My First Stand Up Paddle - Paddle

As some of you might know I’m a bit of a wanna-be surfer, and as Im not very good on a short board I got into Stand Up Paddle Surfing and the sport has taken me in.

I was wanting to buy a new paddle as my old carbon one had next to no blade angle, wich isnt ideal for efficient paddling as it can make it more difficult to keep the board on the plane.

After looking at prices at new paddles I thought I might be able to make one myself out of timber.

I did a bit of research on the web and found that the most common blade angle was between 8 and 10 degree’s and while looking at other designs I thought I may be able to come up with something a bit better.

I decided instead of making the paddle out of solid chunks of timber (like most of the designs I saw) I would make it using bent lamination to keep as much strength in the shaft as possible, plus it would mean having less risk in having the blade snapping off all together.

This was a really fun project, only took 2 days to complete up to the finishing stage and although I havent had a chance to take it on the water I feel it was a success.

There is a few things I am going to change for the next paddle i make, mainly the laminates orientation along the shaft, as I think by rotating it 90 degree’s the overall paddle will become for ridged, and I would also like to make the blade itself out of some laminated timbers to make it look nicer.

Let me know what you think.

-- Jordan - http://www.jordswoodshop.com