Hello all,

Looking at getting a dragon boat paddle and wanted everyone's opinion. I have the option of getting the burnwater paddles for about $215
or the simon river ones for about 170. So my questions are:
1) which paddle is better
2) at those prices, which is the better value?

then you should probably just buy a wooden Grey Owl lol

Having tried literally every paddle available I would suggest that it all comes down to personal preference. Try demoing as many as possible before dropping a couple hundred. Most paddle co's have reps that you can arrange a demo with. Otherwise try your teamates.

There is many to choose from but between these 2 mentioned I preferred the Burnwater, but this is just personal preference, nothing more.

i know arin (he owns burnwater) routinely has demo paddles at events he goes to. try one. pretty much my whole team (LARD) is outfitted w/ burnwater. the entries you get with the burnwater are SOOOO clean.

I find if you are know how to initiate connection by setting up properly, then your entry should always been clean

LOL to the last post...you are right.

not true - if the edge of your blade is too blunt in relation to the width of the blade, there is NO way you can make a clean entry.

talk all you want, lilly-dippers.

Like if the blade was FAT?

I have a burnwater and I have a new adjustable Apex .I luv my burwater but I like the Apex as well .The newer Apex's appear to be alot lighter than earlier ones and they are adjustable which makes it perfect if your racing in different boats .

Apex is just releasing a new blade and it looks almost identical to the burnwater.It has the oval shaft and narrows at the top but the glossy finish is not the same .It appears to be slightly lighter and alot less than the burnwater .I'm hearing in the $165 range and its non adjustable .

I have used the simon river and after doing time trials with it ...it had cracks where the neck meet the blade so this made me decide not to buy it .Look towards to the new design apex ...I believe it will be released very soon .We were useing a demo version and it seems to be good ...and it looks like my burnwater less the glossy finish

They let you borrow it to do time trials? Had yyou not used it prior to that? Just curious as I know the carbon paddles take a bit of getting used too. I just find it odd you would switch paddles for a time trial.

Where can you buy these paddles?

Our crew bought a team order from GWN including some Grey Owl wood, Grey Owl carbon (Jet) and Apex carbon. So I can tell you that the Jet and Apex are both very nice. The Apex is lighter by just a bit and the tip is sharper by a little bit. I personally bought the Jet but tried my partners Apex. There is not much different. The Apex t-grip is a bit fatter than the Jet. I've never seen the Simon River so can't comment but I did try the Braca in Berlin and liked it allot.
Someone should do a paddle review of all the different types.

Perhaps Konrad should do it again now that we have more options. Make it annual or bi-annual thing.