C-Forum

It's not entirely on point, but I've used a titanium shafted paddle for a few years, which likely has some of the same pros and cons of the aluminum shaft.

Pro:
More flexible than you would think. Very easy on the shoulders, in terms of paddle stroke.

Easy to change out blades and T-grips by heating shaft with a heat gun and cooling in cold water to break epoxy bond. I've swapped blades at least 4 times, and T-grips at least 3 times with no issues at all. This is the biggest pro for me.

Durable. Less concern about nicks that weaken carbon shafts.

Cons.

"Cold" feel, especially in winter.

Transmits shock if you hit a rock when planting blade.

Just my two cents...edg

edg- excellent input. The Core's rubber lower hand grip keeps my hand nice and warm. The water here is normally cold, and getting colder as days go by so thats a biggy

Jeff, I think it's awesome you posted about the paddle. I'm not saying that Core paddles suck, but I'm glad that you saved the rest of us from investing in these early models. We are the only ones who can police the new gear and rule out the good from the bad....I think it's our responsibility to do this. We're not talking about golf clubs here...we're talking about the very tool needed to negotiate difficult WW.

jatakasawa wrote:we're talking about the very tool needed to negotiate difficult WW.

Exactly! Thats why you should have a backup you trust in your boat...

edg wrote:It's not entirely on point, but I've used a titanium shafted paddle for a few years, which likely has some of the same pros and cons of the aluminum shaft.

Pro:
More flexible than you would think. Very easy on the shoulders, in terms of paddle stroke.

Easy to change out blades and T-grips by heating shaft with a heat gun and cooling in cold water to break epoxy bond. I've swapped blades at least 4 times, and T-grips at least 3 times with no issues at all. This is the biggest pro for me.

Durable. Less concern about nicks that weaken carbon shafts.

Cons.

"Cold" feel, especially in winter.

Transmits shock if you hit a rock when planting blade.

Just my two cents...edg

I think the plastic blade will negate the shock that the shaft would transmit.

..the concern about nicks in carbon shafts is exactly why i want to try one. i hate it when my paddle shaft explodes!
I wonder though, how flexy the shaft is. Ti is pretty flexy compared to aluminum. but who knows....i guess smurf knows.

Not sure if "smurf knows", but the alum shaft feels kinda like a wood shaft to me, flex-wise.

Smurfwarrior wrote:Not sure if "smurf knows", but the alum shaft feels kinda like a wood shaft to me, flex-wise.

Yeap, by fooling around with a friend's K core paddle I also thought the flex was nice, plastic grip also felt good and the blade is, as I mentionned earlier, very interesting to me. PE blade that's not too flexy I would be a buyer for sure.

Just waiting for their T-grip issue to be resolved and I think that sounds like my next creek paddle, maybe next spring...

As a follow up- the Tgrip has now been redesigned and they are looking into the blade issue. Steve's been great in getting ahead of the ball and ensuring the final end product is as good as possible. Can't wait to get my hands on the carbon fiber bladed Core paddle.

Ok, time for an update.... the lower rubber grip on the paddle shaft came completely loose last night, moving all the way up and down the shaft and twists with little effort. The ONLY thing left that hasn't broken on this paddle is the shaft itself.

I have a buddy, who's in the industry, broke the air pocket on his K core paddle about the time I broke mine. He's still not gotten his replacement blade that they were sending him... no responses to his emails asking for updates.. just about 6 months of nothing-ness.

Not a good sign.

Judging from the banter on the Core facebook page, things are not going so hot there.

Sad that things haven't worked out better for them; the option of an aluminum paddle shaft would be pretty exciting, if executed properly.

looking at the Core blog http://corepaddles.blogspot.com/ it seems that Steve has had some health issues over the past year. Sometimes it's tough being a small manufacturer.

from the blog- Nov 2011

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things... and in the process making some big changes at CORE for 2012.

2011 was supposed to be a "test" year. Release a small amount of product, address any issues in production and adjust everything to be ready for full production in 2012. All of this was going to plan... the only problem was I did not anticipate being ill and incapacitated.

Me becoming sick pretty much ground CORE to a halt. This very much indicated that I needed to put people in place that could run everything should I not be able to.

So this fall we are hiring a general manager / sales manager to run day to day operations. We are modifying production to account for some of the deficiencies we saw over the year. We are doing all of this to be on track for full production Jan. 2012.

To anyone that had an issue with a paddle but could not get a hold of me I apologize.
I totally understand that my disappearance caused some major stress and I am working to ensure that never happens again. I will be responding to my backlogged emails over the next two days.

Will be posting regular updates again in the coming weeks. Even though I have been out for a bit there is lots of stuff happening for 2012.

Steve Horvath
CORE Paddles Inc.





Hope he gets better

I hope things work out, as I think Core has some great ideas.