Camco 50433 5-Foot Wood Canoe Paddle | New Zealand Pine

There's something right about a wood paddle. The Camco 50433 keeps it simple. A solid piece of New Zealand pine, shaped into a 5-foot canoe paddle with a clear finish that shows off the grain. No carbon, no adjustable shaft, no gimmicks. Just a warm, light paddle that does the job on the water and looks good hanging in the garage between trips.

This one's built for canoes and small boats. Think day paddles on a quiet lake, a slow river float, or keeping one stowed in the dinghy as a backup when the outboard acts up. The 5-foot length suits most paddlers seated in a canoe of average depth, and the single blade gives you a clean, familiar canoe stroke. If you're teaching a kid to paddle or setting up a rental livery, the palm grip is forgiving and easy to learn on. It's the kind of paddle nobody's afraid to hand to a first-timer.

The blade itself is a traditional flat wood blade, wide enough to grab a solid bite of water on each stroke but not so big it wears you out. Wood blades have a softer, quieter entry than plastic, which matters more than you'd think when you're trying to sneak up on a fishing spot or a heron at the far end of a cove. Pull it through smooth and it barely makes a sound.

Speaking of that grip. The top of the shaft is shaped into a rounded palm grip rather than a T. You cup it in your top hand, and it lets your wrist relax through the stroke. A lot of paddlers love a palm grip for long, relaxed flatwater miles because there's no hard edge digging into your hand. It's a comfortable, casual style. If you're doing precise whitewater work you might want the extra control of a T-grip, but for cruising and touring the palm grip is a pleasure.

New Zealand pine is a nice choice for a paddle like this. It's light, so you're not fighting the weight at the end of a long day, and it has enough spring to feel alive in the water without being floppy. The clear finish seals the wood and lets the grain show. Like any wood paddle, it wants a little care. Rinse it after saltwater use, let it dry, and hit it with a fresh coat of spar varnish or marine finish once a season if you paddle a lot or store it out in the sun. Do that and it'll last you years.

A couple of honest notes. This is a fixed 5-foot paddle, so it won't adjust to different boat widths or a taller seat. Measure before you buy. Sit in your canoe, and the grip should land somewhere around your nose to forehead when the blade is fully in the water. It's also a single paddle, not a pair, so if you're running a tandem canoe you'll want two. And it's a touring and day-trip paddle at heart. It'll handle normal use just fine, but it's not built to be levered against rocks in heavy whitewater.

We like paddles like this as backups too. Even if you run a trolling motor or a small outboard on a jon boat or dinghy, a paddle belongs on board. Motors quit. Batteries die. Wind pushes you where you don't want to go. A 5-foot wood paddle tucked under the gunwale has gotten plenty of boaters back to the ramp when the electronics gave up. It's cheap insurance.

For what it is, a good-looking, comfortable, affordable wood canoe paddle, the Camco 50433 is hard to argue with. Keep one in the canoe, keep one as a spare, or hang it on the wall as a bit of dock-house decor. It's the kind of simple gear that just works, trip after trip.