Doug,
If I understand correctly, you have not glued the paddle together. I have not made a bent paddle, but I have build a laminated circle for a 54 liter demijohn....long story. I used 1/8" white oak. None of the strips were steam bent. The circle was about 18" dia. Anyway, I really think you should do a glue-up. The glue should make a huge difference in the amount of springback. The U shaped parts of the "apparatus" had very little springback. And as you can see in the picture, it's a pretty sharp angle at the bottom. Don't really know if I helped at all. But once you do a glue-up, I think you will find out you will be just fine.

Jerry

: Yesterday I set up my bending form, steamed my strips, and clamped them in
: the bent position. I anticipated a bit of rebound after clamping, but the
: strips actually rebounded a lot! I think that the strips went from a 13
: degree bend to maybe 7 degrees. Once they are glued I guess it will stay
: in position a bit better but I imagine there will still be significant
: rebound.