-So, whadya all think about the Wing Paddle? Josh- Josh, I would hazard a guess and say that more kayakers in New Zealand are using wing paddles than not. This is due to the high level of participation in multisport and adventure racing, which has had a flow on to sea kayaking. I had always shunned the things, mainly due to ignorance. This feeling was reinforced when trying to teach a wing user how to do a sweeping brace stroke. He said that he couldn't, as the blade would dive. Most strokes that I suggested met with the same response. Eventually I asked him what they were good for, and he said he would race me to the corner to show me. When I suggested that we race backwards, he reneged. This view changed after watching a good friend who has been paddling for nearly 40 years, and has used wings since Mark 1, Version 1. He was coming in through surf in his sea kayak when he did a bow rudder stroke, while using his wing paddle. When I said I didn't think they were any good for anything other than forward strokes, he chucked me his spare paddle, also a wing, and said simply, "Learn to use it". I can now declare that there is nothing I can do with a conventional paddle that I can't do with a wing. They grab a big hunk of water and hold it tight, which does require slight changes to some slicing strokes, ie: hanging draws and sculling draws. Apart from those minor points, they're great. I now use a "wing paddle stroke technique" when using standard blades. This generates more power as well as solving a minor problem with tennis-elbow. I'm back to using my Lendal modified-crank shaft with Nordkapp blades, but can't help but wonder what would happen if I took a saw to the shaft and grabbed some epoxy glue, and...... Cheers John Kirk-Anderson Banks Peninsula New Zealand *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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/ ***************************************************************************
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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:29 PDT