Owner of a new paddle
Over the weekend at my last dragon boat festival of the season, my mom (who came up to be support) noticed one of the booths was selling the brand of paddles that I’ve been eying since early spring. On Saturday after my races, I came back to the room and noticed there was a Kialoa paddle lying across the bed, It didn’t click until I saw the paddle why my mom was asking what length of paddle I wanted if I got a new one. But boy did she surprise me. One of the reasons why I was drawn to the paddle was it’s t-grip and how comfy it felt.
For those that remember this paddle is replacing the Apex paddle that broke in half back in July. I only owned the apex for 9 or so months, oh well shit happens.. Its gonna be wall art once I get it fixed. I was told this will be part of my christmas present so now I have to act surprised on christmas morning when she puts a bow on it. 
When I was surfing around on the net looking up information for when I get my next paddle, I noticed there are 27 different dragon boat paddle brands that are approved by the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF). Which got me thinking about how it would be a neat challenge to try them all out. Not do it as a one paddle, one day kind of trial but do it over a season or even half a season to find out how does the paddle handle in our year long weather conditions, and our different water/wind conditions, does it matter what boat your in/where your sitting, is it to heavy or light (can it cause damage to the body) all that good information. 
Since I now own four different dragon boat paddle brands, I’m debating if I want to start writing reviews on paddling equipment (paddles, pfds etc), Though I’m not looking forward to seeing how much its gonna cost me.
Do you or would you write a review cause you love the product or for the money?
Category: Dragon Boat, internet
Tags: paddles
7 Comments »
Tyler | Frithjof | Aidan | Jonna | Shauna | Sean | VancityAllie |
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Hi, the name is Kimm, I'm a 29 year old Canadian who has been online since 1999. For the last 15 years my main passion has been dragon boating where I've eaten, slept and breathed it and raced all over North America. 
I do reviews on things I buy (in act I still have 2 i need to do). But I also write reviews for technology review sites and that’s how I get most of my stuff. The reviews on my blog though are from things I have won, bought or asked for.
It’s all about who you know, so get out there and made contacts! Might have to share your site stats and why it would be a good thing to have them send you stuff to do reviews on your site etc
Sorta, what’s in it for them!
Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with my dream paddle! I think a lot of dragon boaters would love to read reviews for gear. In addition to Tyler’s comment I could see that your years of experience and your Twitter handles could work in your favour to the suppliers/dealers.
Good luck and merry x-mass!
Frithjof
I would do product reviews, but I hardly keep up to date on my blog,
I recently read a website somewhere that showed you how to get started. Basically just contact the company, and tell them who you are and share your blog stats with them (how many unique views per month etc.) as well as a little bit about yourself and the reason you are contacting them. You may never know… I will try and find it for you. – It may have been something on JohnChow.com
Congrats on getting the new paddle.It looks very flashy, and fast
As stupid as this makes me sound, I thought that was a shovel at first glance. XD Yeah, I know NOTHING about paddling!
And the reason I haven’t gotten into paid reviews blogging is because I can’t promote something I don’t believe in personally. I would only do reviews on stuff I really DO like, which would probably make my paid-to-blog entries give me a net worth of 0 dollars.
I think it would be beneficial for those who do paddle or are looking to get into it if you wrote review. My aunt does the dragon boat festivals here and she loves them. I for one, have only watched but it may be something I’d like to get into so I encourage you to write the reviews
I do reviews now because I either love or hate the product and want to share my experiences. I used to do them in the past for money though, that kind of got boring endorsing stuff that I had no passion for.
Woohoo! Nice new paddle. I tried dragon boating about 2 years ago… I’m not quite sure if I liked it or not, but I’m sure a nice new paddle would have made all the difference
I would only write a product review that was positive if I loved the product, EVEN if I was paid to write it. I don’t believe in misguiding my readers. And I’d only endorse things that I love.