Kialoa paddle repair

[NLCHAWAII]

I quietly offer paddle repair in my area and was recently asked to repair a broken Kialoa paddle . It was a second hand item to the gentlemen and warranty wasn't an option for him . Kialoa paddles are of the easiest to fix because of the shaft wall thickness and the layer of fiberglass on the exterior of the shaft . This particular break was a compression failure on the front with about 3/4" tag of material still intact on the rear . This will be a quick repair because the two sides of the break almost want to line up neatly again . If they didn't , I'd have to clean up the two sides of the break and dowel the area with balsa wood . I prefer not using dowels as they add weight and bonding inside of a shaft with the various mold releases that different manufactures use are hard to clean out . So on to the repair . I tape off an area about 6" either side and this will be the area that gets tapered .

But before that happens , I need to secure the break . I do this in a right angle jig with clamps and saturate the break with resin . The next day the joint will be secure enough to carefully sand the taper . This is the opportunity to get the shaft properly aligned . If the joint breaks loose while sanding , you'd need to come back to this step .I use a variable speed mini grinder on low speed with a 6" power pad to do most of my sanding work , and I sand almost completely through the shaft all the way around . This large taper is very important in doing this repair . It allows a gradual transition between materials with different stiffness and toughness . It also provides a large area of bonding between the new work and the old work .
At this point the joint is very fragile and needs to be handled very gently . I now am ready to laminate the break . I've chosen a uni-directional weave 8.5 oz carbon that is very easy to saturate . If my tapered area is 12" wide , I'll first laminate about a 6" area in the middle . I'll then feather that laminate and then add another wider one at 9" over that and feather that into the tapered repair area , slowly filling the repair area in with multiple laminates of carbon until filled . When I laminate , I like to wrap the wet carbon with peel ply and then compress the laminate with stretched packing plastic wrap . ( caution ... some varieties of plastic wrap can lightly bond with epoxies . Test your materials for compatibility first ) . I always over saturate the carbon and then when it's wrapped , I'll take the point of a knife and perforate the plastic to allow the excess resin to escape . This leaves a vacuum bagged like laminate without the extra setup time for each laminate .
This repair with the chosen carbon took four layers to fill the taper . The final layer is block sanded to blend with the surrounding shaft . Your ability to sand will reflect in the finish of the final product . You can use whatever your preference is for a top coat finish , but my favorite is a hand rubbed hot coat of epoxy .
The new work is a bit stiffer because of fiber orientation and density of carbon , BUT what was broken is now repaired with NO weight gain and is ready for the water again at a minimal expense . Out of the dozens of shaft repairs done , I've yet to receive a call back from a customer to say that a repair had broken . So with a little patients and practice , YOU to can put some life back into your broken shaft . - Ax

[H2Oman]

Great looking repair.  Thanks for the steps

[crtraveler]

Great to know that something like that can be resurrected for the future!! - nice job

[Ake G]

Beautiful job! I had a similar break and just had a new shaft put on by Kialoa. Not a cheaper option than a diy thanks for the great photos and post!