At the risk of losing credibility with readers, I must confess that after just looking at the Nigel Foster Hi-Pro paddle – before I’d even had the chance to try it – I was certain I was going to like it. Within five minutes of actually putting its wide powerful, foam core, graphite blades in salt water, I was pretty sure I was in love . I hope to gain a little credibility by reminding readers that there is of course no accounting for taste. The Nigel Foster paddle has a decidedly `New School’ blade shape that’s definitely not for the timid or the traditional. It has to do with the paddling style.

Any paddlers intent on (and content with) hanging onto their old, narrow-bladed, 230 cm – or – longer touring stick and a low angle, low energy stroke should probably stop reading here. But, if you’re curious about exploring the high-performance, high-angle, high-energy side of modern sea kayaking, then read on, dude read on.

The paddle’s relatively broad, short, (8.5” x 17”) rounded pizza pie blades are similar to todays white water rodeo paddles, with plenty of area at the tip. This provides for the most solid catch I’ve felt this side of a racing wing and for a very powerful forward stroke. But it was the paddle’s penchant for maneuvering that swept me away. Foster is partly known for his book Nigel Foster’s Surf Kayaking (Globe Pequot Press, 1998) as well as his clinics and articles about fancy training strokes – side slips, bow rudders, cross bow draws and the like (see Training Paddle Strokes, SK Dec 98). So it’s no wonder that he designed a blade shape that handles both surfing and maneuvering strokes extremely well.

After playing around with some maneuvering drills on flatwater, I put the paddle to the test in one of my favourite coastal rock gardens, between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California. The paddle’s flat, non-dihedral blade face and smooth contoured back allowed it to slice easily through the water for both the precise placement of, and the blending together of, vertical maneuvering strokes. It slid effortlessly from a forward stroke into a side slip and into a bow rudder to carve a subtle turn through a narrow chute, then powered me forward again into a low brace turn to slip behind a rock and dodge an incoming breaker. The paddle’s shorter length enhances this high angle paddling style. The one I tried was 215 cms ( which felt long since I typically use a 210 for surf and rock garden play), and the paddle comes standard in lengths from 205cms to 220cms.

In moderate surf off the reef, it provided plenty of purchase and quicj acceleration for catching waves, ruddering for control, bracing when the waves closed out ( rolling up when braces failed) and punching back out through the shore break. The fully graphite paddle is fairly light at just over two pounds, and while `ultra light’ is not a word I’d use to describe the Nigel Foster Hi-Pro, it’s one of the few lightweight paddles I’ve used that actually felt sturdy enough to handle some surf and smacking the occasional rock. It held up just fine in 3-5 foot surf, but after using it in some fairly heavy 6 foot surf, I noticed that some hairline cracks had developed between the ferrule-button holes. I should note that big dumping surf isn’t the place for this or any lightweight carbon paddle.

I have only one complaint. The paddle takes such a big bite on the water and requires so much strength compared to my usual paddle that my wrists were a little sore the next day. I’d probably drop down from a 215cm to a 210 or even shorter to alleviate this.

OK, so this is not the paddle I’d like to take to the Sea of Cortez in a heavily loaded boat, but the price tag is not really that much for a graphite paddle these days, and I would love to take it over to the Pacific side and spend a few days playing again in some warm Mexican waves.

Roger Schumann, a long time contributor to Sea Kayaker, is co-author of two books on kayaking. `Sea Kayaking Central and Northern California’ and `Sea Kayak Rescue’. He’s an ACA Instructor, trainer/ educator who has taught kayaking for the past 12 years.

Nigel Foster Hi-Pro – Adventure Kayak Magazine Summer 2004

The kayak company Seaward also offers a fine line of Canadian made composite paddles including this riff on the Brits-meets-West tune – a paddle complement to Seawards three Nigel Foster designed kayak. The Hi-Pro is an 8.5 inch wide blade that provides clean slicing and maximum support when dancing through fancy sculling and drawing manoeuvres, extreme boat tilts, rolls and other tricks – any performance paddling sessions where you want to dig deep. Graphite construction weighs only 975 grams. The blades, with ultra thin tips and a contoured foam core, slice sharp and smooth and gobble sea miles in big bites.

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