Deb, I polled several paddling partners, and asked whether they were aware of anyone, anyone at all, who paddled regularly with a bent-shaft kayak paddle. Nobody knew anybody. I've noticed that, over the years, people with extra money to spend will buy bent-shaft paddles, paddle with them for a while--all the while telling everybody how wonderful they feel--but a year later, the bent-shafts are nowhere to be seen--people are back with the old standbys: the straight-shaft Europaddle or the GP, the lightest ones they can afford. The bent-shafts just don't seem to work out over the long haul.