I'll get some coarser grit, as you suggest. I did (as all can see) put some pretty nasty gouges in the paddle with the plane--but they'll come out, I'm sure.

I think of sandpaper and a sanding block as a 'hand tool' now. When I was a teenager, it was 'something to rub the wood with to make it smooth' and I produced some pretty wavy results when 'refinishing' furniture. It was all stuff headed for the dump, so the sanding hollows presented no great loss to Western civilization and cultural heritage... but it did keep us from having to put our coffee cups on the floor. :-)

About paddle making - one idea is that you want the transitions to be smooth to avoid a 'klunk!' when the paddle slices into the water, so a gradual taper (aided by that long sanding block) is best. That said, even on a good carbon Greenland-style paddle - where the material would allow it, unlike soft wood- the edges aren't sharp.