I know there's lots of topics here on broken paddles, but can't quite see any on my exact problem.
Mine is a pretty expensive fanatic full carbon - nearly 2 years old and very well used.
I noticed an awful sound a couple of times in the surf this morning and now (with my eyes on) can see very fine crack and also a couple of spots where resin seems to be simply failing. It's all right in middle of the shaft where my hand holds on.
Is there anything I can do at this point (before it completely fails and snaps) or is it all too late and I just have to save up for another?
I thought a full carbon paddle would last longer than this, but as with my boards, I guess I probably get 2-3 times more use than most people.

If it was my paddle I would cut it through where the crack is, sleeve it then glue it back together and put a wrap of woven fibreglass tape over the join, 100mm width. Prior to rejoining the shaft I would slip some glue impregnated heat shrink over it, 150mm length to stop any fibreglass itch, shrink it when the jobs done to hide the ugly. I would use my lathe to turn down the sleeve, probably out of western red cedar leaving a little space for the west system epoxy to bond along the length of the sleeve. Scuff up any surface you want epoxy to adhere to. Make the sleeve hollow if you can to save weight.

Thats my fix based on what I have in my shed. I would not be happy to give up on a paddle thats done many kms with me. Its going to change the balance, bend characteristics and everything else about the paddle. Maybe I could live with it, maybe not, dont know until you try.

Others must have had this issue, I am curious about their solution.

cheers,
Darryn

EToriginal said..
I can see very fine crack and also a couple of spots where resin seems to be simply failing. It's all right in middle of the shaft where my hand holds on.

Is it the actual carbon cracking of the Fanatic painted logo (white). I have one as well and the paint is full of micro cracks indeed (paint must be stiffer/more brittle than the shaft itself). Post of photo so we can see.

Kenoo said..
if it has a visible crack then its probably too late and will not be far from catastrophic failure, you could wind the shaft with carbon (and epoxy) but will likely add weight and may not actually give you much more life. If you use this paddle a lot and push it pretty hard a couple of years isn't too bad. Lightweight carbon paddles do have a limited life due to carbon not liking to bend, you tend to lose fibres over the life of the paddle until there just isn't enough left to hold it together. Despite it being cheaper glass paddles or carbon paddles with +40% glass tend to last a lot longer than a full carbon paddle as the glass has a lot more flex in each fibre before failing so you don't tend to lose strength over time.

Kenoo said..
Lightweight carbon paddles do have a limited life due to carbon not liking bend, you tend to lose fibres over the life of the paddle

???? Carbon has an infinite life as opposed to metals. I would put down failure of paddles to the following but limited life under normal use:
- overloading
- abuse through repetitive knocking usually handling it in car/garage etc
- poor manufacturing process
- resin creep

something i forgot say is sand the paddle to key up the area around the crack
give everything a good clean with acetone before glueing
good luck
Hugo

I've successfully sleeved my 'oval shaped' paddle shaft. Fortunately I was on my second shaft so simply cut a 200mm long mid-section of the old broken section, cut it lengthwise and epoxied/clamped it over where I had cut the broken ends off and re-joined the shaft.

2 years on and I'm still using it as my main surf paddle.

Geez ET, you're hard on the gear mate. Once again, too many waves methinks.
I like Hugo's method as an easy fix, you don't want carbon in your skin so do it pronto.
I've got a spare adjustable if you want to borrow it in the meantime.

While I agree that fix it sooner than later in my experience and advice on various items longitudinal hair line stress cracks may not cause a high risk of breakage. It's the horizontal cracks that are high risk.
Longitudinal cracks would most likely fail over the length of the shaft in an idea situation.

Rob11 said..

EToriginal said..
I can see very fine crack and also a couple of spots where resin seems to be simply failing. It's all right in middle of the shaft where my hand holds on.

Is it the actual carbon cracking of the Fanatic painted logo (white). I have one as well and the paint is full of micro cracks indeed (paint must be stiffer/more brittle than the shaft itself). Post of photo so we can see.

Kenoo said..
if it has a visible crack then its probably too late and will not be far from catastrophic failure, you could wind the shaft with carbon (and epoxy) but will likely add weight and may not actually give you much more life. If you use this paddle a lot and push it pretty hard a couple of years isn't too bad. Lightweight carbon paddles do have a limited life due to carbon not liking to bend, you tend to lose fibres over the life of the paddle until there just isn't enough left to hold it together. Despite it being cheaper glass paddles or carbon paddles with +40% glass tend to last a lot longer than a full carbon paddle as the glass has a lot more flex in each fibre before failing so you don't tend to lose strength over time.

Kenoo said..
Lightweight carbon paddles do have a limited life due to carbon not liking bend, you tend to lose fibres over the life of the paddle

???? Carbon has an infinite life as opposed to metals. I would put down failure of paddles to the following but limited life under normal use:
- overloading
- abuse through repetitive knocking usually handling it in car/garage etc
- poor manufacturing process
- resin creep

The Carbon in itself does not break down however to make the carbon workable it is made using tiny fibres, this also allows a certain amount of flex. Despite this however carbon still doesn't like to bend. In the end a lot of it comes down to how much flex is in the composite. An item made using a carbon composite that is made super stiff with almost no flex will as you say last almost indefinitely as there is little to no fibre breakage over time. The problem is paddles and paddle shafts especially are made to flex to a degree and thus over time the little fibres fail at the point of most flex, the little micro breaks build up and eventually the paddle fails (generally the shaft as it has the most flex). Small nicks and poor manufacturing obviously don't help but inevitably a carbon paddle will fail. The length of time it takes to fail often depends on the points you have made along with how much flex in the paddle shaft (more flexible more of the fibres will tend to break). This comes from over 30 years manufacturing experience using all types of high performance composites in Canoes, Kayaks, Paddles and SUP along with much of that time as an elite athlete using the equipment (Canoe & Kayak).

ARVY said..
Long time reader, first time poster.
I noticed a crack in my paddle 2 surfs ago & then forgot about it for the next surf. Now I have 2 paddles (one with a blade & the other with a handle)! The good news is I broke it on my last wave as I was paddling to catch it. And it gets better, I then backed over it.

With the advice on this post I will now repair it & use it for a flat water cruiser.

BTW this is the fourth paddle I have broken while surfing although 2 of those were on shallow sandbanks (paddle hitting bottom while falling off). The other 2 were from just general surfing although I use the paddle a lot to brace as where I surf we often have confused swells with short wave periods (a bit like me actually).

Welcome to the breeze paddle snap