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Tales of Broken Paddles?

many of the rivers I ran were very rocky and boney, and I was snapping a paddle 2-3 times a year at one point- everything from a cheapie "sportsman" to a 12degree zav, usually from getting caught between unseen rocks. Strangely the only paddle that seemed to be immune was my "big kahuna", A 74" monster with a 33"x 10" blade I made for steering in North Canoes, it should have been the very first one to break because it's entirely vertical grain cedar but somehow it would just bend rather than snap. I still have it- ugly, battered, and bruised (like me) but still functional...
 
Algonquin Lakes trip report got me thinking about broken paddles. I’ve split, cracked or broken a number of too-slender wood paddle blades, usually while desperately back paddling in current and whacking an unseen rock, but always had enough blade left to use if somehow necessary. I have, almost always, had a spare.

I have only ever broken two paddles to uselessness.

I broke an ancient POS Feather Brand on a tandem trip in the Pine Barrens in the early ‘70’s. We did not have a spare, nor any form of repair materials, and my bowman’s paddle was an even more worn out Feather Brand than mine. Or, correction, the one I was using; I was the proud owner of both ancient and ill cared for paddles.

Pine Barrens rivers are notoriously tight and twisty, and solo paddling a loaded 17’ Grumman with one paddle between us did not make things easier. Knowing that the paddle I was reduced to using – I had taken the better of the two - was equally ready to snap on any stroke was just a tad disconcerting. I froze mid-stroke if anything in the canoe creaked or squeaked.

I did spring for two new paddles soon after. I was dirt poor in the ‘70’s, and wouldn’t have known where to turn for a decent quality paddle, so two new Featherbrands, carrying the ancient one as a (poorly thought out) spare.

Or, minor correction, had two paddles broken. The other was a nearly new Bending Branches Tailwind, a heavy, multi-laminate wood double. I have a phobia about paddles on the ground underfoot in camp (or worse, at a landing or portage trail), or even leaned up against a tree for the night, and keep my paddles safely secured in the boat.

Safely until a skinny munchkin friend, who doesn’t weigh a buck and a half soaking wet, fell bassawkards into my canoe one night in camp. I had left the double apart and left it leaned against a thwart.

The thwart survived, but it is still a mystery to me how he managed to jagged ragged snap an 11-laminate shaft.

BB is a good company; I told them what happened and they replaced it for free.

Let’s hear some busted paddle tales; how broken, if repaired how so/with what? Anyone carved a paddle in camp out of necessity?

Or paddled out with a forked tree limb and duct tape blade, which would likely be my rudimentary solution. The camp flyswatters we have made in that fashion have worked well. Might be fun to try as a camp experiment, and a reason to carry good quality duct tape.

With the right limb and branch arrangement I could even make a double blade that way ;-)
In 50 years of paddling I don't think I've ever broke a paddle, but I've always carried a spare. Once in a canoe race we were neck and neck with another team when they broke a paddle and had no spare. They begged us to give them ours. We paddled on about 50 yards and dropped our spare in the water and took off. You guessed it, they came back and beat us.
 
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