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Paddle grip treatments?

JohnAbercrombie said:
Thanks, Ian.
I just ordered a piece of that heat-shrink.
Do you find it shrinks much in length?
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The heat shrink arrived on March 1 - so only about 10 days after I ordered it. That's much faster than the 'shipping estimate' I got.

The tubing looks like it will work well, but I haven't tried it yet.
 
Let us know how it works, I'm pretty much sold and it's not much risk at that price...

How thick is it, and does it add much to the overall circumference or does it need some light padding layer or underneath?
 
a_c said:
How thick is it, and does it add much to the overall circumference or does it need some light padding layer or underneath?
Click to expand...
The outside surface is 'textured' with a matte finish and slightly raised rubbery cris-cross lines, but it isn't very thick. It's about 0.6 mm thick - a sheet of regular printer/copier paper is about 0.1 mm .
So definitely no cushioning from the shrink tubing though it's less slippery than most paddle shafts.
The 35mm size will slip over the ferrule length adjust locking lever on my wing paddles, and will also clear the O-rings I have taped as 'locaters' at the ends of the grip zones.
My Cyprus has 2 mm closed cell foam glued to the shaft in the grip area, and the 35mm heat-shrink will slip over that.

I don't know how tightly it would 'grip' over foam padding or something like handlebar wrap. A few smears of hot-melt glue under the heat shrink might help it stick. I've done that before- add hot melt glue and spread it out and let it cool. When the shrink tube is heated it re-melts the glue smeared underneath.

A cover that rotated on the shaft would be way worse than nothing, IMO.

The heat shrink might be a good way to secure 'locator' strips to make the shaft more oval under the knuckles - I had a Lendal paddle that had that done at the factory- it had a plastic strip (about 8" long?) under heat shrink on the right grip area.
 
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I personally like Salamander paddle wax if paddling in gloves, in cold water. In warm water generally my bare hands are pretty happy on a clean paddle. The good thing about it, it's sticky and good in the cold, the bad thing is it's sticky and gross in the warm .
 
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