Last summer I got Maytagged and tried to roll up during the beat down and snapped my favorite Onno paddle right in the middle of the shaft with a clean break. I’ve been thinking about trying to piece it back together with tubing in side and cloth out or find some kind of ferrule to turn it into a break down paddle. Won’t bother me if it is a few inches shorter. Anybody have some ideas?
Contact Onno
The owner sometimes posts comments here.
Uh not recently.
I had an email exchange with him
a few months ago. He was getting ready to do a major website rebuild, so he may be pretty busy right now.
Don’t send him any money.
Try Contacting Him And
Explain the problem and see if he responds? He might send you a ferrule and locker that might fit the shaft. Then all you got to do is buy those small epoxy packets from West Marine and their special powdery filler material to paste everything on.
Or contact ZRE to see if they might have a ferrule that might fit inside and be used to join the two separate shafts together again? Worth a shot…
I had the same thing happen to me
this summer at Folly Beach, SC. It was an aqua bound paddle that broke the plastic insert right at the joint. I emailed the company over a month ago about suggestions with out a response. I plan on fixing the insert, but hoped to get some advice. My plan now is to epoxy a hardwood or aluminum tube into the hollow insert which unfortunately has a tapered hollow so will take some customizing.
…
I wanted to lengthen a ZRE single blade paddle so did something similar. Removed the grip and made a carbon tube that was a snug fit inside the shaft for reinforcement and another carbon tube the same ID and OD of the actual paddle shaft to use as the extension. Epoxied those joints and then slid a piece of carbon sleeve over the whole thing before finally compressing it with heat shrink tubing to give it a nice finish. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the heat shrink slid over the wetted out carbon sleeve without it getting hung up and messing up the sleeve so the final product isn’t as pretty as it could be. Strong and light though.
I was lucky that using aluminum tubing as a mandrel gave me just the right sizes for the insert and shaft extension. I don’t remember what sizes of tubing I used but it would have been a combination of 3/4, 7/8, and 1".
Soller composites is the best source for carbon sleeve and heat shrink tube if you choose to go that route.
Or save yourself a lot of work and just whittle the insert out of wood, epoxy it in place, and use either fiberglass or carbon sleeve over the joint to finish it off.
Alan
One piece
Just make it a one piece, easier and stronger than a ferrule, although a pita to transport.
Easy
I’ve done the wood plug to change the feather of an old WW paddle. Holding up fine after many years.
If I were to do something similar now I would:
Shape a plug out of minicell or other foam.
Wrap a layer of glass around it and saturate with epoxy and let it set.
Slather some more epoxy on, jam it together and call it a day.
Did Exactly That
with a broken WW paddle. Inserted a 4-5" pvc tube with epoxy to hold the two paddle pieces together in the inside. Then sand and epoxy two layers of fiberglass on the outside.
sing
7/8" OD Aluminum Tubing
It looks like 7/8" tubing is close to 23 mm and should fit fairly well. Thinking Gflex epoxy should work. Will have to measure PVC I think I have several pieces around.
Hope you are getting some surf. It’s been a pretty surfy summer around here.
…
I think I had to sand the tubing down a bit. But, that actually provided better gripping for the epoxy to bond the tubing with the paddle shaft. I also had to add some silica to thicken the epoxy to fill in the butt joint before glassing. Unfortunately, you are going to have a slightly heavier paddle but it’ll be useable.
No surf on the east coast since spring. We have essentially Pond Atlantic conditions. On the plus side, I have been out kayak striper fishing more and have gotten some “Nantucket sleigh rides.” 
sing
Aqua-Bound Great Service
I would Like to publicly thank Andrew at Bending Branches/Aqua-Bound for seeing this thread and emailing me. They have had email problems, but he saw my post and got in touch with me. Above and beyond in my opinion. I also have 3 Bending Branches canoe paddles, as well as my carbon Aqua-Bound Stingray Kayak paddle. I feel both companies have good paddles at a good value, and now I have to say I am impressed with Andrew contacting me.
dowel
http://www.mcmaster.com/#dowels/=13euc05
the hardwoods are AAA n turn down with a roll of sandpaper held with cardboard…try use a stationary electric drill at slow speed or by hand…
prep dowel removing debris without insulting the epoxy composition…
clean shaft ID…epoxy dowel n insert with a twist.
I used a mite smaller than snug for an epoxy layer.
Broke an Aquabound trying for a knee on shaft paddle float rentry. A’s center are onduline ? very weak. But the stuff gouges out clean. Ondu is used for toliet seats…the chemist sponsored Gurney at Indy …Ozzie.
But as written prior and ignored by the elite as per…the single shaft A paddle with steel ( ? ) shaft is a winner for knee up rentry.
Poss a canoe retry paddle.
Similar AquaBound Service
I’ve had good luck with them too and was surprised you did not get a good response initially, but I always called instead of using email.
You might look for a high end bike shop
They repaired a Werner carbon shaft of mine. They often work on damaged carbon fibre bike frames, so they are familiar with the technology in keeping things lite, but retaining the strength.
They actually fabricated the inside tube of the ferrule and used the locking mechanism from the original, though it was a straight shaft.
Turns out the reply went to junkmail
– Last Updated: Aug-02-16 10:06 AM EST –
I missed it. However, my post was seen here and I got another email that went to junk mail, but happened to see that one.
My paddle was already 6 years old. They no longer make the paddle connection I broke but offered me 50% off on a new paddle with a composite improved connection. I will take them up on this offer.
BB/Aquabound are truly customer oriented. A refreshing breath of air in a corporate world with only an eye on the bottom line.
Finally got this fnished …
I did Sing’s method and cut down the paddle on both sides of the break with a hacksaw so it would fit cleanly together. I got a piece of PVC pipe and slowly thinned it down with a rasp I use for making bows and then epoxied a 12" piece that fits tightly into the two pieces sanded things after they dried and then wrapped it with two layers of 6 OZ s glass wetting with epoxy, as it rolled on, then sanded a bit when dried and gave it a hot coat of epoxy. Looks pretty decent. Stess tested it a little bit and it survived rolling in 4-5 foot dumping surf. I keep moving to shorter paddles so this was fine.