Paddle Pole for a Kayak

[Gene E Miller]

Greetings and Salutations,

I have a nephew that is big into kayaking and lives in Florida. He is wanting a
long paddle pole so when he goes into the shallow marsh areas he can stand
up and either pole or paddle.

He really doesn't want to spent the money to buy a high end pole but
is wanting to see if someone either has plans or has experience making
one at home.

Since I am not much into boats or such things I told him I would ask
for some advice here at the Creek since it has the best collection
of folks that can come up with answers about most anything.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Gene Miller

[Jim Creech]

Making a pole is easy enough. They are about 10' to 12' long and about 1 1/4" or so in diameter. Some are tapered at the end or both ends and normally have a wear shoe of metal . I have seen them (home made) with a flat washer screwed into the end to act a a wear shoe. You could also wrap the end with fibreglass for abrasion resistance. If you need a paddle on the other end, simply plane the pole flat and bond two pieces of 1X2( or 3) ,then shape to form a paddle and fibreglass the end for wear resistance.

[Tom Hoffman 65]

Hi Gene, I have an article written by Joel Herzel, that shows how to make Octagonal, hollow core birds mouth oars for a row boat. I made two pair and total cost for the wood was less than $35. The nice thing is they are really fun to make and look good to. The method would work well for a pole and also for a double bladed paddle too. The can be made with a spoon blade or flat as the. I build mine with spoon blades. My oars were 10+' long and had to cut them down a foot to make then work for the row boat that I built.

If you or any one would like a copy of Joel's article, he gave it to me and I send it out to who ever would like it. I have a full set of pictures to.

Here is the link to the pics of the oars, they are made out of Hackberry wood. Very light and don't seem to be bothered by water, although they are coated with epoxy and many coats of Marine Polyurethane.

http://sports.webshots.com/album/366127989OQvvXQ

There are also many pics of the boat and other wood working projects on my webshots pages too.

Email me direct if you want the article.

Tom...

[Roderick Gentry]

This is the hot set-up:

http://www.watertrailgear.com/detail.cfm?id=70

Easy to make if you can figure out a way to split the pole up to get it into the Kayak. Normally with paddle design there is the problem that the paddle itself is quite sophisticated. But this thing begs to be made like a (light) club. The idea is the end of the paddle is stout to function as a push pole foot, but it can be paddled like a stand up canoe when you glide over deeper channels. If you want to go whole hog with a carbon shaft, and can't find some tube, there are YT videos on making carbon tube. The is carbon braid that can be easily formed into tubes. The paddle end could be formed out of corecell and carbon or glass, You choose a stout section and carry the section down to the end to form a good foot.

Of course the whole thing can be made of wood, but it would be difficult to make it fold up. That wouldn't mater in some yaks, but in some it would be a problem. I was looking at cheap alternatives, and found a telescoping boat hook at the local surplus store, they also have screw on plastic paddle ends. This rig would not be practical for heavy poling draging in mud or weed, but seems ok for certain settings.