Sharon Betteridge on the Lendal Cadence Paddle: The Little ‘Big’ Paddle

Some thoughts from Sharon Betteridge on the brand new Lendal Cadence paddle.

"Expedition Kayaks recently took delivery of the new Lendal NA Cadence paddles, and this week I have had a chance to try it out. Our current stock is the full carbon model so this review is based on this ultra lightweight premium build.

Weight:

On picking up the Cadence, my first impression was how light weight it was; and when I popped it on the kitchen scales it weighed in at a mere 615grams! This puts it in the premium ultra light class.

Blade construction:

The Cadence is beautifully made. It certainly looks sleek, being a flawless full carbon layup – with a satin finish on the blades and a matt finish on the shaft. 

The spine of the paddle blade is a raised ridge on the back face rather than a foil section like the Storm and X-range but the ridge is large and nicely tapered right out to the tip of the paddle so that although this makes the paddle more economical it retains the nice buoyant feel of it’s two larger foil back predecessors.

Shaft construction:

Although the shaft feels a little more flexy than the other Lendal NA paddles it retains the ergonomic cross section unique to these paddles, with the indexing moulded into the shape of the shaft. It is not just ovalised it is actually shaped to sit easily into a lightly closed hand. It feels great in my hands with its ergonomic shaft, and the ridge sitting comfortably under my knuckles.

On the water:

At 600 square centimetres I expected the blade to be fairly easy on the catch, and, as it is smaller than my current blade, I feared it might be too small. But when I took the Cadence out for a test I was surprised at the power of the catch. It has a good initial grip on the water, and the shorter wider blade allows quite a powerful catch, but the overall smaller blade area with its modern torque shape pulls easily yet definitely through the water giving plenty of power for an efficient forward stroke and allowing a good cadence for paddling distance. There is no flutter as the blade travels through the water and the exit is clean and smooth.

The ergonomic shaft is comfortable to hold and allows me to maintain a light grip and, with the defined ridge, allows feedback with blade angle when blending strokes for maneuvering, and for bracing strokes and rolling.

In summary the Cadence is a beautifully made, lightweight, well-balanced paddle that I a really enjoy using. Try it, I am sure you will impressed!"

Sharon Betteridge, October 2014.