Re: [Paddlewise] The Wing Paddle

At 10:32 PM 5/26/2002 +0300, you wrote:
>Our copy of the Brent Reitz Forward Stroke video arrived this morning in 
>Israel
>(Thanks to Dave Flory and others for the recommendation).  This evening we
>popped it in the VCR, and there we were, Jacqueline and I, with our 
>paddles in
>front of the TV set on the living room floor.
>
>The video is quite excellent, and I can't wait to try out his style of
>paddling.  He is very big on the wing paddle, and in about 3 years on this 
>list
>I can't recall it being discussed.

I've got a Bratcha II wing that I regularly use.  I'm planning on buying an 
Epic Mid
as soon as I'm willing to cough up the $419 for a new paddle.  The Bratcha 
II's blade is a little bigger than I want.  It's also crude and clunky in 
comparison to the Epic blade - it was also half the price.  I've had the 
Bratcha for 5 or 6 years.

I love using the wing paddle on my surf ski.  I hate using the wing paddle 
in my PinTail.    With the large blade the PinTail just isn't a fast enough 
hull to use the paddle with a decent stroke rate.

As for the wing paddle you get to learn another stroke, a stroke I now 
regularly use with my euro and greenland paddle.

There are serious trade-offs going to the wing paddle.  I'm not able to do 
a back stroke, a decent low brace or scull.  A low brace sort of works, but 
it's more of a drag sort of stroke to slow down than an actual bracing 
stroke.  Rolling with the wing is okay but takes some changes in technique.

So if you are out for a cruise and can depend on your forward sweep as your
bracing stroke the wing is fine.  If you want to play around, scull,  and 
low brace I would not use a wing.

kirk
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