired goal. Simple and elegant.
If you're like me, you can't wait to take new things apart and see how they work. And I'd like to tell you that's the reason I took apart the Paddlok joint assembly. The truth, though, is that one of my review paddlers managed to break one. A call to Lendal to get a replacement halfshaft revealed a whole new aspect of Paddlok's design: It is field repairable!
First, the story. Lendal recommends that you not overtighten the Paddlok joint, and I'm naturally cautious about overtightening things anyway. Most of the time people tighten things far more than is necessary, just as they slam car doors harder than is required (and cause cumulative damage in the process). Thus I believe I actually undertightened the Paddlok joint before handing it to a review paddler for her evaluation.
After a couple of hours on the water, she complained that the paddle no longer "felt right". A quick examination revealed that the button had been sheared off.
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| Figure 14 |
Figure 14 shows a top view of the sheared button...
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| Figure 15 |
...while Figure 15 shows a side view with an undamaged button for comparison.
I suspect that, given an incompletely tightned joint, torque on the blade during playboating caused it to rotate within the shaft. That caused the hole in the shaft to act like a knife and slice the top of the button off. And once the button top was gone, the blade was free to rotate even more - leading to my review paddler noticing that the paddle felt wrong.
Once this happened, I experimented with various degrees of joint tightness and found that I could go quite a bit farther than I had at first. At this point, though, I had a damaged halfshaft. In response Lendal shipped me a joint repair kit.
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| Figure 16 |
Figure 16 shows the components of the repair kit, with the Paddlok key running through them. The rightmost black object is the button itself. Next is the spring, followed by a glass-reinforced plastic piece which expands the shaft. This piece contains a threaded insert into which the hex screw threads itself. The screw protrudes out the back and rests against the leftmost component, which is the other half that expands the shaft.
As the hex screw is tightened, it drives the two largest pieces apart and against the innermost walls of the shaft. Note that this is completely independent of the button and its spring-loaded operation; you can still depress the button, though the halfshafts cannot be separated due to the increased pressure and contact area.
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| Figure 17 |
The first step in replacing the Paddlok assembly is to depress the (in this case broken) button. If you press it in far enough to clear the inside of the shaft, the assembly can slide out.
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| Figure 18 |
The Paddlok key was just long enough to drive the assembly out the end of the shaft...
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| Figure 19 |
...and I was left staring at the old assembly as shown in Figure 19.
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| Figure 20 |
All that remained was to insert the replacement assembly into the end of the shaft and slide it until the button popped out of its hole. Note that I could have replaced just the button, since none of the other components were damaged.
This entire repair took all of five minutes. I did it twice so I could take the photographs included here. Since this incident I've been tightening the Paddlok joints quite snugly, and abusing the paddles mercilessly, with no further damage whatsoever.
I consulted Lendal on the topic and received the following from Scott Lynch of Lendal USA:
"Since I have a whole closet full of paddles, I can do something that you can't--test to failure. So to get to the real bottom of the matter, I decided to tighten a joint until something broke. I must say that the result was a bit unexpected. The weak link is actually the key! I had to tighten it well beyond what anyone would ever consider. The result was that the plastic molding on the handle of the key broke--the L portion is still embedded in the remaining half, but the unsupported half of the key twisted off in my hand. I listened carefully, and did not hear any cracking or splitting in the process. With just the half key left, it's no longer possible to get sufficient grip to further turn the key. This applies only to an assembled joint. If you torque the male portion only, it does just what you'd expect--it deforms to a strong oval shape, creaks and groans, and then splits right at the end of the expansion slot. Even so, I think that the joint would still function if assembled, since the outer tube would hold everything together."
My conclusion: I don't think the paddling community need worry about overtightening Lendal's Paddlok joint. [grin]
I'm a strong proponent of wide grips, particularly with today's shorter paddles. Wider grips give you improved leverage and increase your potential stroke rate. I also feel that having your hands closer to the blades gives you better intuitive feel over where your paddle blades are. Since the blades are supposed to be extensions of your hands, that can only be a good thing.
When the first HPS shaft arrived from Lendal, I immediately noticed that the grips felt too narrow despite it being a 191cm shaft (my standard length). In response, Lendal sent out a second HPS shaft with the grips set wider.
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| Figure 21 |
Figure 21 shows the first (top) and second (bottom) HPS shafts, disassembled. The difference in grip widths is clearly visible, even though the two shafts are the same length.
Leave it to Lendal, though, to go the extra mile. In addition to the second shaft, they included two pieces of the heatshrink tubing and simple instructions on how to modify the grip width myself on the first HPS shaft.
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| Figure 22 |
First, the existing heatshrink must be cut away. This can be done with household scissors as shown in Figure 22, although it takes a bit of work to get the tip under the heatshrink to get the cut started.
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| Figure 23 |
This exposes the fingerboard, which is held loosely to the shaft with adhesive. It's easily removed by running a screwdriver between it and the shaft as shown in Figure 23.
Next, you reposition the fingerboard on the shaft directly opposite the hole for the blade's Paddlok button. (In my case, I put it as far toward the end as possible, leaving just enough room for the new heatshrink to get a good grip on the end of the shaft.) The residual adhesive on the fingerboard is sufficient to hold it in place during assembly.
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| Figure 24 |
Finally, use a heat gun to shrink the tubing over the newly reassembled halfshaft as shown in Figure 24. This results in heatshrink over the button holes, which is easily trimmed away with a sharp knife. Repeat the process for the other halfshaft so that its grip surface is positioned similarly to the one with the fingerboard, and you're all done.
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| Figure 25 |
Figure 25 shows the result. The shaft on the left is the second "wider" one from Lendal. The shaft on the right is the first "narrower" one which I modified to be wider. I was careful to make the grip surfaces symmetrical.
As noted earlier, the fingerboard is about nine inches long. This means no matter where you place the fingerboard and heatshrink tubing, you still have an enormous amount of positioning range for your hands. In my case, I just wanted it wider than "standard"... and Lendal's design made it easy to accommodate me.
"Okay," I hear you saying, "but what about performance? How is it on the water?"
In a word, Great. I missed the feel of bent grips, but that's my only complaint.
The blades have tons of power. The Mystik (surfing) blades have a little less than the Power and XTi blades, but they're designed for a different purpose. Personally, I ended up favoring the Power and XTi blades and not using the surfing blades; I liked having the extra power for attaining eddies after exiting a wave, and I didn't notice any reduction of control with the larger, more traditional blade shapes while actually surfing.
The blades are definitely rugged, too. Four separate paddlers used the Power blades in a rocky eddyline with plenty of rock hits and scrapes, and after several hours the blades showed no edge dings or other damage. There were a few surface scrapes, of course, but nothing unexpected.
As for the XTi blades, I'm not sure how to tell if they've been used. They got bashed and hammered and showed no signs of wear at all. They may be indestructible. As for the increased weight that goes with that strength, at least one of my review paddlers actually preferred the feel of having that mass out on the ends of his stick.
Speaking of preferences: Another kayaker used one of the Lendal paddles for a while, exchanged paddles with another kayaker who was using a very high end, very popular paddle, and within minutes was insisting that he get back the Lendal paddle. He never gave it up the rest of the day.
During this review I have used the Lendal paddles for river running... park and play... ocean surfing... flatwater practice... basically every kind of kayaking that I do. I've been exceptionally impressed. Set aside all the flexibility of mix-and-match components and what you have is a well-built, lightweight, powerful paddle that feels natural in your hands and does what you expect on the water. I have taken these paddles everywhere without hesitation and they have served me exceedingly well.
Lendal Nylon blades are $184 per pair. Composite blades are $256 per pair. The all-carbon shaft is $81, while the carbon/kevlar shaft is $90. Halfshafts are roughly half the full shaft price. These are list prices, so "deals" may be available at some retailers.
Hence the least expensive Paddlok paddle would run you (184 + 81 =) $265. The most expensive Paddlok paddle would be (256 + 90 =) $346. And once you have the basics, you can tweak and optimize for small incremental costs. A common shaft with one set of composite blades (lightweight for playboating) and one set of nylon blades (rugged for running and creeking) would total $521, or $260.50 "per paddle". A different offset for running waterfalls would be less than $50. And so on.
I don't know for sure why Lendal has a checkered reputation in the US. I DO know that based on the paddles reviewed here, they deserve ranking with the best paddle manufacturers in the industry. I consider the Lendal Paddlok system to be the best breakdown paddle available right now - and a strong contender for best overall paddle of any type. About the only thing left to hope for is a bent-grip version in the Paddlok lineup.
If you're in the market for a breakdown paddle, you've got to check out Lendal's Paddlok. If you're in the market for multiple paddles with different blades and/or different offsets for different purposes, you can save a lot of cash doing it the Lendal way. And if you're only in the market for a single paddle for a single purpose... well, we all know kayakers end up with multiple kayaks and multiple paddles. "Going Paddlok" today may save you some serious money when your kayaking interests expand.
Richard L. Hartman is an Engineer and freelance reviewer of whitewater equipment whose articles appear in a variety of online and print media. To provide equipment for review or inquire about hosting Richard's reviews on your site, send email to richard [at] richardhartman [dot] net. Article and photographs are Copyright 2003 by Richard L. Hartman, Spokane WA USA. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. This article may be referenced by a web hyperlink if done so in its entirety.