A Story of Three Paddles

A wing, a stick (Greenland) and a Euro went out for a paddle, who was fastest? If you consider only forwards paddling, the wing should beat the Euro which should beat the stick. In practice, the Euro beat the stick which beat the wing. I am most assuredly not an expert on paddles or even the basic forward stroke, but, my observations lead me to think that many folks paddling with a wing blade would be far better off with a Euro blade. Certainly, if you aren’t fast with a wing, you probably aren’t getting the benefits of the wing.

A friend of mine, with a good forward stroke, has done some comparative tests between wing and Euro blades, she is perhaps 10% (it’s hard to quantify) faster with a wing blade. That’s all good, and, if I capsize, I would really like to have a wing blade in my hands because the sweep roll is so easy with a wing as the paddle just seems to automatically have a nice climbing angle and give lots of support. My flat blade dives if I don’t have it in exactly the right angle and I end up muscling up the roll. The sad truth, however is, that like most kayakers, the most obvious place for me to capsize is in the surf and I never use a wing blade in the surf. Wing blades, despite what the aficionados of wing blades say, are not much good for anything but forward paddling. It’s desperately hard to rudder with a wing or brace into a wave; both of those things are pretty much mandatory in the surf.

For the next little while, I’ve put my wing blade away and am paddling with a Euro blade. It was awkward at first and I felt really slow, especially in wind, but, the more hours you accumulate, the better you get (within in reason, you can’t just reinforce a shit stroke), and I’m finally at the stage of being comfortable with the Euro blade even in head winds and sprinting to catch runners. Sure, both of those things would be easier with the wing blade, and, at some point I’ll go back, but for now, the Euro is my paddle of choice.