: Great work from Shawn and Bill.

: Don't know if this would work, but looking at the x-sectn in the last foto,
: what if you made the strips about 3 or 4 in LONGER than the completed
: WHOLE paddle, didn't put ANY epoxy in the last 20 in or so at each end and
: did exactly as before w/ clamps etc all the way along even the unglued
: ends to keep it all together. After setup, dismantle and you have a 20 in
: of floppy strips at the ends. Steam the fzck out of the longer
: ones(careful double curvature) and form in the outside profile of the
: blade (these longer ones, because of the twist always line up w/ the blade
: edges), use the inner ones to keep the lines going, and just use the usual
: strip process to strip in between to the outside perimeter ones! Sandwich
: the glass betw the six ctr strips or cut off. It'll prob work great, be
: quick and give a really, really unified blade and shaft. Lots of scope to
: strip design in between the profile strips and still keep unification.

: The other paths to unification would be to use a symetrical xsect w/ all
: strips the same size, and do the same as above but NO or hardly any twist
: and use the strips at 45deg or at 90deg to form the paddle profiles. Then
: the strips are straight and yet still run around and into the blades.

: I haven't seen too many custom paddles, so maybe pple are doing it.

: -mick

So the outside strips form two outer flames w/ the inside ones coming down and seemingly over lap the outside ones just like he does on the front of the yak. (A new perimeter starts up to keep the profile going).

-mick