I hear that cracking sound again

[outcast]

It's a very subtle noise, and i only hear it every once in a while, but i know what it is.

I have snapped 4 Kialoa paddles now....about one every two years .... 3 Methanes and a Shaka.

I love the paddles...the blade, handle, weight, and the oval shaft.....

but.....I am pretty sure that their diagonal carbon weave on the shaft is a problem

It's not a vertical group of fibers with a wrap....I am thinking that the diagonal weave unevenly loads smaller goups of fibers  which give way in a microscopic fracture pattern....

this kind of industry learning curve has been seen with windsurfing masts

Every break has been below my power arm, and every failure has been during some relatively minor dig with no evidence of a fracture line before hand.

So i heard the little ting yesterday.  And i know what it eventually means.   We have a good sales rep and i did get helped by Kialoa, but i'm probably going to try another brand after the next failure

[SUPJorge]

I've snapped three Werners, all at the handle. One came close to injuring me. Is there a paddle that one doesn't have to worry about?

[supthecreek]

Testimonial
I'm a big guy, I had a paddle in my hand 222 days last year, about the same this year.
I have two paddles
I'm not nice to them.
I leave both in my car all year. I never take them out unless I am using one.
Last year that meant -6 degrees to over 90 degrees. Never in paddle bags.
I jam them in the sand, chop ice a lot on winter outings and lean heavily on them while SUSing.
I managed to split one blade at the seams after beating the edges off it. (I'm a rail banger as well)
I simply epoxied the sides back together... good as new

Both are Ke Nalu's with xtuf(s) shafts - 1 Wiki, 1 Maliko

My Wiki keeps me on the water... my Miliko just lays in the car..... waiting.

unfortunately, no one paid me for this outburst of support 

[stoneaxe]

I'm real hard on gear. I've broken a number of paddles, always handles or blades, never a shaft (except wooden ones...they all break). In carbon I broke a Werner 3 times (handle and two blades) and one Ke Nalu (blade). All were operator error except for the Werner handle. Haven't tried Kialoa or QB for any length of time.

[headmount]

The real testament for a paddle holding up to extreme abuse is PBill.  You want to see how tough something is, give it to him.  He uses Ke Nalu and I even feel safe uses his blade when he offers it to me.

That being said, I have heard that cracking sound on a Ke Nalu, only it was just a bad glue job by me.  When I redid the noise disappeared.

[Eagle]

As some know JimT likes to test his paddles and in one vid shows him whacking a shaft against a wood block then stepping on it to snap it.  This shows that hard impacts from blows can lead to shafts breaking at any future time - so it is good not to slam them around too much.

The micro cracks eventually snap - and probably just when you are paddling hard on a wave.

[outcast]

I should clarify.
I take pretty good care of my paddles..especially since i have had to replace them too frequently.....bags and all.....yes,  i definitely fall with them in the surf

i think the weave pattern on the Kialoa shafts is a problem....carbon shouldn't fatigue if the layup is right... the last one broke just below where my hand was pulling, and at the max bend spot

just putting it out there

[mrbig]

They ALL can break. I saw a kenalu snap in the hands of a very strong local racer!! Blade snapped just below the glue joint..

[PonoBill]

I'm very surprised you're breaking Kialoas. Their oval shaft is extremely strong. The high end shafts are made in the gorge with a very sophisticated diffusion method that minimizes flaws.

I am familiar with the cracking sound. Some of my Ke Nalu paddles squeak a little. Probably the glue joint, but time will tell. I do indeed beat the crap out of stuff, and all it takes is a good scratch to weaken carbon fiber. The stress riser at the blade/shaft joint is the most likely place for a break. The Werner handles broke because they underestimated the stress there and tried to do something less expensive. The handle stress is nothing like the blade/shaft stress, but it's enough to break plastic castings--obviously.

Some guys can break the ears off a brass donkey. Hand a paddle to Junya or Chris P. and stand by. At one point a few years ago I considered speccing out a bulletproof paddle, but that would just be a challenge.

[Area 10]

We've been here many times before. Some people break paddles regardless of what brand they use. Other people rarely, if ever, break paddles, no matter what brand they use. Draw your own conclusions.

Kialoa was just about the first brand that was available to my local area, about 7 years ago. Some of those paddles have been used hard ever since, by many people, and are still going strong.

You probably need to look very carefully at what you are doing with the paddle that might be different from other people who are not breaking their paddles. For instance, some people, when in surf and they are caught side-on, with a wave approaching, place their paddle shoreward of the board so that when the waves strikes it can push the board into the paddle. Those are the kinds of differences in surfing practice that might mean that some people weaken their shafts without even thinking about it, while others don't. Some people leave their paddle to bounce around in the back of a truck, or have a dog that might occasionally do something to the paddle, or they wear a ring that might create a weak spot etc. The possibilities are endless. I have never broken a paddle. But I have friends who SUP much less than me who have broken several, and in some cases they are exactly the same brand and model as I have. In one case, a guy broke a Kialoa, then bought one off me that I had been using hard for 2 years without problem, and then within 2 weeks he had broken that one too, apparently just paddling for a wave. He is not a more powerful paddler than I am.

So, there is a luck element to paddle breaks. And there is possibly also a wear and tear element. But there is definitely also a human factors element too. And I think it is this last element that explains most of the difference between people's paddle-breaking frequency.

You are blaming Kialoa, but unless you'd also used at least one other brand of paddle every bit as much - maybe e.g. alternating the paddles between sessions over a long period of time, you really wouldn't be able to lay the charge at any one brand at all.

[Eagle]

Here is the link for the QB vid -

http://www.quickbladepaddles.com/video/

On our used Vantage noticed a hairline crack right where it inserts into the blade - but our little epoxy repair job is still holding strong after 4 years. 

Other brands have since designed better shaft to blade connections - so always good to look around to find something better.

Have nothing to fault about our demo SB HA - but even a small blade area increase impacts how the blade loads your traps at race speed.  The small 500 is perfect for endurance high cadence full-out speed work.  It gives you a little flick each stroke and blade is feather light.  The overall balance is perfect.

It has been punished as a demo paddle but still is like new.  Crazy awesome paddle from a big board maker no less - that only cost $200 all in.

[PonoBill]

What Area 10 says is absolutely true. In some cases it's power level--like Junya and Chris, whose arms are as big as my thighs--in some cases it's just unfortunate habits. I broke a lot of paddles early on--pre Ke Nalu days--simply because when I fell during a cutback I'd sit on the paddle. I was bracing back on the inside and holding the shaft too low. Once I learned to turn the board under me by bending my knees more and bracing the paddle out instead of behind me that ended. The paddles never broke when I sat on them, but once I had given them the sitz treatment I started hearing the ominous cracking sound.

I'm sure if I was still doing that I'd be breaking Ke Nalus. My ass is an overwhelming force.

[bts]

Kialoa will replace a shaft or blade beyond the warranty period for a fee.

I snapped my methane the same place you did, cost about a hundred bucks plus shipping for the repair.

Since shipping to the middle of the pond is not cheap, I doubled down and bought a gl surf oval carbon at the same time.  There is noticeably less flex in that paddle.  Only time will tell if it's more durable.

[pdxmike]

Do you listen to music when you paddle?  Loud opera music perhaps?

[SUPJorge]

I take very good care of my paddles out of the water. In the water is a different story. That said, all three broke the same way-- i.e., at the handle, while under peak load, once at the plastic casing. I'm not complaining, mind you, just passing it on and wondering if there's a better way going forward