I just spent the last 2 hours making an Inuit Paddle. I followed the instructions by Gerry David, and made the paddle out of cedar. I used my circular saw to cut it out so that saved a lot of time. My question is, how is this thing suppose to paddle my boat without breaking, it seams so flimsy. It only weights about a pound, I think, and it dents so easily. What can I do to strengthen this thing or is this how it should be? I have some picks below of the finished product. I thought it was kind of funny how one web page said it would take 20 hours, did they make a typo with the 0?

Gerry David's page is http://seacanoe.org/grnpadle.htm#THE GREENLAND PADDLE