I made my first hollow shaft from some scrap a while back while waiting on something to dry on the boat. It's been sitting around the shop for a while now. Since the boat was finished and I didn't have what I needed to start another project I decided to finish this paddle. I have been using my GP's and gotten to where I really like them. Especially my first (and worst) one. It's very light and had become my favorite.

Because this was hollow shaft it had to be spoon bladed Euro style so I could seal the shaft. So I marked out a spoon shape on some scrap and made a template. My shaft was rather long but that meant I could use a thin blade by leaving the shaft long and using it to support my blades. So I took some scrap (is there really such thing as scrap?) plywood from the rack and started fooling with blade shapes. The more I played around the smaller the blades kept getting. I wanted something along the line of the GP but decided to not go that small.

I didn't expect much so I didn't spend a lot of time working on this one. Expected it to be fair at best and just a learning experience. Funny thing is it now my favorite paddle! I want to make a better and lighter version now. Fiberglass at least the edges of the blades. But the more I use it, the more I like it.