Werner Cyprus Touring Paddle

Key Features

• Werner’s adjustable ferrule system allows up to 60 degree feather angles, both Right and Left handed.
• Mid-sized (610cm) surface area blades.
• Performance (foam) Core blades.
• Designed for high-angled paddle strokes.
• Excellent for bracing and rolling in all conditions.

Why chose a modern style bent paddle shaft over a traditional straight paddle shaft?
Advantages:

• The no.1 reason for a bend is to reduce the extreme angle between hand and paddle whilst making forward paddle strokes.  A well designed bend in the paddle shaft will allow a better ergonomic hand position and grip. In turn reducing fatigue and strain through the paddlers hand, wrist, and forearm all the way through to the shoulders. Especially useful to reduce injuries, protect joints and make life easier on a long day out where paddlers can use tens of thousands of repetitive forward paddle strokes.
• A ‘Neutral Bend’ has been achieved by Werner by aligning all the paddle parts in a straight line allowing an easy transition from folks used to using  straight shafts to begin using bent shaft paddles.
• With a reduced wrist angle, the paddler is able to have more contact with the shaft allowing a better grip allowing more control and comfort.
• Bent carbon shafts should give an overall higher level of performance, strength and durability than straight fibreglass paddle shafts.
• There are many schools of thought that a bent paddle will provide more power through the stroke. (see Google for many of hours of research results). In the real world, most racing paddlers whether slalom, white water/extreme racing and sprint paddlers performing at elite level, all appear to use bent paddle shafts.

Disadvantages:

• Cost, the no. 1 factor why more paddlers don’t use bent paddles is due to the higher cost of manufacturing bent shafts and the carbon fibre material used is a higher priced, premium material than fibreglass. (see materials section)
• A straight shaft will weigh slightly less than a bent shaft due to less material being used.
• A carbon shaft will be stiffer and higher performing than a glass shaft which has more flex. Some paddlers will prefer a less responsive paddle shaft and benefit from a less stiff, more flexible glass fibre straight shaft.
• Due to the positioning of the bend in a bent shaft, the paddlers hand position will be relatively in a ‘fixed’ position. Paddlers with an extra wide or narrow grip, or those that like to move their hands into different positions along the length of the paddle will need a straight shaft.