Maiden Voyage

We took one of the Sea State Kit Board SUPs over the Creve Coeur lake for a shake down cruise.
It performed as it was designed to.  It is stable and tracks well.
There was quite a bit of wind which makes paddle boarding difficult. After a brief paddle to windward our tester went with the wind and flew.  Most of the lake is covered with ice.  It was 34F degrees.  His dry suit helped a little.

Ice was actually building up on the bow deck.
When he was ready to come in, an ice flow was blocking the way so he had to chop his way through.
Take a look at the videos.  The Sea State Cahokia paddle is tougher than most paddles.
They are available for sale at St. Louis Sail and Paddle and also by contacting me directly at: dckreutz@gmail.com
This SUP is available as a kit or professionally built.  See the page link above.

SUP paddles: handles

We are building a set of SUP paddles for a camp. The blades are molded, the shafts have arrived and we are designing several styles of handles to try out before we assemble the paddles.

I have always loved wooden paddles but you can't beat the composites for weight, strength and durability.
So we have moved deep into composite manufacturing.  But wood still feels the best in your hand so for now we are sticking with wooden handles.  Oiled wood also is less likely to cause blisters with hard use.

The first is a mahogany handle we call the Boxing glove handle for it's shape.  It's advantage is it's comfort in your hand and that it is made out of mahogany! (Reclaimed of course)
But the biggest plus is the fact that it you can only hold it one way.
For the campers and all SUP beginners this is helpful.  The correct orientation of an SUP blade seems counter-intuitive to some.

Boxing Glove blanks.  The ferrule gets a epoxy/glass wrap and and is cut down to 1.5 inches.

Two Boxing glove blanks.  The one on the right is slightly farther along.