I’m a kayak hire operator. I have paddles that have heat shrink grips.
Some of these grips are damaged and need replacing. I’m struggling to figure out an easy way to do this as all the heat shrink paddle grips I can find are tubes and my paddles are one piece paddles.
I’m not against using tennis racket tape but as our paddles get used a lot I’m concerned It’ll look a bit messy and will need replacing every few hires.
Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

Plasti Dip spray on. Mask off where you don’t want it to go, and spray on a few layers. do one or two paddles to see how long it lasts. It comes in different colors so you can color code different size paddles.

I used to work for a company that made heat shrink tubing (actually, the inventor of it), so can talk about that. Bad news is that the tubing needs to be in tube format to work. So if the paddles are one piece, meaning you can’t slide a tube on, then replacing with heat shrink tubing wont work. It wont form a warp around the shaft.

I am guessing you will need to use some sort of tape you wrap around.

The path of least resistance is to just remove the grips. Most paddles don’t have them, so are they really necessary?

Another paint-on alternative is truck bed liner paint, which is available in a spray. It has more texture than Plasti-dip, which I would prefer.

Barring that, there are tapes that are designed to self-adhere (they stick to themselves, but have no adhesive on them) that can be used to wrap the handle. Although I haven’t used this on paddles, I have used it in high-stress applications and it works well.

I don’t like the feel of heat shrink plastic grips, and if it were me, I’d just remove them. If the shaft is slippery, wet-sand with 800 or finer grit (for a clean job use masking tape to delineate the sanded area and remove when you are done). If you prefer more grip, then I like paddle-wrap for some of my wing blades: http://www.paddlewrapit.com/ . These are pretty aggressive, so may give blisters if you aren’t used to them.

Talked with a local instruction/guide company, and they use Newbaum’s clothe tape on their paddles. Looks like bike handlebar tape. http://www.newbaums.com/

Great idea Peter!! I use Newbaums tape for my road bike handlebars and it works great. I apply a layer or 2 of shellac to it and it holds up well (for bikes).