Just in case anyone is interested:

I had heard that Keith Backlund give paddle building lessons. For those who haven't heard of him, Keith makes whitewater paddles, and some seakayaking paddles. His are, arguably, the best wood whitewater paddles made.

I talked to him last night about the lessons. He gives a day long 'Clinic' for $50 dollars and day=long classes for $100. The clinics are less structured than the classes. It sounds like, at the clinic, you just hang out in his shop for a day helping him at various stages of the building/repairing process. The classes are more structured and he steps through every phase of repairing paddles. For a 5-day paddle building class ($500) he takes students through every phase of building from the raw blocks of wood, to a finished paddle.

Also, Keith has started selling his wood, which he handpicks. From what I have heard, he is pretty choosy about the wood he uses.

Keith can get email at backlundpaddles@juno.com, if anyone wants more information.

-greg