The 12 degree, Double Bend S-Blade canoe paddles are my newest design in paddles. There are three (3) slightly different blade shapes/styles that are available; Small (normal), Medium (P.G.S.), and Large (T.S.S.). (NOTE: THIS PADDLE WAS SOLD TO ONE OF MY LONG-TIME COLLECTORS!!! BUT I CAN BUILD ANOTHER LIKE IT!) The one pictured in this listing is the actual prototype P.G.S. Its' dimensions are: Length: 52 1/4" Blade width: 8 5/8" Weight: 24 ounces (approx) Black Ebony display stand IS NOT included. ALL of my paddles are protected/strengthened with 2.3 ounce fiberglass cloth on the blades and 4 coats of MAS epoxy on the entire paddle. Then the cured epoxy is faired smooth and 4-5 coats of Axalta Imron Clear Coat is applied by spray gun, cured, wet-sanded ultra smooth, and finally, buffed with buffing compounds to a high gloss and waxed. All paddles come with a protective sock made of "Fleece" material and drawstring. Of course, as is the case with all my paddle designs, you may opt to have me build one exactly like (or similarly to) this one, custom fit for you (or the recipient) and inscribed with your (their) name, favorite quote, special occasion, etc... Please initiate a Conversation with me and we'll proceed from there. The following description will cover the history, physical design/shape, and performance characteristics of all 3 of the new 12 degree, Double Bend S-Blades: First, a statement: I have built over 1,000 high end paddles since 1989. The 12 degree, Double Bend S-Blade in a P.G.S. blade size is hands down my absolute favorite paddle to use ever! Here is how its' design evolved. Around 1996, a group of avid canoeists from the Greenville, SC area discovered my paddles. Since that time, I have built and sold them approximately 100 paddles of all shapes, sizes, weights, etc... I acknowledge that most of my paddles are purchased with the distinct idea that they will only be displayed as an art piece and that they will never see water. Not so with this group. They may hang them on the wall at the end of the day but they all use them in all sorts of paddling conditions: touring, tripping, camping etc... About 15 years ago, one of the central figures of this group, for whom the T.S.S. is named for, told me that he had a commercially built double bent shaft paddle that he "liked but that the workmanship in the paddle wasn't even close to the details I put in mine. Would I consider developing a similar one for him?" So I considered it off and on for many years, toying with the idea and trying to foresee the pitfalls of experimentation. I didn't really think this new paddle would be very versatile in function and even less attractive as an art piece. Experimentation is costly; up to 2 days to design and build a shaft press, 25 hours to build one paddle, materials cost, and then there is the fact that I'd probably have to tweak the design as much as 6-8 times! I can build a lot of paddles in that time frame that will always sell at full price eventually. So I kept the idea on a back burner... barely simmering. Then last year, the paddler retired and let me know he had just one more good paddle commission left in him. I had just finished building a first-of-its'-kind "White Beauty III" with awesome Curly Maple and Sapele with a pomele figure. It was one of my popular 5 degree S-Blade paddles and it had already been sold. I was hand delivering it to its' new owner in Greenville, SC (who would be displaying it as art of course), but stopped by to show it to some in my "Greenville Crew" first before delivering. As soon as he saw the paddle, he knew that was the design he wanted. I told him it was time for me to develop the 12 degree Double-Bend now or quit thinking about it for good. I'd build 2 forms; one having my regular small blade and one with the slightly larger blade that he had always favored. I'd build 2 prototypes and then we'd test them together. We shook hands and the experiment was under way. The idea behind the Double-Bend is this: Every one likes the way that the slightly curved paddle blade, on my very popular (normal) S-Blade series, enters the water, then "plants" in the water, and finally, exits the water. I build them with either a 5 degree bend (at the paddles' throat) or a 14 degree bend. The 14's are more efficient on the water, but the 5's hang a little closer to the wall when displayed. But, with the shaft being a relative straight shot from the grip on top, down to the throat where the blade starts curving forward at an angle, the lower hand gripping the shaft has most of the "pulling" pressure applied to the forefinger, with a little of that pressure on the middle finger, and close to none or no pressure at all on the bottom 2 fingers, the ring and pinky fingers. The result is tired forefingers and a natural torque on the wrist because the shaft is not built with an ergonomically correct angle. Changing the lower shafts' angle (not the position so much) in relationship to the grip under the "top hand" would relieve that stress... but at what performance expense? TO BE CLEAR, we assumed at the outset of this venture that the paddle's Double Bend would relegate it to ONLY be suitable for straight ahead, long distance paddling. It would not be the only paddle in the canoe; we'd always carry another one for paddling situations that required many steering "corrective strokes", both forward and reverse. At least that was our hypotenuse... Back in the shop, after many attempts at using a flexible batten to draw a double bend shaft profile, we settled on one that seemed promising. It was more dramatic than the other commercial double bends on the market but it just seemed about right and the curves looked smooth. Taking the next few days, I built 2 forms to encompass 2 different blade sizes; the shafts having identical profiles from the grip to the throat but the blades having a 1.5" difference in length. I built the 2 paddles out of lightweight, Western Red Cedar so that even the subtlest differences in their performance characteristics would be easily detected when tested; not "heavy", less responsive, and cumbersome. The curvy shafts are more difficult to shape and polish but not impossible. When I was finished with them, I wasn't quite sure how I liked them. They looked and handled much differently from the "normal" paddles I had been building for the past 25 years. But again... they had yet to be tested! My Greenville patron met me in Columbia, SC and we tested them on New Years Eve afternoon at a State Park there. Within 5 paddle strokes, we both knew that they were at least as good as we had hoped. Within 30 strokes, I knew I would NOT have to, nor even want to tweak the design. Within 5 minutes, we were both laughing (if we weren't grown men I might have called it giggling) with excitement at how fortunate I was to have nailed an "out of the park, Grand Slam home run" on my first ever at bat. They performed that well. Then came time for the dreaded corrective strokes part of the trial which, for the purpose of brevity (like there's any of THAT left), I refer to all other strokes collectively, that are not straight ahead, Point A to Point B strokes. That's when we became REALLY surprised! Our dire expectations proved to be false and we both agreed that these paddles performed turning, sculling, bracing, and back strokes better than any other paddle we had ever used. And we use some pretty good paddles! We spent 2 hours paddling hard that afternoon and we hated to quit. We traded paddles back and forth and also switched out with our regular paddles just to make sure we weren't being over zealous in our praise and admiration. One thing I noticed though, that I thought was odd; I liked the performance characteristics in both the larger and smaller paddles but in slightly different ways. The differences in the 2 blade sizes are small: the larger blade is only 1.5" longer and .5" wider. That is not much difference in square inches but significantly different in "feel". On the hour and a half trip home that evening, I came up with a new idea. If I loved both paddles in general, but liked some aspects more in one, and other aspects more in the other... why not compromise and combine the two?!? So that is the whole story behind the prototype P.G.S. paddle listed here. I went home and proceeded to build a new prototype paddle, slightly longer than the first "small" Double Bend prototype but in the same shaft press. The blade of the P.G.S. is the same LENGTH as the "small" blade. The difference is that I built the new (P.G.S.) blade 1/2" wider at its' widest point; that's the same WIDTH as the "large" blade. The already small differences between the "small" and "large" blades are even less when comparing the P.G.S. to the Small or the P.G.S. to the Large T.S.S. I finished this prototype at the end of March and tested it on March 29th. As pleased as I was with the first 2 sizes of prototypes, this P.G.S. is the best paddle I've ever used with ZERO exceptions!!! I've tried to describe its' "feel" in one word but I can't. So I'll try with one sentence: The incredibly silent, 12 degree, Double-Bend S-Blade P.G.S. feels both super silky smooth and powerful throughout the entire paddle stroke cycle while mysteriously, yet undeniably, feeling that much less effort than normal is required to move the canoe at any speed. Convo me today and we'll discuss purchasing a custom paddle that is similar!