The Bent Shaft Advantage

Have you ever wondered why a bent shaft paddle is more efficient or are you new to using a bent shaft and want to know more about how it works? Let’s get into it!

In order to move the boat forward, your paddle applies a force backwards on the water, which in turn pushes you and the boat forward. This is Newton’s Law of action-reaction at work. 

With a straight shaft, when your joints and muscles are in their strongest position the blade is not perfectly vertical in the water (see fig 1). This means the force you’re applying to the water is directed backwards and slightly up. The upwards force isn’t useful to making the boat move forward and is essentially wasted energy.

Now let’s swap in a bent shaft (fig 2). The slight bend (12° in the Ripple FX Paddle) corrects the blade to a more vertical position when you are in this sweet spot to produce force. This means the force you're applying to the water is now directed straight backwards, and the reaction force forward on the boat will be slightly larger than previous. 

In figure 3 the upwards force angle is exaggerated to more clearly show the advantage of applying the force directly backwards.

The best part is you really don’t need to change your stroke, the angle of the paddle makes your stroke more efficient automatically. Combine this efficiency with the lighter weight of a carbon paddle that allows you to easily increase stroke rate, and now you are really moving!