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**Picture at the bottom**
I spent a long time deciding where to purchase my first canoe paddle (made a thread here after doing my research and got some helpful advice). I had it narrowed down to doing the paddle making workshop with Bruce Smith, or ordering online from Haliburton Forest.
I went with Haliburton Forest and before placing the order I spoke with Zach on the phone, from the paddle shop, and he helped me decide on some of the customization options. When I was ready to place the order, I had a couple more specific questions above the shape, engravings, etc. so I sent an email. I got a call from Ray in the paddle shop, who makes all of the paddles, and spent a good 20min talking about all of the finer details; he was very helpful with everything. He said he hadn't received the email yet but will take a look and get back to me. The eventual response to my email didn't exactly answer all of my questions, but it was good enough and a few days later I placed the order.
A week or two later and I'm at a cottage holding a 59" paddle and realized that the 58" I ordered was going to be too big. I tried emailing and calling to see if it was too late to change it to 56-57", but Ray wasn't working that day. I sent him an email asking, but just got a response saying that it is going to be shipped out that week (didn't address the height question). "Ok, not a big deal, if it's a tiny bit too big I'm sure it will still be fine" I told myself. After all, it was my fault, not Ray's, that I put down the wrong height. I decided to give Ray a call the next day anyways when he was back in the shop just to see if it wasn't too late.
The conversion was very reassuring - he told me that he's almost done with the paddle and it's looking really nice. He ended up making it 57" even though I mentioned 58" in the comment section (in this case I'm lucky that he ignored the comment, but if it was another scenario I might have been upset). We spoke about the resin tip during the initial call, but I decided against it and didn't include it with my order, but he added one for me anyways at no charge. I would have appreciated a call or email asking if I'd like it (and whether I wanted light or dark), but I know he was just trying to do me a favour by including it so I didn't make a big deal about it. The last thing, we spoke about customizing the Standard Grip and making it slightly more narrow, but on the phone he mentioned that he made a Voyageur Grip.
When I got home from work I looked at the Voyageur Grip on their website and realized this isn't at all what we spoke about initially, and it was actually the grip option that I liked the least. I was a little bit rattled; ignoring the paddle height in the comments worked in my favour, but adding the resin tip and giving it a voyageur grip wasn't part of my order.
Once again I called Ray the next day, and once again the conversion was very reassuring. He made a modified Voyageur Grip, to make it more like the narrow Standard Grip I requested. The first thing he said when I voiced my concerns, was "I can make any modifications or changes that you'd like. I want you to be happy with the paddle, so whatever you want changed, I'll do it for you. I'm going to send you pictures of what it looks like right now, and if you want the grip altered just let me know."
He sent the pictures, and all my worries went away. The grip was exactly what we discussed, and using the term Voyageur Grip got me unnecessarily worried. The paddle looked beautiful in the pictures, the exact custom shape that we spoke about, with beautiful grains in the cherry wood. I went from being concerned, to being extremely excited to receive the paddle. He said he just needed to do the engraving and give it one more dip for finishing, and I would receive it the next week - which was actually 2 weeks ahead of my requested date. I thanked him multiple times for being patient with me and putting up with all of my calls/requests and needs for clarification.
Fast forward to today, and the paddle finally came. I was extremely excited while opening it, and the engravings came out perfect (the only part that wasn't finished when he sent me the pictures). The paddle is very pretty and the grip feels perfect in my hands. The only complaint I have, is the sides of the paddle where the grip meets the shaft are rough and don't have finishing on it. My guess is that a clamp was used to hold the paddle in place during the engraving by the grip, and this took off the finish/made it rough. Not a big deal considering the paddle will be coming with me into the backcountry anyways, so it's bound to get scuffed up and scratched. A few other minor imperfections, but otherwise I'm a satisfied customer.
The final price was $135 after shipping, and I'm sure if I paid the extra amount for a Bruce Smith the craftsmanship would have been slightly better; but I'm happy with all of the customization options I got and I think Ray did make a really nice paddle for me. It was a bit stressful with all of the back and forth emailing and calling, but Ray was nothing but helpful and always had my best interest in mind.
Looking at the paddle is nice, but now I need to get out onto the water and try it out! I'm heading out on my first trip at the end of July and I'll do a follow up to this post in that trip report.
Image of the paddle and one of the engravings:
(I also got my initials on the back side, at the bottom of the grip)
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