Apologies to post about a topic which has previously been discussed however, I need some help with my paddle selection. Due to a niggling injury, I recently sold a couple of surf paddles both of which had large blades & stiff shafts.

I generally like my surf paddles fractionally below head height so do you recommend using a tapered shaft (oval or round?) for surfing & if so, are they as robust as conventional shafts? From what I've read about QB paddles, round tapered are the stiffest (39 SSI) followed by oval tapered (38 SSI) & then your elite flyweight offer the most flex (36 SSI)?

Asked another way, is it more common to use a tapered shafts for DW'ing only or is it purely personal preference & if so, is the stregnth across all 3 shaft options comparable? Thanks

Thanks Al Hunter - that's exactly the info I needed cause I didn't see any mention of that on the QB website. Looks like Trifecta with the oval tapered would be the sensible option. Cheers

Thanks charlieuk - that's good to know. I currently have a slimjim (SSI38) which feels a whole lot easier on my shoulders/back vs my previous paddles but I've heard good things about both the Trifecta & V Drive so I thought I should give them a go. Possibly I need to reconsider the V Drive option. Cheers

Old shoulder dislocation which was reconstructed years back but unfortunately never rehabed properly & it's come back to haunt me. My SJ 92 feels good but I miss that instant power paddling onto a wave which I had with my previous 2 x surf paddles...finding that happy medium is tricky. By all accounts the Trifecta 96 should give me that extra little bit of ooomph so I guess I just need to decide between a redular SSI 38 & the oval tapered which is also SSI 38. Cheers

Sorry I did not mention it before but I would advise trifecta 86 of course.
Even travis uses the 86 so it's not like you can't get enough power out of it....