I’ve bought a pair of new paddles for the wife and myself. If possible, I like to see if I can shorten the length of our old paddles (Aqua-Bound Stingray’s) and give them to the kids to use. These are both currently 230cm long and would like to shorten them down to 210cm. This would be about 8”, or 4” per side. I’d like to keep each paddle shaft equal in length. The ferrule extends about 3-3/4” into the carbon shaft, but there is some epoxy like material just past the ferrule to keep water out.
Questions:
Any idea how deep that epoxy material extends into the paddle shaft?
To reuse the ferrule, any idea how hard/easy It’d be to peel/cut/remove the carbon shaft off the ferrule after the shaft has been cut?
Good adhesive to use for reassembly?
How/what to use to re-plug the ends of the paddle for flotation?
For those who have already done this, it’d be great if you could provide me some input.
why equal lengths I can’t address your question, but I was wondering why keep the paddle shafts at equal lengths? One side should be easier (less work) to shorten than the other.
As long as the new joint wasn’t under a hand grip position.
I had Epic shorten my Epic Full Carbon Length Lock Active tour paddle and Eddyline shorten my Mid-swift paddle.
As I recall Eddyline charged around $50 total, including shipping to me. It might be worth checking with Aquabound to see if they offer the service and how much they charge. I am not confident enough in my tool use to risk ruining a carbon paddle.
An advantage to maintaining the same ratio/proportions in length of the splits is the seam in centered. This can be a visual clue when paddling.
Maybe not a bad idea… While paddling with the kids, I often find them holding the paddle offset, to one side or the other (something I find myself in error of too). I was thinking that by keeping the shafts equal, it’d be easier for them to see this for this themselves.
I’ve been thinking of using some colored electrical tape to mark the shaft for proper hand placement, something I should probably do. Making a full 8” cut on one shaft does place the ferrule lock a little close to the hand placement. But, having them inadvertently feeling the lock and having the colored tape on the shafts should help police themselves with proper hand positioning. Perhaps this might be a better solution, since the kids seem to somehow have difficultly listening to me anyway.
I would keep the paddles as they are, as the kids will probably be able to use them in a couple of years. Replacement costs then will be higher, and you can buy kids’ paddles now for less costs and sell them when they are outgrown.
But, I actually did downsize a BB aluminum shaft at the ferrule. I used a hand mitre saw and took very careful measurements for the new hole. I started with a tiny drill bit and worked the hole bigger gradually. It came out perfect, and I think I was lucky. I also prefer the idea of regluing the blades to the shaft for a downsizing. Good luck!
don’t over worry It’s not that hard. I shortened an aluminum shaft Walden paddle once.Turned out a TOTAL pain in the ass because the diameter of the ferrule was JUST a tiny big bigger than the rest of the shaft so i had to use a brake cylinder hone to slightly enlarge the diameter. really, the cutting/drilling is no big deal,just measure accurately. if anything you wanna err a couple milimeters on the “too far from the end” side so you can just file off excess from the end of the shaft for a perfect fit.
Cutting blades off may work out OK, just make a template to make sure all come out the same. actually may be a decent idea because it’ll reduce swing weight and smaller blades will be easier on the kids. BUT it’s NOT any less work than shortening the ferrule
Methods etc… Epic shortened my paddle by cutting the ferrule ends and retooling the ferrule. Eddyline did it by removing the blades and cutting from those ends and reattaching the blades.
As far as leaving the paddles at 230: These days many paddlers feel that 230 is much too long of a paddle to use. I paddled at 230 for years because, starting with my first purchase, I was told how to gauge length and it always came out to 230. These days I’m paddling at 215 and have used even shorter paddles - my two ww paddles are 194 and 200.
Update: Shorted the paddles last week This was way too easy!
· Scribed a cut line on the paddle shaft 3.937” (10cm) up from the blade end.
· Scribed another line on the shaft, inline with the dihedral on the blade and above the cut line for reassembly alignment.
· Used the miter saw to make the cut on the shaft as someone mentioned. Used a piece of trim board to space the paddle blade away from the back fence of the saw.
· With a cutoff wheel on the dremel tool, I made a cut along the length of the shaft, inserted a screwdriver into the cut at the end, twisted and popped it off the blade.
· Coated the inside of cut shafts with 30 minute epoxy and slipped each blade back on, aligning the dihedral on the blade with the alignment line on the shaft.
· Using a piece of string, I checked the alignment between the two blades. One end of the string taped to dihedral at the end of one blade, the other end pulled taught and aligned with the dihedral at the end of the opposite blade. Perfect!
· Rewrapped the newly assembly area of blade and shaft with a piece of black electrical tape, just like the factory!
This was very easy to do! Now my kids each have a decent paddle to use!
