I'd like to revisit this thread.

After sailing my boat again for the first time since november, I'm reminded of how much I want to break that stupid extension over my knee everytime I have to use it.

It might work better if I cleaned it out, unfortunately, I'm told that if you disassemble one of those ariba sticks, it might not go back together.

Ah,grasshopper. But it will. The only thing that holds that thing from coming out is a small pin that spans the inner part down near the end. Does that make sense? I don't know. To help it come apart you might take some vise grips and lighty pinch the outer part to elongate that end to help it come out. Don't be afraid. It's just a stick.

Mike

To take apart the Hotstick, remove the endcap, and slide down to the closed position, the pin can then be removed.

Caleb

I tried to repair the ariba stick, ( I rolled on some epoxy on the stick ) It worked fine till the moment it had to extend fully.
Now it is extended forever.....
Lucky for me my wife bought me a new one yesterday and it works great.
Hopfully this one will last for a while.

what about a solid stick? the most pleasurable to use that i have tried are made from the big end of a bamboo fishing pole. these are available here in 14' lengths beautifully varnished for about $10. i cut mine to about 90" and attached them with a screw to the cut off end of my broken $90 fg stick. wonderfully light and bouyant, feels great to my hand. i broke both of them backing up in the parking lot but i plan to try another one and learn how to deal with it. i also am considering a one piece pvc extension. i am NOT happy with two piece adjustable ones based on several experiences which include a recent dangerous incident that injured a friend when an adjustable stick turned loose at the wrong time.

OUCH! - reminds me of around 18 years ago walking along the beach as a young fella, and jammed a 2 inch long sliver of fibreglass from a surfboard underneath my toenail, it healed pretty good though.

But the scar I got from standing on the rusty 4 inch nail hanging off a plank off wood buried in the grass was a different story.