Do you remember the name Waterstick? Their falling out with partner BayComp, and the cancellation of the beloved Zen ProBend paddle, which I unashamedly called "the best bent-shaft paddle I've ever used, period?" (When they stopped production, I stocked up on three identical Zens just to make certain I would have access to that paddle for the foreseeable future.)

Steve Horvath, the paddle's designer, is back - with new paddle designs being manufactured by DynaPlas in Toronto and marketed under the name H2O Paddles. I was recently given the opportunity to review two of Steve's new designs that should be appearing in local dealers this season.

For this review, H2O supplied two right hand control, 12 degree offset paddles. One is 191 centimeters and uses their "H2O-Team" blades, while the other is 194 centimeters and sports their "H20-2" blade design.

The Bad News
There's some bad news about these paddles that must be acknowledged right up front: H2O's colors are uggggg-ly. I can't help another comparison with the Waterstick Zen, which in addition to being an incredible performer also had a unique look that turned heads on the river. True, the H2O's shaft still has that "graphite" look prized by many people, but those blade colors…and those grip colors....

Yes, I know the colors were chosen by H2O's team so they'd show up well in photographs. I know H2O's emphasis is on performance and that appearance has nothing to do with performance. Yes, I suppose the blue blade color isn't all that bad. I guess we must hope that the performance of these new paddles makes the color choices unimportant.

The Good News
It does.

General Overview
H2O's paddles are based on a series of components, one of the standard production techniques for modern paddles. There are various shaft options (material, length, bent vs. straight, etc.), several blade choices, two grip sizes, and various grip colors.

The two paddles provided for this review use the same carbon fiber ergonomic bent-grip shaft, differing only in length. Both paddles had the larger grip size based on Steve's personal recommendation. The blades are the most distinguishing feature of the two paddles, so that's where we'll start.

"The H2O-Team blade is optimized for freestyle and playboating, which results in a smaller overall blade with less surface area and lower weight..."

The Blades
The H2O-Team blade was heavily influenced by H2O's team paddlers. It is optimized for freestyle and playboating, which results in a smaller overall blade with less surface area and lower weight. As most experienced paddlers know, less weight usually yields increased rep rate and positioning speed, both of which can be critical for playmoves involving rapid torso twists and paddle placement transitions.

The H2O-2 blade is slightly larger and more powerful than its H2O-Team sibling. This yields a paddle better suited to river running and all-around kayaking, at some theoretical expense in terms of swing weight and speed.

Other than size and overall shape, the two blades share a lot of characteristics, which is much more evident when looking at the back surface. The first thing that catches the eye is the "skeletal" look of the blades. That's not just cosmetics—that "spine" and those "ribs" are there to do essentially the same job as the bones in our bodies. Our bodies are designed so that normal loads and stresses are primarily borne by our skeletons. Muscles and their attachment points seek to transfer weight to our bones, which are far more efficient at handling sustained loads than our soft tissues. Likewise, the H2O blades have thicker regions that act as the blade's skeleton. The majority of the blade is thin to keep swing weight as low as possible. The entire blade could be left thin, but large areas of thin material have drastically reduced stiffness and rigidity. Something must be done to reinforce them or they will flex and twist under the uneven loads they experience during normal use. The Waterstick Revolution blades accomplish this with "faceting." Multiple, generally flat regions, were angled with respect to each other. The resulting seam lines act as strengthening ribs of a sort. The system works pretty well, but such discontinuities in the material (the "lines" where the facets adjoined) also become potential failure points.

Thanks to ongoing advances in materials and manufacturing techniques, the H2O blades are able to use a reinforcement technique that accomplishes its mission (increasing stiffness and rigidity) while also inherently strengthening the blade. Instead of inherently weaker seam lines, the spine and ribs are actually the strongest part of the blade. The blade tip is of a traditional thickness, thanks to the way the spine tapers as it approaches the tip.

Steve had another interesting comment regarding why that rib extends all the way to the blade's edge. (After all, they could have just stopped farther back in the blade, just as the spine does.) Steve claimed that most blade edge impacts occur right at the two spots where those ribs extend to the blade edge. By leaving the material thicker in those two spots, the blade could be made more resistant to impact.