Steering Blade

ryim

I am looking for a hand made steering blade on Oahu. I've been looking at Holomua Paddles, Makana Ali'i, and Kai Ko'o so far. Any suggestions?

Submitted by ryim on Fri, 09/20/2013 - 9:15pm

jc9_0

Get a Kia Kaha. Maui makes great steering blades. Builds them all by hand on Kaua‘i and I think he ships to O‘ahu. They're HCRA legal too. You can probably find him on Facebook. Also I'm sure Odie at Pure Paddles makes some great steering blades on BI. Kialoa makes some fine ones too and they're made by a local guy that moved to Oregon. Sorry, I just mention all of these because they're all sponsors of Race Around the Hat. So their nice guys that make good paddles. Double bonus.

#1 Sat, 09/21/2013 - 7:13pm

joelmkrause

Mike Owens of Owens ocean sports. Amazing paddles, on Facebook. Check him out. Everything is costume till the paddler, uses the Palm grip. Amazing stuff

#2 Sun, 09/22/2013 - 8:01pm

jc9_0

He must do crazy amounts of business for Halloween.

#3 Sun, 09/22/2013 - 8:13pm

Salty Dog

our distance race set included a doublebend steerer this year. i ended up really prefering it to the straightshaft had been previoulsy used to, felt more like a raceblade in my hands & probably paddled more but still plenty bite on the right poke. pretty sure it was it was a 52" ahi from kai ko'o

#4 Mon, 09/23/2013 - 7:26am

joelmkrause

HA!!

Got to love typing on the smart phone.

Here is a link to his facebook. He has been doing lots of work on refinishing 6 man, but check out his pictures for his paddles.

https://www.facebook.com/OwensOceanSports?ref=br_tf

#5 Mon, 09/23/2013 - 8:13am

ryim

Thanks for all your input. I placed my order for a Kai Ko'o ahi. Very reasonably priced compared to a Makana Alii, Kai Kaha, Pure, and Kialoa. It will also only take 2 weeks to make and ship to my door.

#6 Mon, 09/23/2013 - 10:15am

tone_loc

Good choice ryim!
I have a Kia Kaha steering blade and also have had many opportunities to use the Kai Ko'o "Ahi" steering blade (both single and double bend varieties). From my experience, the Kai Ko'o steering blade is a much better blade... in terms of steering response, they are about the same; however, the Kai Ko'o "Ahi" is more comfortable and has a much better catch!

Hope you enjoy it!!

#7 Mon, 09/23/2013 - 11:44am

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