A Paddle Designed for Single-Arm Use
21 Jan
An outdoor education professor at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin has designed a canoe paddle for single-armed use that she hopes will make canoe paddling more accessable to people with upper limb impairments.
Cindy Dillenschneider’s paddle — shown on her web site HERE — consists of a typical blade and shaft, a shoulder harness and pad, and a telescoping horizontal shaft that connects the top of the paddle shaft to the shoulder apparatus. Users of the device attach the pad to their able-bodied shoulder and, with their sound arm and the support of their shoulder, propel the canoe as would a two-armed canoeist.
You can see the paddle in action, HERE, in a short video.
A patent on Dillenschneider’s paddle is currently pending.
