Re: paddle

Try soaking the jammed part in wd40. It needs to penetrate it to loosen it up. Im assuming that the adjustable shaft is jammed. If that doesnt work, email epic directly about the matter.

If not taken apart and rinsed pretty regularly, salt deposits tighten things up. It gets worse if the aluminum tube [that is what I used] is scratched and corrodes. Warm water has worked for me so far. After cleaning and drying mating parts, some kind of lubricant/sealer might be a good idea- but I don't know what.

Also, you could try "penetrating oil", "liquid wrench", "PB Blaster", "Kroil", "Toyopeen" (Toyota High Performance Penetrating Lubricant--part # 00530-1PL00), "Mouse Milk", or similar product. I do not think that WD40 will penetrate as good as products designed for that purpose.

If you are getting desperate, you might try something like putting an Ice pack around the paddle which is on the inside, and a hair dryer (or other heat source) on the part of the shaft that is on the outside. The idea is to expand the outer shaft and contract the inner shaft.

You might get one guy on each end of the paddle to pull, and have a third guy in the middle dealing with the heating and cooling--and maybe give some taps in the middle to help it break free.

I would avoid a lot of twisting torque because you could break the paddle.

Water works pretty well as a lubricant too and you can get much higher pressures with it. Put your paddle at the bottom of a swimming pool overnight (weigh it down) and the water should penetrate enough to let you move the shafts. Let us know what works.

Its a must to leave it with something overnight. That works with most jammed items. Good luck!

I too have a stuck Epic paddle--stiff shaft.
The recommendation from Epic is to "ice" the joint. I wrapped the joint or ferrule with a flexible cold wrap such as used for injuries and velcroed to shaft for 45 minutes. The ferrule is now budging though reluctantly.
I also applied a generous dose of WD-40 lubricant.

Hi Guys,

All this heating, cooling and lube slinging is fine for unsticking a rusty bolt or cracking loose a nut etc, but not so effective for composites. some of these lubes will attack the locker parts too.

Don't forget the shaft and ferule are thin wall and same / similar material and will expand / contract in tandem harmony.

Heating and pulling / twisting with brutush force is only gonna potentially exceed the shaft's HDT and potentially damage it without you even knowing it at first.

Theroetically, if you could fill the inside with freezing cold water and 'shock' the outside with hot you might gain something but never tried it. The bottom of the pool sounds interesting too.

Not sure if the locker is stuck or the ferule inside ...

Micro movement is the key to breaking it loose ... once you have a little movement, you will have a little more, then a little more.

Put one blade on a towel on the ground between your feet/ ankles / calves, now hold the shaft above the joint with one hand and on center with the other, now 'rock' the paddle back and forth holding the top with hand / bottom blade with feet firm .... you are trying to set up a little bending and shear movement between the shaft and ferule ... this help a lot even if you don't notice anything right away.

Next is put a person @ each end of the SHAFT, NOT THE BLADE and start twisting back and forth ... its o.k. to 'locate' the blade with your hands so you can get a little more grip to prevent the shaft slipping in your hands but do not twist from the blade ... your grip should be on the shaft with maybe a little of your palm on the blade. Wrapping a couple bicycle innertubes on the shaft offer more grip and twisting leverage too.

Now twist back and forth over and over ... you can 'think' pull but pulling is not the idea right now .... getting a little movement going is what you are shooting for and twisting with finesse gets things moving faster and better than attempting to pull it apart right away.

Aloha,
pog