Re: [Paddlewise] Wing Paddle

At 06:26 PM 5/29/2002 -0700, Peter wrote:
>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
>cruising.

Futura has a decent list wing paddles, and blade dimensions for Flite 
paddles on their site http://www.surfskis.com/options.html, Venturesport 
has the sizes for Bratcha paddles on theirs 
http://www.venturesport.com/cgi-bin/products/products.cgi?search=cat_wing_pa 
ddles&title=Wing%20Paddles

Epic no longer lists the excaliber jr. on their 
site,http://www.epicpaddles.com but futura still had it listed.

I find my 515mm by 170mm Bratcha II blades too large for use in our sea 
kayaks, its fine on the surf ski.  I've used an Epic Mid (164mm by 500mm) 
on my surf ski a couple of times and find it a much nicer paddle, probably 
a comfortable size in a sea kayak for a strong paddler.  I would like to 
find an Epic Jr or a small Flite to try in my sea kayak.

I'm very, very aware that rough dimensions are not a great way to measure 
blade size. Only Epic supplied the actual surface area of the blade rough 
so rough measurements were the best I could do.  None of this also takes 
into account the actual blade design - and there is a huge improvement in 
the blade design between my Bratcha II and the Epic Mid that I've tried.
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