I'm not sure why your laminated strips would spring back a bit straighter.

I used to build cranked canoe paddles ie a double bend or slight S shape and never had one change shape at all when it was taken off the forms.
We were using them for racing so we wanted them as light as possible. I don't remember the exact weight, but they were very close to the weight of commercial carbon fibre paddles.
We used 3mm (one eight inch) strips and didn't need any steam or heat to get them to bend.
Our layers were WRC, glass, balsa, balsa, WRC, balsa, balsa, glass, WRC and the blades were carbon fibre. They were very light and very strong.

Maybe you should use thinner laminations.