Some of you may remember many moons ago I started an experimental paddle for my mate Dan. The paddle was made with Pauwlonia and Balsa and the experiment was to be make a paddle from wood that was extremely light but still strong. I decided to use uni directional carbon tape on the underside and blade to strengthen and stiffen it. Without this the balsa made the whole thing a little too flexy.
Anyway I gave it to Dan to finish off and the paddle just sat there for months doing nothing. Making paddles over Christmas when you have people waiting for surfboards is a problem apparently. hahah.
SO, I took it back again and it is almost finished.
Just to recap, I have added the pics as below to show the progress back from the beginning.
I have final sanded and filler coated now so will probably be complete today.
Here is where we're at today: Only bottom as resin is still going off and can not flip for a little while.
And before:
Had issues, applied more filler coat. Currently going off.
Will sand and start weight and flex tests tomorrow. Feels nice and light and with my C4 in my other hand very similar in weight. For the purpose of this test I will compare it to a full carbon C4 paddle as that is all I have to compare it with.
Flex feels nice. Looking forward to using it.
Nice :)
But not convinced about the unidirectional for the shaft, it sure looks good but is it safe enough?
OK, here is the pics of the finished product.
Had a bit to do so have not done the weight flex test or the real actually paddle with it test yet.
Cosmetically though it looks unreal. I took it to the OC club and had a few people ask to order OC paddles that looked the same (but shorter).
It feels light, even more so 'cos you expect wood to have weight. It is exactly the same weight as a full carbon C4 paddle which shocked me to be honest.
Here are some pics of the finished product and the scales to prove its weight.
