The guys down at the St Kilda beach SupBus just got a new Kialoa paddle called the Hinalea and it's adjustable.
I'm a huge Kialoa fan so I was very keen to check it out and I took these pictures for those who've never seen one.
It's size is somewhere in between my favorite two paddles..The Shaka Pu'u and the Methane.. Here's some spec's.
Blade size 8 1/16" x 16 1/2".
They come in two sizes that adjust about 12" each
74" - 86" and 64" - 76" .
I'm 6'4" and run my Shaka about 86" and Methane about 82" for use in the waves ..The one they had was the longer one and I was using it at about 84"..It felt great.
It's not as light as the other full carbon paddles because Kialoa uses aluminum for the shaft..but it's a good quality stiff and light alloy.. It's T6 6061 for those who know their alloy's.
The top end is about the same diameter as the top diameter in their carbon paddles and the lower hand feels about the same also being slightly larger.. It's a shame that they couldn't get that nice ovalized feel of their carbon paddles.
The adjusting mechanism is like a mic stand.. Just twist, slide and twist to lock it..It worked well. The T grip is made of wood but still the same shape as the carbon paddle.
The paddle floats and didn't leak any water into it and the T grip never twisted.. I think if I bought one I'd use the C4 paddle grip on the shaft for the lower hand.
Here's my pics.
DJ
Kialoa use a foam-core blade and edged in Dynel..It looks very tuff and I liked the rounded blunt shape of the edge of the paddle.
Although they use fiber glass for the blade it's great that they use carbon fiber for the main stress area where the blade meets the shaft.
Yeap...She floats.
Kialoa did a great job matching the feel by using the same shape T grip and shaft diameters are very similar.
The alloy had a nice soft springy feel.. It didn't feel dead like other alloy shaft paddles that I've used and made myself..I'm flexing it here as hard as I can.
These pics show the comparo between the new Hinalea and the Shaka Pu'u.
