New Aqua Bound Product for 2026
3-minute read
We have some exciting new products to announce for 2026: More of our high-end Whisky, Tango and Malta paddles will be available with our exclusive Lam-LokTM. And we have a new color in our fiberglass line: Solar Flare.
Aqua Bound’s new Solar Flare color for our Whiskey, Tango and Malta paddles (photo by Avery Rosenthal-Murray)
These new products roll out on October 1st, 2025. Look for them at your favorite local paddleshop!
What is Lam-LokTM?
We developed our revolutionary and Patent Pending Lam-LokTM technology for our Aerial family of whitewater kayak paddles in 2023.
But it was so well-received that we couldn’t keep it to whitewater. We started using it with our performance paddles, too: the Geo Punch and carbon models of Whiskey and Tango for kayaking, and the Geo Punch and carbon models of Malta for paddleboarding.
Lam-LokTM is a process that mechanically bonds the laminated blade layers together with aramid thread. [You’ve probably seen aramid in another popular paddlesport application: building canoes. Kevlar is one common brand name of the aramid material.] Applying many feet of this thread to the blade edges dramatically extends the life of the paddle by resisting abrasion, impact and delamination.
The stitching technique is performed on the dry fiberglass or carbon material before the resin is applied. The blade edges are stitched back and forth with over 33 feet (10 meters) of thread per kayak paddle and 15 feet per stand-up paddle.
Through our in-house testing, we found that adding this Lam-LokTM edging makes the paddles 5-10 times more effective at fighting delamination and resisting abrasion than other paddles currently on the market (including our own Whiskey, Tango and Malta blades without it).
The Toughness Standard for Whiskey, Tango and Malta
Our hand-crafted Whiskey and Tango kayak paddles and Malta stand-up paddle, offered in fiberglass and carbon, have been extremely popular for us around the paddling world.
Paddlers love their lightweight, high-performance, versatile ferrule options and great looks. Adding our Lam-LokTM edge protection only makes them better and able to take on more paddling environments.
As already mentioned, we began using this proprietary technology last year on the carbon models of all three and on the new color option, Geo Punch. And adding to the Lam-LokTM family for 2026 (available October 1st, 2025) is our newest color, Solar Flare.
(Photo by Tyson Crockett)
NOTE: Solar Flare will replace Fuego. Northern Lights will continue to be made without Lam-LokTM through 2026.
New Explosive Color: Solar Flare
A solar flare is an intense and massive release of electromagnetic radiation from the sun that erupts through the sun’s atmosphere and into space. The NASA website says solar flares are “our solar system’s most powerful explosive events.”
So naturally, our new Solar Flare design for Whiskey, Tango and Malta is a high-visibility combination of bright red, orange and yellow.
Like all our compression-molded fiberglass paddle blades, Solar Flare is handcrafted by taking two layers of silk fabric that are printed with the design and placing them between layers of clear fiberglass, then putting all the layers in our custom mold that fuses them together.
On the kayak paddles, we combine these durable blades with a T-700 carbon shaft that can be a 2-piece straight or bent, or a 4-piece straight. The straight shaft options are available with either our Posi-LokTM or Versa-LokTM ferrule systems.
The Malta SUP paddles in Solar Flare will be available in 1-piece or 2-piece models.
(Photo by Avery Rosenthal-Murray)
Shop Whiskey kayak paddles • Shop Tango kayak paddles • Shop Malta stand-up paddles
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or sales@aquabound.com, or choose our online chat option.
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