My friend had a 4 part whitewater paddle. Paddle seemed ok, but quite heavy. He dropped it once in a small lagoon and it sank, we spent about 30mins or so trying to find it (water was murky). They are meant to float, but this one definitely didn't. Also he tried to splash water on me while we were in a still section, and his paddle blade snapped off? (not where its meant to come apart, but the shaft snapped near the blade) It broke very easily, but I'm sure most won't break that easily? So I guess the good news is that he doesn't need to replace his whole paddle, just the one blade section? Not sure what kind of warranty you get, but if you got a 1yr warranty or something I guess that would cover you from it breaking really easily? And I'd probably look at some silicone around the joins or something else to make sure that this thing actually floats, otherwise you may lose it quite easily.
I've seen a number of other brands break from what seems like a pretty soft hit too though, so I'm not sure if these are design faults in the paddles or they just break if you put pressure a certain way?