Hi Chad,

I'm using this site for inspiration:

http://ngc704.home.comcast.net/~ngc704/paddles/

The method appealed to me partly because I had loads of extra strips on hand, but it's simple even if you're working from scratch. As the site promises, this method looks difficult and tedious but is quite simple once you jump in. I made two shafts and settled on 3/8" and 1/2" strips to create an oval shaft about 1 1/4" across.  Rule of thumb is to make the paddle 10" longer than you are. Mine is still under construction, but the last time I weighed it, it was still well under a pound- no vacuum formed carbon fiber required.

I'm not agnoizing too much over the design particulars. I'm going with a 10 degree angle on the shaft and a rather generic home-made template for the blade. This method is simple and cheap enough that tweaks to my basic design won't be onerous once I actually form an opinion!

Good luck,

Patrick

I'm also looking to build a SUP paddle as well.  I found this forum post with a bunch of useful links.

Let me know what you find and I would love to compare notes.  I'm just finishing my SUP now and would like to build a paddle this summer.

http://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=8779.0

Tim

i 2nd the bird's mouth - not too hard (a bitch to get the strips to 'click' together, but otherwise) -- very light even with 4 oz cloth.

Very cool looking with alternating strips of white and red cedar!

I built two paddles with western red cedar birdsmouth construcion. zBlades were laminated 1/4" C-grain balsa, shaped and seathed wirh 3 oz cloth. No fiberglass on shafts, just epoxy & varnish. Very light, paddles were 1 1/2 oz heaavier than the $400 carbon deal at the SUP store. One busy year paddling and they are still in bristol condition.