Does a dihedral on a paddle blade make much difference?
What are the pros and cons of a dihedral on the blade face?
Cheers.

I recently swapped over to QB paddles with a dihedral after using Kiakaha (flat) paddles for the last 2.5 years. I've been very happy with the Kiakahas and only changed over to try somthing different. There is definetly a difference. The pull feels smoother through the water with the dihedral and I don't seem to hit the rail of my board as much. That probably means I was fluttering a bit with the flat blade.
I'm not saying one is better than the other, but it is different and which one you like will come down to personal preference. I think if you're really interested in getting your paddle stroke technically correct for racing the dihedral will help, in the surf it probably doesn't make much difference.

You'll know firsthand pretty soon DJ--There's a box headed for Jonathan on Monday. I can't wait to hear your reaction.

I added dihedral to the blade face of a paddle of mine.

A drinking straw taped to the blade face.... and it makes most people laugh, so I leave it there!

Do Kialoa paddles not have a dihedral or is it just certain models?

From years of outrigging (about 10) i can tell you that the back face NEEDS to be convex but the front can be concave /flat /convex and it will always work .

Dave Chun has forgotten more about paddles than I'll ever know, and he makes his paddles work superbly. I honestly don't know why Kialoas work as well as they do, and I like the oval shaft.

What you will notice most about the Ku Nalu paddles is the absence of things. No noise, no wobble. Some people find it really weird at first.

I think paddle design is a lot more subtle than anyone expects. When you do see the Ke Nalu paddles you'll notice the dihedral is pretty soft and it turns into a double concave instead of a flat surface. We're actually doing four things with that design, guiding water off the face, slowing the exit as it reaches the edge, making the edge a little stiffer, and guiding air up the face of the blade to get it off the tip. All aimed at recovering the catch we lose by having dihedral. Most folks say our paddles catch "big". My huge moose of a brother says our 8 catches like a 9 and we need to make a 7". I don't know what to think about that.

The medium we're working with (water) is viscous and incompressible, the flow characteristics paddle designers are aiming for is for NONE. The best paddle would be one that did not move at all once it catches. But they do, and so all the design effort is aimed at something that doesn't go whacky when it slips through the water.

We've found almost as much improvement in catch and stability on the back of the paddle as the front. This is, after all, a wing. The water behind the blade has to move too and influences the catch and stability almost as much as the water on the front. We're probably going to go a lot further with this. I like that our paddles don't look weird, or have any odd appendages or gimmicks, but that might change over time.

I think most companies making a paddle think it's a simple thing. I think Warner, Kialo, Quickblade, and now Ke Nalu do NOT think that way, and so the paddles take a lot more effort to design and build.