Trident Ultra Carbon Adjustable SUP Paddle Review

A few days ago I had a chance to demo the new Trident all carbon adjustable SUP paddle for my friends at WeStroke.com. It was a nice day on the Stones river with mostly flat water and a few class I-II rapids thrown in so it was perfect for testing a new paddle.

I have only used a couple other brands of SUP paddles before using the Trident paddle, and I was surprised at how lite this paddle was! It’s very lite, yet I could tell it had good construction and high strength. The blade shape was more narrow than other paddles I’m used to which I liked especially when paddling in rapids and it had a very positive feel when pulling the blade through the power stroke. Turns also felt good with this paddle.

I liked the amount of flex with this paddle and gave it a more positive feel especially when paddling hard. The paddle handgrip was just a basic looking T handle compared to the more ergonomic type handles on most sup paddles. Yet I liked how it felt and it gave my hand more leverage than an ergonomic style grip which made it easy to turn and feather the blade. Bracing with the Trident paddle felt pretty good although a little more forward angle on the blade would have been nice.

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Even though this paddle was adjustable, there was basically no play between the upper and lower sections on the shaft. It felt like more like a one piece paddle to me, which I liked very much since it helped give the paddle a more solid feel. The only thing I didn’t really like about this paddle is that it was a little difficult to pull out the locking mechanism for the length adjustment and adjust the shaft, but I’m guessing that’s a trade off for having an adjustable shaft with no play.  

A couple of rapids we paddled were a little shallow and on one rapid in particular I was attaining back up to surf a small wave and scraped the rocks a few times. Later at the takeout I checked the blade for wear and to me it seemed minimal for the amount of scraping I did, however carbon and fiberglass blades are going to wear faster than plastic ones so its probably best to line the blade edge with some sort of protective plastic edging. Kevin, who owns the paddle, actually added automative trim molding to the outside edge of the blade to help protect it from wear on rocks. You can see it in the photos and it has been working great.  You can do the same thing for regular kayak paddles as well and will help extend their life. 

Overall I liked the Trident carbon paddle a lot. It’s very light and durable, especially for a carbon adjustable paddle, with good solid construction. This paddle would be a good choice for flat water and white water paddling.

Check out a Trident Ultra Carbon Adjustable SUP paddle for yourself at surfindustries.com.

The orange SUP you see in the photos is the new Jackson Kayak SUPerCHARGER whitewater stand up paddleboard. It is a stellar SUP and you can read Chris's review on it here.