Gear notes for the Kushiro River Expedition. This one’s about the paddle — down to the wire between a self-modified 2-piece built from an Aqua Bound Shred Carbon, and a stock Manta Ray Carbon 4-piece.
If It Were About Feel, It’d Be the Shred
For feel alone, the Shred Carbon wins. This particular paddle is actually a Shred Apart, a model built to take a T-grip conversion. As a double-blade kayak paddle it ran too long, so both ends got cut down to 200cm and glued into a custom 2-piece. Being able to do this kind of thing yourself is one of the things that makes packrafting fun.
The Constraint: Flying
This trip means flying to Kushiro. There’s a lingering concern about whether the home-modified 2-piece will travel well, and it’s been a back-and-forth right up to the end — but it looks like the Manta Ray Carbon 4-piece is what’s actually coming along.
About the Kushiro River Expedition
This post is one of several gear notes ahead of the Kushiro River Expedition, a 100km packraft trip from Lake Kussharo to the Pacific Ocean. For an introduction to the expedition itself, see Paddling the Kushiro River 100km — 2026 Kushiro River Packraft Expedition. The story behind why I decided to join is at I’ve Decided to Join the Kushiro River Expedition.
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