Werner didn't go to a cheaper glass. Who told you that? They're using the
same glass for the Freestyle that they use on the other paddles, just a
different lay-up for each design. As for breaking 2 paddles, you can stress
a paddle and not know it by hitting it on a rock or throwing it on the shore
or prying your boat off with it, etc... Then later on down the road it
breaks for no apparent reason; just a small hit on something will do it.
This is with all paddles, not just Werner. Some people are harder on
paddles than others and all paddles will break. They're not indestructible.

To the original poster and your question, I have absolutely no idea.

Courtney

"Grip" wrote in message
...
THese are white water paddles you're talking of I believe. I have broken
two
Werner Freestyles, Werner went to a cheaper glass some years ago ( the
kind
you can fix your car with from Pep Boy's etc.) As far as dripping, it is a
wet sport! Lightning paddles are pretty tough, and wear symetrically, last
a long time of you put edging around the blades. I have an older Riot
crank
shaft with nylon blades, shaft made by Lendle, toughest thing I've ever
owned.
"Bill Tuthill" wrote in message
...
wrote:
As long as some of the regulars are still hanging around, contributing
trip reports and their years of accumulated knowledge I refuse to give
up on rbp's potential.

Then let me ask a question I posted on Boatertalk.com, so far
unanswered.

On a recent trip I compared my Lightning Freeride to
a Carlisle RS Magic (drips most), a Werner freestyle
of unknown type (drips more) and a Lightning symmetric.
With Freeride there's virtually no dripping down the shaft.
I have no idea why. Drip rings are unnecessary!

The Lightning Freeride isn't as good as a Werner dihedral
for backstroking, but it's fine going forward.

In 2005 I see that Werner has two basic lines of non-black
paddles. (I refuse to buy black because it's easy to lose.)
There are ones with downturned blades, and ones with the
typical "freestyle" asymmetric blade shape, not downturned.

Does anyone know if the downturned models (Twist, Player,
Sidekick, in order of size) drip less down the shaft and
shed water as well as a Lightning Freeride?