Cricket Mini Spoon

Cricket - Mini Spoon

The Cricket Mini Spoon has a slim, elegant look. The shaft is black willow over western red cedar, while the blades are cedar with cherry edges and tip veneers. The joint between the blade and shaft is finely carved. A Dynel edge further protects the tip, and the blades are surfaced with 2-oz. fiberglass. The cloth has no pinholes, but the weave is rather irregularly filled, with some areas appearing to have an excess of resin. The carbon ferrule had a barely noticeable wobble, but it was from the same manufacturer as the ferrule on another paddle that was more snug. A layer each of fiberglass and black heat-shrink tubing covers the joint between ferrule and wood. When bent, the shaft feels rather flexible, but springy. Little flex was visible in the blades. The nice glossy varnish finish had a few small runs and rough spots, but not much embedded dust. Although the varnish felt less slippery than polyurethane, Cricket ships a scrap of sandpaper with each paddle and encourages users to slightly roughen the surfaces where their hands lie for an even better grip. This would be good advice for almost any varnished paddle.

With forward strokes, I was unable to get an entry without a bit of a slapping sound and some air driven in at the catch, although a paddling partner achieved a clean entry. There was some slipping of the slim blade. Low-angle strokes worked well, which, combined with the light weight, suggests that the Cricket would shine at the end of a long day of cruising. Sweep strokes were noticeably less effective than with the larger-bladed paddles. Little water found its way up the shaft, despite the lack of drip rings.

When I was sculling, the water flowing across the blade separated from the blade with a lot of splashing, but the paddle gave adequate support for bracing. This was the only paddle tested with which I missed two sweep rolls. C-to-C rolls felt more reliable. Extended-paddle (Palawta) sweep rolls were easy, but the paddle flexed dramatically.

The Cricket seems as if it would be intolerant of serious abuse, but if treated well its understated good looks and cruising performance would be among the reasons you’d appreciate it at the end of a long day.