Lightweight Paddles: any of yall use custom carbon fiber?

[Outdoor Vlogger]

I just made my first carbon fiber greenland paddle, and I'm amazed at how light it turned out, and I'm amazed at how great it feels to use a light, light stick.

I have been entranced by the concept of packrafting and I wonder if any of you folks have tried to get a kitchen kayak paddle crafter to make a nice light raft paddle.

Whitewater paddlers have used super-light carbon paddles by Werner for years, but with a little technique, one can make a paddle weigh much less with sacrificing little on strength. Also, I read on a thread below that Werner doesn't recommend a touring blade for class III… PLEASE realize that Werner is only saying this from a liability standpoint… their paddles are breakable no matter where you use them, a cracked blade all depends on technique! …I've broken more ww werners on the ocean than werner touring paddles on the river.

I realize this paddle I made would not be suitable for packraft, but it exposes the potential:
http://youtu.be/1FD4d8zhVc4

[John S.]

171 cm seems too short.

[Outdoor Vlogger]

Def too short for pakraft
Perfect for a storm paddle (greenland decktop backup/high wind)
Perfect for someone who usually uses a 169… …habbits from waveski surfing!

[Philip Tschersich]

Once you make it long enough for a packraft, you will probably want to make it sectionable. 4-piece is pretty standard for packrafting when bushwhacking may be involved, but if you are on trails the a 2-piece is fine. If you have a destroyed Werner, I'd salvage the ferrule out of it and incorporate that in your DIY project. Werner makes incredibly nice center ferrules on their carbon models. Simpler may be to copy Lendals ferrule design which uses an expansion plug to eliminate slop. It works okay, but is a bit of a bandaid to mask the lower precision in manufacturing compared to Werner.

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