Profile

Name: upstart

Most Recent Reviews

First off I want to say that I've owned this paddle for around 8 years and still enjoy using it. It is light weight and very strong. The problems I've had with it are due to design and construction flaws. I had the misfortune of buying the paddle while the internal ferrule locker was be used and that never worked properly. The internal locker failed after about a year and I was able to obtain a replacement ferrule from the manufacturer at my expense. This should have been a warranty repair in my opinion since it was clearly a flaw in the design but there seems to be no clear warranty on these paddles. A small price to pay as I do enjoy supporting small business.

My second issue with the paddle stems from sloppy construction. When I received the paddle it had several areas where the rubber material covering the joint between blade and shaft was not sealed tightly to the blade. These gaps were 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide in two places on each blade of the paddle. I chose to fill the gaps with epoxy instead of sending back the new out of the box paddle and hoped for the best. At last the epoxy has failed and now water is allowed to enter into the shaft. This could have all been avoided by sealing the joints between blade and shaft during construction.

Overall I'm pleased with the paddle but there's room for improvement.

Picked up a used Capri 2 years ago and have enjoyed it a great deal. It's light weight, stiff and very comfortable. I padded out the hull with some neoprene to make thigh/knee pads for better contact with the hull for leaning. No kayak is perfect and the rear hatch does leak, so it only rates an 8 on my scale but it is a fun river and lake boat.

I've been wearing the Get-away for over a year now and it's the best fitting PFD I've tried so far. Very comfortable and does not ride up in the water. I see lots of paddlers with vests up around their ears when they take a swim. That won't happen with this model. The only problem is some fading of the nylon. Lighter colors seem to fade a bit quicker.

I ordered a full tour signature carbon paddle based on all the great reviews and a phone call from Patrick at Onno. I was pretty disappointed with the paddle right out of the package. The blades had an unfinished look that didn't make me think they would hold up to real world use. The blades on my paddle have very thin edges and have losts of flex in them. Only the face is finished the back side is not smooth. The paddle is light weight because there is a minimum of material used in construction.

The seam between the blade and shaft is covered with a layer of tape that had several 1/4 inch gaps. I found myself making repairs on a new paddle by filling the gaps with epoxy. After being used about 20 times the ferrule locker failed and had to be replaced at my expense.

Bottom line is this design has proved to be too fragile for regular use and I end up choosing more durable paddles on a regular basis.