I have examined wing paddles, and tried them out and find them interesting. A well designed wing paddle is a huge improvement in blade design and very efficient in terms of muscle power in vs. forward thrust output. Most are designed I think unfortunately for sprints and not for long distance cruising, so it would be interesting to see one optimized for low power cuirsing. They suffer the same problem many modern designs do, they are not symmetrical so doing rapid "emergency" maneuvers properly need to be practiced so they become reflexive. Also I think, as someone else posted, they require a very different technique and you must learn how to use them properly, including making all the emergency actions automatic. These are two reason why I am a big fan of native style paddles. They have no such draw backs. Peter *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed May 29 2002 - 18:30:28 PDT
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