Any thoughts on the new 2014 Naish Makani paddles? Looks like they have made some great improvements. There isn't many good paddles in this price range IMO

http://naishsurfing.com/MAKANI-Race-Touring-Wave/

Personally I think the new anti-twist vario system is great for on the fly adjustments. No twisting, no misaligned blade and no wobble.
Just took the new 3 piece on a 2 week paddle in SE Asia and was very happy with both the performance and durability

The new ABS dge blade is a big improvement.
Not saying this is the absolute best paddle on the market as there is a lot of good stuff around now but I think Naish have put themselves ahead of the pack a bit when it comes to adjustable paddles.

cant speak for the new ones but i have an older white one and love it for everything, i will definitely be buying one of the new ones, i agree that there aren't many decent paddles for this price but think they are great paddles

Jarryd

I love my new Makani vario but it takes in a little bit of water. Has anyone had the same problem?

the new range looks great and i'd pony up if i had the ponies. my current vario only gets water in it when i'm wiping out a lot and it's floating around a lot. but even after a god session i'll always pull it apart and check

I have the older white blade makani vario and it does sometimes get a bit of water in it, like Paddlepop said... Not a lot, maybe 50ml after a surfing session. I don't ever notice the water in there whilst surfing though so it's no biggie to me.

I just demo'd the new Naish Makani Vario today and here are a few things I noticed for anyone interested... In comparison to the 2013 makani.

My 2013 model 8" blade says it is 108 sq inches. The 2014 model 8" model says it is 95 sq inches. But when I drew an outline on paper the shape and size was identical...? I don't get this

With my 2013 model my lower hand sits on the adjustment buckle when paddling which I find annoying. They have fixed this on the new paddle. The lower half (non adjusting part) is about 10 cm longer now which means my lower hand sits nicely below the buckle adjuster.

At its shortest length the 2014 paddle is now longer than the old one. The paddle still goes short enough for any adult I would think.

The shaft felt stiffer than my 2013 makani. It felt like I could get more power in my stroke.

The anti twist feature worked well. I liked how I could adjust the length without having to line it up whilst I was surfing.

The adjustment buckle now had 2 screws instead of 1 which you can tighten and it seems to be a better system.

No water got in the paddle and I was out there for a couple hours wiping out etc.

I don't know how it compares to some of the better paddles out there but I really liked it and it is definitely an improvement on the last model which I thought was pretty good already...

Thanks Kyan, I was hoping someone would post exact that sort of info. Just looking at getting another paddle at the moment - and have the 2013 8.5 makani vario currently too, which is at the doctors - but has otherwise been pretty good.

crickey! i must have the barge arse version at 9" wide and 135sq". thank goodness i've got 100kegs of pure muscle pushing it through the water

do the specs say that the 2014's are lighter, can you notice it and what do they cost

and i haven't been able to activate the "add an image to my message" link for days now. has anyone else had this problem

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Kyan said..My 2013 model 8" blade says it is 108 sq inches. The 2014 model 8" model says it is 95 sq inches. But when I drew an outline on paper the shape and size was identical...? I don't get this

I notice the quote area for all the makani blades has dropped from 2013:

2013
8 - 107.9 sq in
8.5 - 115.2
9 - 121.7

2014
8 - 95.3
8.5 - 98
9 - 111.4

Maybe they just figured out they were calculating the area wrong?

That is my thoughts foamballer. The 8" never felt as big as 107.9 sq in to me. I can only assume they had it wrong.

Paddlepop, I can't notice a weight difference between the two paddles. I don't have scales to measure it though.
Currently the vario goes for rrp $329 and the fixed $289.