Ian South, longtime Kingston Rowing Club coach and former coach to internationals Rebecca Romero, Sarah Birch and Jen Goldsack has been testing and reviewing sculls for an article in the UK Rowing and Regatta magazine.
We sent him a pair of Dreher carbon adjustable Apex (£399), Dreher Club Big Blades (£350) and Dreher Aeros (£499) to add to the large pile of competing brands.
I won't spoil the output of the article but he did give us some feedback:
An athlete using any of the Dreher sculls can immediately tell that they feel different. Event the least competent sculler I gave them to could determine the difference between Drehers and the other brands. The grip in the water is noticable.
The Drehers came up favourably compared to the others.
I was particularly impressed with the Club sculls – these should be selling well in the clubs – they are well designed and the price is extremely favourable.
I tested the stiffness using a deflection test for all the sculls using a laser level and a 10kg weight and the Drehers were stiff and consistent.
This is a good blade. It is the only one in the marketplace that is robust and is manufactured consistently the same.
If you are a club, why spend an extra £50 [on a different brand] you won’t get anything more for it.
You have to wait for the whole article to come out to get the rest of his comparison to other designs.
