Dave Chun of Kialoa Answers Questions About Paddles (Part 4)

[singlepic=2856,125,188] 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: Next questions is, when are paddles going to come to mere mortal levels?Dave Chun: That is a tough question and in some sense I understand that. Sorry about that the pricing, they do seem a little steep. From our perspective, on our end, wersquo;re not getting rich. Wersquo;re doing the best we can. Wersquo;re small manufacturers in a niche market and that does not lend itself to high production techniques. The materials we work with are expensive, the tooling is expensive, and the technology changes rapidly so. I can hear you, it seems like it is expensive. Wersquo;re all working on less expensive paddles but yoursquo;re not going to get for a hundred bucks, a 300 hundred dollar paddle wersquo;re building now. Itrsquo;s just the way it is. The materials, carbon fiber is expensive. People assume that because you have a mold that it is really easy and fast to make these things. It is faster than forging something out of metal but itrsquo;s still handwork, therersquo;s still skilled labor having to put all the parts in there and get the resin in to the mixture. Long story short, I bet you prices will go down on the paddles when the sport increases in numbers, sales increase in numbers, to a point that I can support lower margins.Evan Leong: What is the difference between wood paddle and carbon paddle? In terms of feel, durability, or performance or any of that.Dave Chun: Honestly, I havenrsquo;t paddles the wood stand up paddle. But as far ashellip; you knowhellip; I came from a background of this wood versus synthetic materials and we got to work within the rules thathellip; wood is actually good a lot of us prefer, even when they can use full carbon paddles for racing, some of my guys prefer the wood shaft because they seem to absorb some shock. It seems easier on the body. Generally speaking, to get the same strength, a wood paddle is going to have to weight more than a carbon fiber paddle. Wood I donrsquo;t think is any more durable than carbon paddle but itrsquo;s easier to patch because most of us are more familiar with sanding and varnishing than we are with doing ding repair with carbon fiber paddle. I personally, obviously, I make composite paddles. Given a choice, I work with composites. And I feel I can execute better design-wise. I can make the paddles thinner. Like I said, I come from that outrigger background, so if you look at my paddles, my blades are really thin. Irsquo;ve actually fattened my blades up for this because they tell me they were (____) the boards and stuff so how do I make my edges a little thicker? But a thinner paddle goes in to the water cleaner. Itrsquo;s going to create less bubble as it goes in, therefore, a more traction because the bubbleshellip; have you ever tried swimming in the whitewash after you wipe out? Hard to swim, not like swimming inside the pool, right? So that is kind of the same idea with paddles. So I like them thin. I canrsquo;t do that with wood. It does not have the structural strength. The other thing is I prefer to have non-absorbent materials in my water sport stuff so this is good. We use a close-cell foam sohellip; I could actually draw holes on this paddle. It would not break and it would not absorb water. Does that answer your question? Maybe I am biased too. I have spent a long time as a woodworker and still...