> Almost all of the Greenland paddles that I have seen fail broke at the
> transition between the shaft and the roots of the blades

This was true for me too until today when I broke my cedar greenland _across_ the blade. About 2/3 of the way up the blade from the tip. I had taken another kayak out to roll and the first attempt I had a lot of pressure on the blade and I could hear it start to crack. I let up on it before it cracked all the way through.

The blade that cracked was the one in my hand, not the one in the water. It is probably repairable by working some epoxy into the paper thin cracks across the blade (2 cracks - only on the flat side of the blade).

When I switched back to my other kayak I used the greenland for most of the day and didn't have any problems with it. It is suspect though so I guess I'll need to shell out another $20 to make another one. This one lasted me a year of very hard use, so I can't complain...

Woody