I added a ~3/16" rock guard to my paddle a few years ago. It never had one so before that I'd just add a small amount of epoxy to the tip every few years whenever it started getting fuzzy. Doing it to last a while was pretty easy and didn't take long. Worth it IMO.

It was cleaned w/ denatured alcohol and roughened it up a bit with sandpaper. Then I made a little dam out of aluminum foil and maybe some clay (maybe gum?) so that a rock guard of sorts would be created by pouring quick set 2 part epoxy in the 'mold'. (The blade was at a slight angle above flat to favor a tip.)

Once it cured I just filed and sanded away what didn't belong. If you were really anal about it, you could use progressively finer grits and it could be clear. My paddle is not very pretty though so I was more than happy w/ functional.

  (You need to Login or Register

It's held up well. I used the quick set hardware store stuff. It's meant to be sacrificial anyway and I think it sands better for a tip.