Kialoa Shaka Puu Stand Up Paddle (Part 3)

[singlepic=2861,188,125] Dave Chun of Kialoa Paddles answers questions about paddling technique, paddle design and performance, his all-new Shaka Puu paddle, and general concerns about the stand up paddle surf culture. Dave also talks about choosing the right paddle, which all boils down to intuition that tells what type of paddle is best for the stand up paddle surfer.We get to learn more about paddles and why design and performance are always relative to individual surfers.The is the third and last installment of the Shaka Puu three-part series where Dave mentions that "paddle design is a compromise".(click thumbnail to launch video)Evan Leong: hellip;from the Shaka Puu, the bottom is really flat. You donrsquo;t put any dihedral whatsoever on that. Whatrsquo;s your thought on that? Does it still track straight?Dave Chun: I think dihedrals are good. I think paddles without dihedrals are good. I never try to make the ultimate paddle. All paddle designhellip; all design is a compromise. The paddle, the ones we sent to Mel, and all of our other products for guys like Blane Chambers and stuff, they like to paddle that way. Their reports were, ldquo;Donrsquo;t change a thingrdquo;. So thatrsquo;s why there is no dihedral on this paddle. Therersquo;s some paddles on our line that have a dihedral. Our Nalu paddle hasa dihedral. Generally speaking, the larger thehellip; I donrsquo;t know if it works, to be honest with you because if you look at the paddle, this doesnrsquo;t have a dihedral. This one has a dihedral but itrsquo;s way up here. Remember I said the paddle strokes start down here, so the paddle starts way down here and it gets way up here. Itrsquo;s supposed to stabilize the paddle. I donrsquo;t know if it works or not. Sometimes my racers tell me the dihedral works, I put it on the design. They tell me, ldquo;No needrdquo;, and it doesnrsquo;t have it, I leave it out. I take a pretty simplistic approach to this stuff.Evan Leong: So yoursquo;re doing a lot of custom paddles then. Itrsquo;s not production going out or you make them yourself?Dave Chun: The custom paddles, those are the R#38;D stuff. Thatrsquo;s what I do for a year, and what we do is a simpler tooling. Something I need to do fast and dirty. When I say fast and dirty thatrsquo;s probably a hundred hours or so to get the mold done. Irsquo;m pretty quick at this point because I have done a lot of tools. For about a year, we see how it goes, do a little market testing, do a lot of feedback from our guys. If it works, we bring it back in and we do our production tooling and that is a much more permanent... actually builds a better part for the customer.Evan Leong: These are the questions I got from the guys on the Internet. First guy is asking. He is just getting in to this sport. He is curious about the pros and cons on elbowed or bent paddles at the blade. Are they better for surfing and then what angles are people using and things about that?Dave Chun: The bent shaft paddle was originally designed by a guy named Eugene Jensen. He was a flat-runner marathon canoeist. Jensen was a brilliant manhellip; and also a fantastic canoe designer, open-canoes. A lot of innovations come from this guy ndash;got to give him credit. Is it better? Itrsquo;s up to the guy. No magic really comes from your paddle. Itrsquo;s really how it feels. I can see the pros and cons of both of the paddles. The angle of the paddle actually is for the mid to the back part of the stroke. Paddle works best for shorthellip; becausehellip;Evan Leong: That one right there is really shorthellip; with the green thing.Dave Chun: If you look at the angle of the paddle, itrsquo;s basically arched at 10 degrees. Why 10 degrees? Because we have tried five, seven, 10, 15 when we originally did this thing and a guy said, ldquo;Build it with a 10rdquo;. Ok, that was that. But the paddle has more tracti...