Having looked at many paddles on the market, I can see good parts to this one and good parts to that one, so time to take matters into my own hands and roll the good things from about 4 different paddles into one...
Looks interesting Stuey and good luck with it.. and also good on you for having a go..
But I think you may have bitten off more than you can chew.. ![]()
It wouldn't be the first time DJ.
A wise man once told me you should bite off more than you can chew and then just 'chew harder'.
Core almost ready. Have to trim out where the spigot for the shaft goes. Still some trimming & sanding to go.
8-10 degrees. Still doing a bit of research on that. Could be closer to 10 than 8 I would say...
8-10 sounds perfect.. ![]()
Call me mad but that was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid thanks for the remind HumanCartoon
...and we proudly present the first SUP paddle with real winglets ![]()
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A good job, congrats. I am missing a tip curve at the first glimpse.
Looks awsome, did you vac bag it? When is the test?
The core was vacuum bagged, but the lamination process uses a technique called infusion which draws resin through the fibre laminate under vacuum. The Core bonding was a little expensive weight wise, but the whole paddle will be about 500g when complete.
...and we proudly present the first SUP paddle with real winglets ![]()
![]()
A good job, congrats. I am missing a tip curve at the first glimpse.
The paddle blade has the barest of curve in the face, but a big influence of this paddle was the Starboard High Aspect which is pretty damn flat.
I wondered about laminating my self made paddle. You gave me some ideas .
Did you add some extra weight adding the core after laminating ?
I'm thinking about shaping the core with shaft location then mold and bag the whole thing to save weight from assembled gluing ![]()
Getting there...
Please feel free to give me your comments or criticisms.
I always thought that like the high performance kayak paddles that have a sharp wing on the top of could transfer to a sup paddle. Awesome work on making a paddle
Done.
Ready for testing. It's a bit heavier than I would have liked, as I've over built it, but that can be fixed on V2
First time on the water with the new paddle today. The first thing that came to mind was the stiffness of the paddle. It could be too stiff. As soon as I leaned into a stroke I felt my back load up way more than normal which brings me to my next point in that it felt too big in size.
The paddle measures around 98" sq. as it is now, but feels much more like my old 115" sq Naish paddle. I suspect the paddle may have a date with the diamond saw very soon.
One really good thing was zero flutter. The paddle felt like it was attached to some rails in the water.
From the moment the blade touches the water I had power and lots of it.
The fifth and most striking thing were the very well formed but large vortices coming off each (side) edge of the paddle. There is a really big pressure differential between the drive face and back of the paddle - way more than I ever dreamed of, but suggests we could be onto something.
Hopefully, some of the Melbourne crew will offer their opinion in due course. Video to follow...
I've just downloaded some data of my Garmin and without even attempting to have a go at my best time over 1km, I've managed to slice 30 seconds off my PB.
I'm staggered...