Re: [Paddlewise] FW: As a matter of interest

But were they all unfeathered? ;-)
Matt Broze
-----Original Message-----
From: SurfBuff <kayaker_at_caribsurf.com>
To: 'paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net' <paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net>
Date: Thursday, June 03, 1999 9:05 AM
Subject: [Paddlewise] FW: As a matter of interest


>
>
>Subject: FW: As a matter of interest
>
>Wayne
>
>When you phoned me at 2PM today, I told you there was one guy out there
(Sander) but it was almost flat.
>
>Well let me tell you what.... Brian Charles came up at 4.30 and I joined
him... and by 5 PM the waves were ENORMOUS !  In every set there were one or
two that were well overhead!
>
>Brian broke his paddle bracing on one of them (his Aquabound paddle.)  Went
in and came back out with his brother's (another Aquabound) and after two
waves broke that one too!   All these blades break at exactly the same
place.... right at the neck where the blade goes into the shaft.
>
>Please drill out those shafts you have so I can try to put something
together from the scraps for Brian & Michael.
>
> BTW  .... we have had paddles from Impex, Delepre, Cannon and
Aquabound.... and all have broken in short order.  The only paddles that
have proved their worth (that I have sold) are Werner and Llendal.
>
>The Interesting thing is... when I report broken paddles to the
manufacturers they ALL come back with the same reply...  "Oh?  That's funny.
We've never had a report of any of our paddles breaking before...."
>
>One manufacturer ... Aquabound ... questioned if the paddles weren't
breaking because the paddler was 'pushing up off the bottom.'   I assured
them that was not the case.  Then miracle of miracles.... James Ince was in
at Bathsheba and his girlfriend was video taping him.  He did a roll on a
small wave... and there on the video ... you can see him come up... with
paddle blade missing!
>
>I told this to the Aquabound people, I offered to send them the video by
Federal Express if they would reimburse my charges... they said "yes, please
send it."  Of course you know... I never heard a word from them about the
video and never got compensated for the Federal Express charges.
>
>I've said all the above to say this....  in all my years of dealing with
kayaks, I've NEVER sold a product that I would not stand behind, my feelings
first of all being.... 1. it's not ethical and 2. I expect the manufacturer
would stand behind me and replace any defective merchandise.
>
>In all fairness to Aquabound, they have sent me at no charge, replacement
blades which I use to repair their paddles at no charge to the paddle owner.
The problem is... they keep on breaking, and breaking, and breaking... like
the Energizer bunny.
>
>The Delepre people (Mega Kayaks)... I have reported one broken paddle to
them and Malcolm has said he'll replace it and any others that break.
>
>But the Impex people.... I bought from them a dozen paddles and all of them
went on the dump heap in two weeks... they said they would replace them and
they never did.  We lost well over a thousand dollars on that deal.  I can
only say the Impex people are quite unethical.
>
>One other point: these paddle makers obviously make their paddles for white
water use.  The kind of pressure on a paddle on a river is apparently
nothing like that on an ocean swell when someone gets trashed on a 10' or
bigger wave.
>
>The ONLY paddles that have proved their worth here are Werner and Llendal.
I'm sure there are others that will stand up too.  I understand Lightning is
quite reliable.
>
>Have a nice day!
>
>Surfbuff
>Barbados
>
>
>
>
>
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