A real man kills zombies in Dead Island by KILLING THEM. There's no distinct line between killing them with alleged manliness or doing it, as some would call, like a coward. It's that they're dead which matters in the end.
...Sorry, I'm bugged by titles like that in videos/articles.
OT: Paddles and machetes, so far. Those paddles aren't durable at all, but damn do they have a good range when fighting a zombie who has a strike ready; they're also abundant for the first hour of gameplay, so that helps, too.