If they are less than a year old they usually warranty them; take them to the place of purchase no point whining here.

DJ, No both broke about 300mm from the handle.
Also does any one know how to remove the paddle blade from the shaft?

I have this experience recently as I bought a second hand Kialoa that came with the shaft broken by the ... Post Office (50cm from the handle)

To change the shaft, what Kialoa does is: cut the shaft close to the blade, and grind the shaft away with a rotative abrasive stone (don't known the common english name for it: grindstone?). Slow and delicate process, and must be done wearing a mask, carbon fiber dust is a lung killer.

I took the easy route and just repaired the shaft: I made horizontal grooves to the shaft with very coarse sandpaper, I took a ~ 6" part of a shaft that I had from cutting a previous paddle to the proper length, cut it in half lengthwise, glued (24h araldite) to the shaft as a brace (to the front and back sides of the shaft) under very high pressure in a vice, and after 24h wrapped it under tension with sailcloth repair tape (light, inextensible fibers) by having the end of the tape tied to a rope going through a pulley and a 10kg weight, glued under tension at both ends, and with many layers (each layer adds 10kg permanent pressure to keep the "brace" in place, even with the paddle flexing under use), using 2 meters tape total. Finished by a layer of electric tape for protection.

So far so good, but I only used it during 2 sessions, but I tried to apply as much pressure as possible. Repair seems light enough.

I considered using kevlar or dyneema thread (fishing thread) instead of the sailcloth, could be a better solution as it should be even less extensible than the sailcloth, but may be more difficult to glue/resin properly. My feeling is that just laying fibers with resin will not hold in time due to the little flexes in use. My solution should be more durable by the permanent pressure applied to keep the "brace" in place. But only time will tell.

I was also considering cutting the shaft about 50mm from the blade and making and inserting an internal sleeve at about 200mm long. The sleeve would fit 100mm into the shaft and 100mm into the remaining shaft and blade. Bonded with 24h araldite.

Colas, Thanks it all makes sense. The flex on the shaft needs to be distributed along its entire length. I will give your idea some thought regarding rapping the external shaft with, what ever.

Radman, Stand up paddle sports in Osborne Park sell new shafts (starboard paddles) but the big problem is removing the blade from the broken shaft. The say use brute force with finesse.

My wife snapped her 4 month old Starboard wave recently too in a average wipe out. NZ Starboard dealer swapped it straight away, so was very happy with that level of service.

You Guys in NZ have a couple of carbon tube manufactures there that make some of the best stuff in the world.
Paddles are the one item of our SUP gear that can easily be made very strong & light. I've made about 35 paddles for friends from NZ carbon, none have come bacK snaped....(that I know of) ex rowers & some heavy tall 95 to 120kg guys have them.

(Here we have a good manufacturer (CST)...but a bit too pricy.)

My Paddles are light at around 410gm for a 80 1/2" large blade paddle......& they can be made lighter yet. Probably around 380gm.....or less? (It's a bit of fun trying to go as light as possible.....& maintain strength/reliability)

It is a real shame that manufactures don't spend an extra dollar & make paddles bullet proof......they obviously can
A broken paddle will ruin your day every time.........unless you have a spare

paulman said...

I was also considering cutting the shaft about 50mm from the blade and making and inserting an internal sleeve at about 200mm long. The sleeve would fit 100mm into the shaft and 100mm into the remaining shaft and blade. Bonded with 24h araldite.

I did just that a fortnight ago, to repair my PSH Paddle that snapped when I wiped out.
It had broken about 30mm up from paddle join. I used about 170mm of aluminium 1" tube (bicycle steerer tube) which perfectly fit inside the carbon shaft (shaft went into paddle so was OK, could get past the break well).

24hr araldite, dribbled some on the outside to keep the water out, wrapped it with elec tape to hide it, seems pretty good, haven't broken at again yet!

year simon i bought it from marty at delta designs in margies thats about 750 ks away from gero, ive already done a repair ,do you think i still have a claim,like i said they are an oarsome paddle and would love a new one

Just fixed my broken paddle and would like to say thanks to Stand up paddle sports in Osborne Park for all the advise and parts. I didnt buy the paddle from them but they certainly gave me a good discount on the replacement shaft.

Hilly I had the same thing happen to my starboard carbon wave(it snapped in the middle while paddling for a wave) and it was less than a year old and i took it back to the place of purchase.They gave me a new shaft under warranty.
I had to cut old shaft off with drop saw at shoulder of blade and they gave me a smaller diameter bit of pipe, i expoy resined the smaller bit inside where i had cut off shaft and then resined new shaft ot that.Good luck