Premium Carbon Fiber SUP Paddle - Adjustable 3-Section 67"-86" Lightweight Stand Up Paddleboard Oar with Carry Bag | Ideal for Surfing, Kayaking & Water Sports

I’ll preface this by saying I’m not a crazy serious paddle boarder. I have only been out a handful of times on my board. I live in Destin Florida which is arguably the SUP capitol of the world since it’s where BOTE was founded and basically everyone I have met here paddles. So I bought what most people do when getting into it, a super cheap inflatable that was made in china. The board itself actually is fine, but the aluminum paddle that came with it was garbage. Would t stay locked at a specific length, tape immediately fell off leaving rivets exposed, literally chewed a chunk of my thumb skin off, didn’t float. Yet I still found paddle boarding to be a lot of fun, and I wanted a nicer paddle.All that to say I researched a bunch of various articles online and Amazon reviews and decided to give this one from Abahub a shot even though some reviews showed broken paddles, I know carbon fiber is brittle and hard to work with, so I chaulked those up to likely rare manufacturing errors.First, like everyone says, the case is way nicer than you’d expect for a $70 paddle. Second, I’ve handled the $2-300 paddles in store and there is a quality difference but it’s negligible in my opinion. The blade is a little heavy but still leagues better than the cheap paddles boards come with. It’s light, smooth, and the lower joint doesn’t bother me at all if I happen to be paddling in a position where I’m grabbing it occasionally. It locks together tight. No wiggle at all. No spinning. No sliding longer and shorter (you likely do need to adjust the tension of the upper clamp). I have seen some photos with a 2 screw clamp, mine came with a single. It’s robust and works flawlessly.Once in the water the difference became immediately obvious. It floats so that’s cool, but more importantly it moves you through the water with ease. I flipped it backwards by mistake because I wasn’t paying attention till I noticed the fluttering… I paddled like that for about 15 minutes, which is 10 less than it usually takes me on flat water to get out to where I like to throw out an anchor. But water wasn’t flat today. I was getting hit with waves that were all different directions around 2’ tall with 20-30mph wind blowing straight and constant against me the whole way out. Getting back only took about 5 minutes with the paddle facing the right way. It’s so smooth and easy that it’s like a different sport. Way better power exchange. Way stiffer. No wiggle. No flutter in the water (when it’s faced the right way). It really is awesome. If you’re getting into paddle boarding or you’re experienced and haven’t bothered to get a nice paddle, try one of these out. It’s really awesome.