Repairing ZRE Carbon Paddle Blades

[JV_RedLeafDesigns]

If you have ever paddled with a ZRE Power Surge Flatwater blade, you know that it goes in the water with almost no splash and carries almost no air down with it. That’s because the tip has this fine, very gentle, extremely precise backwards curve that uses black magic and witchcraft to synchronize with the speed of the water, the angle of the paddle blade, and the changing angle of the shaft during the catch phase.

It’s astounding and wonderful!

If you have ever repaired a ZRE Power Surge blade, you’ll know it’s also a bear to maintain during the repair.

I have a couple of ZRE PS Mediums with broken tips and repaired one this evening. After removing loose delaminated carbon and prepping the blade, I used laminating epoxy to repair the snapped foam core and add two layers of 5 oz spread tow carbon, one on each side of the blade.

The key to getting that mystical curve *just right*?

Steve Landick made a mold of the power face of a ZRE PS years ago and that curve is indelibly captured for blade repairs. He’s paddling down South for the month, so I snagged it from his shop.

Usually this would be vacuum bagged, but I realized that a fuse on my pump is blown after mixing the resin and I don’t have a spare! Bags of white rice will do in a pinch and compress the fabric sufficiently. It will have a little extra resin in it and might weigh half an ounce or so more than if it had been bagged.

When I do the other one, I’ll post new photos of the bagging process and the clean mold. I didn’t think to take photos and post about it until the repair was already on the mold.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Thanks for beginning to document this repair, Jeremy. This site abounds with nicely-pictured build, restoration, outfitting and DIY threads. However, building and repairing carbon paddles is black magic and witchcraft to almost all of us except @Alasgun. It would also be interesting to see a picture of the Landick mold by itself.

 

[Alan Gage]

Nicely done!

 

[Jim Dodd]

The Rice bags remind me of my Poor Man's vacum bagging !
I just used sand and plastic.
It Works.

Jim

 

[JV_RedLeafDesigns]

New photos and a second paddle properly bagged.

Here’s the mold:



Here it is prepped with PartAll PVA and sealant tape:



First layer of carbon wet out and placed:




After this, the resin was going to kick and I didn’t have time to take photos between steps. So, the paddle was placed, sealant tape placed over the top half of the shaft, and the next layers of carbon were wet out and placed on the blade. After that, the peel ply and breather were placed, the vacuum hose was placed and sealed, and the plastic film covered and sealed all of it.

The pump was turned on and a timer set for 90 minutes (using Pro Set laminating resin and fast hardener).



I’ll post more after the cure and removal.

 

[dogbrain]

I wish you had photographed the broken blade. It still isn’t exactly clear to me why the mould was necessary. Also, how did you break the paddles? I assume hitting a rock. My non ps zre paddle seems amazingly strong. I often paddle upstream, hitting rocks has knocked the paddle out of my hands and to my surprise never broken, although the edge has worn down a bit over the years. Are the ps blades more fragile?

Mark

 

[JV_RedLeafDesigns]

I wish you had photographed the broken blade. It still isn’t exactly clear to me why the mould was necessary. Also, how did you break the paddles? I assume hitting a rock. My non ps zre paddle seems amazingly strong. I often paddle upstream, hitting rocks has knocked the paddle out of my hands and to my surprise never broken, although the edge has worn down a bit over the years. Are the ps blades more fragile?

Mark

Broken by abuse.

We have a lot of shallow, rocky rivers and these two blades were snapped when they wedged between rocks during upstream, shallow water intervals and sprints. They’ve been sitting in the corner of my shop for the past 2-1/2 years and I’m finally fixing them.

Before the repair, they were prepped by cutting away the delaminated/fractured carbon skin, removing crumbled and damaged foam core, replacing the foam core with a new foam and adhesive/filler made from microballon-thickened epoxy, and then sanded to shape.

The mold is needed to maintain that fine curve on the tip, the factory dihedral, and so the repairs can be bagged to minimize weight and hit optimal resin ratios and compression.

 

[yknpdlr]

I had exactly the same thing happen during an upstream race when my GRB carbon paddle got wedged betwen slabs of broken shale. Luckily I had a spare on board and was able to keep going. GRB repaired it with a layer of glass. it was repaired nicely, but is now just a spare paddle.

 

[JV_RedLeafDesigns]

I had exactly the same thing happen during an upstream race when my GRB carbon paddle got wedged betwen slabs of broken shale. Luckily I had a spare on board and was able to keep going. GRB repaired it with a layer of glass. it was repaired nicely, but is now just a spare paddle.

The price we pay for racing in shallows.

The full story on these two is that I made some modifications and added a thin, internal aluminum tip to make them more durable when paddling gravel bars and rocky shallows. The mold also makes that easier.

 

[JV_RedLeafDesigns]

De-molded. I’ll trim and clear coat it this weekend.

 

[Alan Gage]

Very nicely done. Better than I've done patching my Zavs.

My failures have come from tip wear due to hard paddling up and down shallow gravel bars when training. After a certain amount of wear the tip delaminates. I've wrapped the tips with a couple layers of dynel and that's worn much better than the carbon but they look absolutely horrible. They're definitely not my Sunday paddles anymore but still get it done.

Alan

 

[Mason]

I'm not a fabricator--I just ordered a new blade from ZRE and epoxied it onto the old shaft.

 

[tketcham]

I'm not a fabricator--I just ordered a new blade from ZRE and epoxied it onto the old shaft.

Did you have to cut the shaft and end up with a shorter paddle or were you able to disconnect the blade and shaft with heat/pressure?

 

[tketcham]

The full story on these two is that I made some modifications and added a thin, internal aluminum tip to make them more durable when paddling gravel bars and rocky shallows.

Great idea. I think if ZRE and GRB offered paddles with reinforced blade tips they'd sell a bunch of them. I know I'd buy one.

 

[Mason]

Did you have to cut the shaft and end up with a shorter paddle or were you able to disconnect the blade and shaft with heat/pressure?

I just used a heat gun to break down the epoxy bond.

 

[tketcham]

I just used a heat gun to break down the epoxy bond.

I've had mixed results removing grips but maybe I didn't let it get hot enough.

 

[Mason]

I've had mixed results removing grips but maybe I didn't let it get hot enough.

I had the same problem at first, and started to pry it out. Munched up about 1/4" of the shaft, which I cut off later. The shaft length still came out right. I think the key is to heat the shaft further up than you'd expect--the farthest part of the blade was sticking in the shaft until I heated it further up.

 

[Alan Gage]

I've had mixed results removing grips but maybe I didn't let it get hot enough.

I have as well. I've had a couple ZRE paddles where the grip came apart nicely using a heat gun and I had one where I got it super hot and I still expected something to break before it finally came loose.

Alan

 

[Chip]

I have a ZRE paddle I enjoy using for flatwater paddling. The edges of the blade have become jagged. There is no identifying information on the paddle to tell me if it is a power surge or anything else, just a ZRE sticker. I have no idea if the paddle has the magic curve at the paddle tip. I always planned to repair this paddle but did not anticipate adding cloth. The edge of the blade is so fine that it seems like additional fabric would mostly need to be sanded off in order to maintain the thin profile of the blade. Do I need to be concerned with the magic curve at the tip?

 

[Alan Gage]

I have a ZRE paddle I enjoy using for flatwater paddling. The edges of the blade have become jagged. There is no identifying information on the paddle to tell me if it is a power surge or anything else, just a ZRE sticker. I have no idea if the paddle has the magic curve at the paddle tip. I always planned to repair this paddle but did not anticipate adding cloth. The edge of the blade is so fine that it seems like additional fabric would mostly need to be sanded off in order to maintain the thin profile of the blade. Do I need to be concerned with the magic curve at the tip?

All the power surge paddles I've ever seen say power surge on the sticker.

If that was my paddle I'd just add some cloth after sanding away some of the edge to remove the jaggies. Depending how deep the jagged bits are you might be able to just get away with sanding the tip smooth. I've done that a couple times until the wear finally got bad enough to be a problem.

Alan