New Paddle

I constructed a new paddle based on my interpretation of my wife's wishes, but I have not yet had the good fortune of being on the business end of it yet.  Wife whacked herself with it twice after I presented it to her, and commented, "Oh yeah, that is gonna hurt".  So As usual, Tuesday looms large, and I am still carrying plenty of weight for it to be painful.  I did a 7.25mi run yesterday on a pretty hilly course, and while I managed to lose 5 minutes off my total time since two weeks ago, I don't think I'm dropping weight as dramatically to ease the consequence of the weigh in.  To make matters worse, I find that on cold days I'm constantly hungry and eating more than I probably should, especially when I'm inside all day with the kids.  I'm going to have to really log some miles for the next 3 days to keep myself out of more serious trouble.

I'm including the pictures my wife's new paddle with the old one next to it for comparison.  (She actually has 3, but she finds the oldest one to be too big, and not easy to wield, although she won't let me get rid of it.)  All of them are constructed of oak.  The most recent addition is the one on the right, as conceptualized in my last posting.  It has a rounded side (bottom pic) for the purpose of having more long term effects, which is what my wife is looking for.  The one on the left stings like crazy, but doesn't seem to give a very lasting result (to her dismay).  I haven't done the finish work on the one on the right yet.  I figure I might as well wait until I see if it meets with wife's approval.  Interestingly, I've tried to find any description of a paddle with this sort of design, and so far I haven't seen anything, so I'm not sure what to expect from it yet.  I am under the impression that I will be more likely to feel this the next day.  I didn't bother with the holes on this one, as I assume the bevel is more likely to serve a similar purpose, but if wife decides she wants them, then I will obviously oblige.

This new paddle is about 14 inches long, and the bevel is quite obvious in the picture to the right.  I'm considering doing another series of cuts to further round the shape of it, but i don't want to turn it into a club.  In a way, I guess I'm optimizing my own punishment; but at the end of the day I really just want to please my wife.