Dave Chun of Kialoa Answers Questions About Paddles (Part 1)

[singlepic=2853,188,125] Early last month I spoke with Dave Chun, founder of Kialoa Paddles, about his paddles, which he has been manufacturing since 1990. Dave started with stand up paddles in 1999. I got him to answer some questions from our stand up paddle surf community at Wet Feet Hawaii's store. You gotta tune out the noise from the store because we shot this during business hours.In this four-part series, Dave, who has for a long time been a leading manufacturer of outrigger paddles, answers questions from the public about stand up paddles.(click thumbnail to launch video)Evan Leong: Ok, wersquo;re here with Dave Chun, founder of Kialoa paddles and husband to Meg. We always have to mention her. How did you get in to this whole paddle making career?Dave Chun: Itrsquo;s all a need. I started in 1990; 17 years ago. I was paddling outrigger. At the time it was hard for us to get gear. There were stuff around but wasnrsquo;t like right now. I saw things, I like the paddles I was using but I thought it could do good on them. And I just started building paddles, kind of on a loom. First two I actually built forhellip; as a wedding present for two friends of ours and it just kind of started from there.Evan Leong: So you started off with wood paddles or you started off with these carbon ones?Dave Chun: Wood paddles, yeah.Evan Leong: But you guys were the first ones to do carbon?Dave Chun: Other people have built carbon fibers for years. In outrigger, we are probably the first to popularize that, outrigger carbon paddles. You know, we were once acquainted in hybrid paddles, thatrsquo;s something we called it, and I guess I was pretty much the first guy to mold the wood paddle. I guess that was my claim to fame.Evan Leong: What do you mean you mold? Instead of shaping, you mold a wood paddle?Dave Chun: Yes, we were able to shapehellip; classic ways to actually build composite wood paddles, build them much like a surfboardmdash;shape the wood core paddle, glass over the top. We used to do that but itrsquo;s really labor intense. I really donrsquo;t like to sand the whole lot, not fiberglass at least. So what I did was I thought there has got to be a better way, I knew they make molded products. So what I did was I figured out a way to mold the paddle, well we know how to build the mold, and then build the tools, and then figure out how to fit the cores in it. It just kind of come from my own process because anybody who knew about it wasnrsquo;t actually going to share their information. They were actually other paddle makers, fantastic paddles but they were all foam core. I had to fit the rules about rivers so I had a little bit different challenge.Evan Leong: Hmmhellip; and then how did this whole stand up paddle for you guys come about?Dave Chun: I started out with (_____), probably a guy here anybody knows, all the surfer knows. Jerry Lopez is there toohellip; and because wersquo;re both from Hawaii we just become friends. About four years ago, Laird Hamilton was paddling in the waves with a paddle, on a surfboard. Hersquo;s breaking the paddle so he called. He was just talking to Jerry about something and Jerry said, ldquo;Hey therersquo;s this guy named David Chun who makes canoe paddles. Why donrsquo;t you call him?rdquo; So Laird called me and actually my response was, ldquo;Why donrsquo;t you just get another paddle from the guy you got the last one from?rdquo; He said, ldquo;No, Irsquo;ll break them.rdquo; So I said, ldquo;Ok.rdquo; I thought it was a fun thing so, ldquo;Ok, whatever, Irsquo;ll make the paddle.rdquo; I like challenges. I like to build things. So thatrsquo;s kind of what it was. The original paddle had an aluminum shaft. It was a quick easy thing for me to do. It kind ofhellip; the idea was I thought with spear guns with the same aluminum shaft and theyrsquo;re really strong, so we did that. Laird mo...