yep I've never snapped a paddle & put all my 92kg behind it

Casso said...

jasdeking said...

the birthday came today ( 45 ...ouch )

my wife searched hi and low cause i am a really fussy she thinks...whatever :)

...not in stock, wrong size, ugly, poorly made..... was it the right paddle...?

the result was she chose a Quick Blade elite race 100 or so :) 8/34 inches wide...nice grab.

I got the same paddle (Quick Blade Race Elite) for my birthday on Saturday - how nice is it? So beautifully crafted and so light.

sweet have you used it yet?

Casso said...

jasdeking said...

Casso said...

I got the same paddle (Quick Blade Race Elite) for my birthday on Saturday - how nice is it? So beautifully crafted and so light.

sweet have you used it yet?

Not yet, but you can tell just by looking at it that it will be really nice to use.

I'll cut and glue the handle tonight and hopefully get it in the water before the weekend.

i noted on the web site the elite is 3oz lighter than the full carbon...will you be using it mainly for surf or otherwise? have had a couple of chats with AA on the best useage, very helpful...excellent paddle ... but i did move up from the axe so a stick would have been an improvement :)

There seems to be a general opinion about paddles 'never' snapping. That is definately not the case. I SUP most mornings before work as well as weekends. When the swell is large and heavy I try my best to position the paddle away from the impact zone. I've kinda got this technique of falling with the blade pointing upwards and only holding the shaft towards the T-bar end to reduce the stress on the paddle itself. Despite being quite concious of the paddle they can still snap. The last paddle I lost was in a 12ft close-out and that was a fairly new paddle. The shaft snapped pretty much where my hand was positioned. Oh, the board snapped too. That is also my second Naish that has snapped.

JBay said...

There seems to be a general opinion about paddles 'never' snapping. That is definately not the case. I SUP most mornings before work as well as weekends. When the swell is large and heavy I try my best to position the paddle away from the impact zone. I've kinda got this technique of falling with the blade pointing upwards and only holding the shaft towards the T-bar end to reduce the stress on the paddle itself. Despite being quite concious of the paddle they can still snap. The last paddle I lost was in a 12ft close-out and that was a fairly new paddle. The shaft snapped pretty much where my hand was positioned. Oh, the board snapped too. That is also my second Naish that has snapped.

Ill bite to ya crap
where do ya paddle
any one paddling out to over 4 " should expect no warranty from anyone, if you are dumb enough to take on a 12 " closeout , cant be on the east coast in QLD, you should expect no sympathy from any one
let alone warranty.

Hey Miko, Like I said...I didn't pursue a replacement. My enquiry with QB was to get it repaired. That's when I became more equiped to select a paddle from the material more suited to my kind of surfing. Carbon/ Glass from my understanding is two strong but brittle/ rigid material types. Carbon/ Kevlar is a better balance of flex to the carbon. Although I'm no expert in the material properties it seemed to make sense to buy a Kevlar/ Carbon paddle. That's where I'm at.

As to the 12ft swell....it only comes around once, maybe twice a year. How can you say I'm foolish for being out there? We wait all year for it.

russh said...

My 2 cents worth on this

I just demo'd a few paddles including the qb 8" slimline Kanaha, Trident GSI 8" slimline - was hard to notice a huge difference between the paddles I demo'd in a small surf and a flat water paddle but I was a little put off by the shiny smooth qb shaft - a bit of sunscreen and the thing was sliding on the power stroke into a wave - nice paddle but slippery shaft was off putting - weight was definately noticeable with the quickblade and it felt nice - but the Trident full carbon and qb felt similar - when put up against my old 8.75" GSI blade the qb it was exactly the same size?

Have I got the measurement area wrong - across the blade at the base.
anyway more confused than ever after trying out a few paddles and the GSI trident and qb are neck and neck and I am not that impressed with the methane T grip .

after 4 hours of decent waves on the old GSI maybe its just worth sticking with the old carbon paddle and buying some beer instead

the question is WTF do you buy cause they all have advantages and disadvantages and price ivaries by around $160 retail

I thought that there was little difference between paddles, until this week.

Now I am not sure you will notice a huge difference in the surf, but I could be wrong. But I recently purchased a QB Elite Racer for paddleing my Javlin, first time out I knocked almost 5min off my previous best time on a standard paddle I do. Now thinking this was a freak occurance I did the same paddle the next day, and even with feeling a bit more muscle fatigue I managed to knock about another minute off the time. I have to say I am pretty happy with this result.

So yeah, I now think there is a difference, but it is a bit of a leap of faith as you might not get the full effect of that difference until you have been using the paddle a bit or over a longer distance.

Scotty Mac said...

I like the methane, but the JL fiberglass paddle is great for everyday paddling to reduce shoulder soreness for us older folks. Great for trips away/holidays etc.

Can't help myself...gotta put my two cents worth & say I love the JL paddle. You can dig deep & whack some weight into it & really go places when padling hard for a wave

Hello guys,
I also want to add my 2 cents....

Snapping paddles is a problem that come from the Carbon weaves!
They have great strength but they will shatter if a compression or fracture occur.
We learn this from the days of Windsurfing.

Sample you wipe out and the rail of your board hit hard the paddle, this impact will create a micro fracture in the Carbon and from there is only question of time before it will snap..
Same can happen on the land or when traveling.. In a plane they trow a luggage over you paddle and that will create a very tiny crack that is impossible to see..

Here in Bali I get call quite often of people breaking paddles and looking for replacement.
It doesn't matter the make or the price ! All Carbon paddles can break easily if you get unlucky.

I don't sell anymore Carbon paddle because I can't handle the guarantee issues...

At my school-rental I have been using now for over 2 years Jimmy Lewis fiber paddle and never had a problem or a breakage.

They are about 150 grams more heavy then a carbon.

I suggest to anyone traveling to get a full fiberglass paddle to bring around, doesn't matter the making.
Nothing worst then breaking your paddle during a trip in the middle of nowhere!

Bye Jankie

New GSI Trident carbon surf is Epic, used it for the first time in the race yesterday at Kirra and felt great, different design than most out there and tough as nails! The new reduced handle size fits like a glove.