Prijon Indian paddle

Those of you who have had a run of splintering paddles on the likes of Symmonds Yat will appreciate the Prijon Indian. And those of you who first bought an expensive wooden white-water blade might feel just a little upset (like me), as at a third the cost its very much better! Light, strong and easily adjustable to the individual paddler its the ideal expedition paddle - for instance it was the white water blade of choice on the Hood River trip described above. Its not often that a single blade will be perfect for both finicky technical moves and digging a fire pit! It looks like something that a canoe hire outfitter would buy in bulk to complement all these aluminium canoes - but don’t let this fool you.

Its full name is the Prijon H.S. Indian Composite and it will cost around £45. With the blade itself being constructed from a glass impregnated foam it has a full perimeter aluminium edge. The aluminium shaft reaches almost to the tip of the blade for strength. Its finished with a T-grip, a plastic sleeve on the lower half of the shaft to increase comfort, and the blade itself painted a nice bright red for signalling upstream on dull rainy days! Total weight of 30ozs or 850g. It comes in a range of lengths but buy one a little oversize and you can shorten it easily with a drill, hacksaw, couple of rivets & some araldite. I also scoured the handle and the shaft grip with steel wool to get a better grip - we all have our funny ways!

Trying to buy this blade from a canoe shop proved fruitless & I ended up buying direct from Avoncraft, who market Prijon in the UK. By the time this Journal is published the UK web site should have more than “this page in preparation” all over it, so try www.prijon.co.uk. Otherwise phone Avoncraft on 01707 330000.