Rough Stuff:As far as I know there's only a certain generation of RS paddles worth getting because the rest have shafts that break very easily...the older the paddle the better as far as I know 
Well...there's a bit more to it than that.
This is the reason that Mark(the person in question) gave for the business going belly-up. The truth is that he's a nice guy and made some of the best paddles that you could get 10+ years ago. Unfortunately he had some issues in life. This effected how well he was able to run the business, and ultimately the quality and consistency of the paddles, on an ongoing basis. It's sad, but it's life. The business has been semi-closed for about 5 years and last year he decided to close shop and move to Australia. I get the impression that he's been doing better for the last while, but really, what the fuck do I know about the guy's life.
TL:DR - there's no real pattern to their production quality.
Rough Stuff paddles now?
The good: What he was best at was designing paddles. IMHO blade shapes of the paddles are nice to use and compare well to what's around at the moment.
The less good:They haven't changed in ~15 years. Compared to modern paddles, they're quite heavy. Many/most? of the black "carbon" paddles have very little carbon in them and thus don't have any of the weight or strength advantage. Even the paddles that were well made are getting quite old at this stage and increasingly likely to break (this is true of anything made out of composites, that gets used).
Buying them?Are they cheap?Go for it!
I'll assume that you're talking about spending €50-80 (I wouldn't pay more than that for rough-stuff)?
What's the worst that can happen?
Two things are likely to happen:1. You break them, probably about a year from now, you'll have learned lots, had a proper feel of what a decent set of paddles feel like and you haven't spent too much. Your first set of paddles are always going to be the ones that you're most likely to break.
2. You decide that you want a different set. You haven't spent much on them so you' won't lose much (you may even get all of your money back). Happy Days.
Buying your first set of paddles?My personal advice is not to worry so much. Most paddles are good paddles, most are reasonably priced.
There's lots of different paddles out there, but as a newer paddler you haven't really developed much of a style yet and you won't really know what suits, because nothing really does. Whichever paddles you buy, you'll adapt to and enjoy.
If buying new, some paddles
are terrible and shouldn't be bought. most are good.
If buying second-hand, most things are worth buying at the
right price, so long as they're noticeably better than club paddles. Some will last you longer than others.
Notes on Rough Stuff:1.My first two proper sets of paddles were rough-stuff. I broke both of them. Both of them broke too easily. One of them was the supposedly good vintage. I liked both of them, I don't regret buying either.
FYI: I had a set of Tempests and a set of Black-Magics.
2. He made A LOT of different blade shapes. He liked to design and experiment.
3. He also liked to experiment with materials, this is why a lot of the "carbon" paddles aren't that carbony - he used a lot of mixes in an attempt to give the consumer an affordable "carbon" paddle.
4.The main Rough-Stuff white-water paddles you'll find are Tempests and Kinetics.
Tempests have a traditional-asymmetric blade shape and Kinetics, oddly enough have a kinetic shape.
5. The blades are usually joined to the shaft with a big chunk of aluminium. This means that they're all heavy, all of them.
Specifics about paddles?If anyone would like to ask about the details of paddles then feel free to ask. The difference that different blade shapes, paddles length, materials, manufacturer etc. make is interesting...but for buying your first set of paddles it's probably completely irrelevant.
