Another great vid from Evan interviewing Jim Terrell from Quick Blade paddles.. What a nice guy.
www.standuppaddlesurf.net/2010/10/25/quickblade-magic-dsi-28-and-sweeper-paddles-with-jim-terrell/
Interesting paddle.. Interesting comments.. Worth watching.
DJ
DJ
this is a good test with a paddle grab a qb 8.75 head shaft your size. Go to a canal when there is no wind & no current then paddle as hard as you can just for 1km then do the same again grab a qb 8.75 dimple dipper head shaft size as same then paddle as hard as you can for 1km I guarantee you will be 30+ slower. I'll put money down
G'day AA
I spoke with Jim Terrell about the Magic dimple Dippper. If you go back through this forum to around Late June early July there was an article written about this Magic Dimple Dipper.
DJ you're into it gan you go back find the article & re post it in this "New Quickblade Debait"
Hey DW - can I suggest it is done the other way round!
DJ, go as hard as you can with the Magic and then as hard as you can with your paddle.
I think its best to use the same Paddle e.g. qb Elite Dimple Dipper Racer & then the qb Elite Racer. for a true time estimate
IMO anyone who ever paddled a qb knows no other blade comes close
Hi folks,
I exclusively paddle with the Quickblade Kanaha Magic Paddle with the 8.5" wide blade. Prior to that I have logged countless miles with the Kanaha 9 inch blade. I am currently a team rider with Quickblade Paddles and I have to say I have nothing but good things to say about the Magic Paddle, or dimpled dipper.
When I first got the dimpled paddle I was a little skeptical but I quickly noticed how the blade plants in the water at the entry and the side to side movement is less with the dimpled paddle. Since there is less side to side movement and as a result, less wasted energy, I felt I was able to go down a paddle size and achieve the same if not better results. Basically, I feel like I can grab the water better.
In addition, I make a conscious effort to have an aggressive "release", (The release is the part of the stroke where the blade exits the water). In essence I like to snap the blade out of the water. This prevents the paddle from bogging down the board and creating drag, thus slowing everything down.
Bottom line is I have exclusively used my Kanaha Magic, (dimpled) Paddle in training and racing since I first put my hands on it last winter. Since then, my other non-dimpled QB paddles have sat on the rack and collected dust.
Hi rrojas.. Welcome to the Breeze.. Thanks for your thoughts on this paddle.
Just wondering.. do you know if Danny Ching or Dave Kalama also use this dimpled paddle?
Also.. How different is it to the normal Elite Race paddle?
We have the QB guys here in Melbourne for a couple of demo days.. Maybe they'll have some for us to check out.
DJ
Hi David,
I believe Danny has his own signature paddle. I know Dave paddles for Quickblade, but not sure what he paddles with. I have an elite racer as well and as far as weight goes, I think they are the same. I don't have a scale so I'm just going by feel.
I'm super sceptical about that paddle though I haven't tried it.
Having dimples means you're more likely to trap air on entry than with a flat surface for the speed we're talking about. Pushing/Pulling air is never going to be as efficient as Pushing/pulling against water. Basic fluid mechanic...
I'd rather focus on technique to avoid side movement.
I've seen dimples in heads of F1 engines but this things are huge pumps so there's no comparison there although the concept of creating vortices is probably common. I'm not in Terrell's head so I'll pass...
That said I love my "normal" qb and wouldnt swap it against anything in the world 
It would seem to me that if there was something you can do to reduce the blade size while increasing the hold as well as reducing the flutter that would have to be a great thing. From what I here from QB team riders that visited Jim's factory in Cali these guys are certainly on the edge of experimenting and looking at things scientifically.
A large blade means more weight, greater pendulum affect on recovery and catches more wind up and down wind. A too small blade just means slippage through the water, cavitation and wasted energy.
I havent tried one of these paddles but what Rob Rojas says above makes sense to me, he has reduced from 9" to 8.5" and feels that it holds more water than the 9". I'd be super keen to here about more people using this paddle.
I would also suggest that DW may have found his usual huge sized 10" paddle may have just had too much power with the dimple going by Rob's comments perhaps he should have reduced with the dimple so that it did not slow him down. If anyone could pull a 10" dimple it's Iron so maybe the guide is to come down with the dimples.
Another company makes outrigger paddles with Scoops although a different design and more extreme see the bottom of http://www.paddleshop.com.au/outrigger_paddling_paddles.html. The company is from Coffs and many of the Coffs paddlers use these paddles and do very well with them.
Don't be afraid of change. Don't spend your whole life thinking about it either, it's bad for you.
I'd like a bit more evidence than just JT & Co saying it's a great paddle before I consider spending another 600+ bucks on a new paddle...
There's no denying qb do a quality job in normal time that's for sure.
Physics tells me it's odd so I'd like to see the scientific evidence behind it.
It could be that these dimples creates more surface area in comparison to a flat blade as a simple answer to the grab feel or it create some suction when the paddle is planted? Anyway not enough info in the video to satisfy me and while I believe Rob is happy with it, I'm an amateur not a pro so what works for them migth not work for us due to the gap in fitness and technique...
And as for cavitation, there's none in paddling... cavitation involves going under the vapor pressure of water, we're too slow for that. What we do with our paddle is aeration.
Perhaps if you peel off the holograms from your power balance bands and stick them to the end of your paddle, you will go even faster still 
