Well, my daughter had her first unexpected capsize in her Sea Flea. Fortunately just a week prior, we had practiced a capsize + wet exit (no skirt, but still needs to get feet out + swim away). She did spectacular - kept a death grip on her paddle the entire time and only had big eyes, but no panicking. My buddy emptied her boat in no time flat and she was back in after a quick post mortem + reassurances.

I give 90% or more credit to the paddle. It's a Bending Branches Cattail. It's a kid-specific paddle, but it's still obnoxiously long for her. Kids tend to get the paddle vertical at the side of the boat and then it pulls them down. I've watched kid after kid do it - usually their floppy-ness keeps them out of the water.

SO... I've been mulling it for a while. And I have Bryan N's book on carving a GP. Because this is my first try - I'd like to pull this off as cheaply as possible. So - what wood could I get for this?

And, what's the bare minimum tools-wise to be able to do this realistically? My dad has a band saw that I can cut the blank down with. However, I don't own a block plane or spokeshave or draw knife (though, the spokeshave & draw knives scare me just looking at them).

Thoughts? Opinions? Witty commentary (yeah- I know, RTFM)?

-Doug