Okay, what I’m reading here is that a GP is a very nice thing to have (and know how to use) when the wind is blowing hard. Let’s say it’s a calm day and I want to get to the bridge before anyone else in the group. The thing to have (and know how to use) is a wing, right?
Y E S + a good boat that floats : )
- skill and stamina
Yup…
davemacdoo will tell ya that’s the only paddling to do: fast with a wing and on flat water. 
It’s all a matter of what floats your boat and gets you there in the manner you want.
GP is not a mystical paddling tool. Just one more in a range of options. Me. I am pretty high on ONNO’s NeWave.
sing
Faster and Faster
Rex,
You are going to have to consider driving down for either the Spring or Fall Wrightsville Beach race. Lots of fun for slow pokes like me, but with your speedy practices you could be competative. Both are six miles, paddlers like JackL do that in an hour or less, other like me need an extra eleven minutes.
Happy Paddling,
Mark
Yeah
Ken beat me to one of the bridges this morning. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.
Maybe a fast Tideline kayak and a wing paddle will keep me up front… and maybe I could play with the QCC and Epic crowd.
if it’s just to the bridge…
Yeah a surfski and a wing paddle is what I’d use. If it was to the bridge, around the island, and back, I don’t have the strength to maintain speed with the wing so I’d be faster with the GP. 
I’ve Never Tried A Wing
JackL uses a wing and more than a few of the first to finish racers use wings so I would not be surprized if that would not make you faster. If the Onno wing is as nice as my Onno full tour paddle you could not go wrong there.
I have looked at the web specs and pictures of the tideline boats and yes, they do look nice.
On the other hand, organized races will segregate the composite kayaks and plastic ones so depending on which kind of boat you had you would be pitted against a differant crowd.
Jack has been using a full sized wing for a while and I think Nanci just got one of Patricks smaller Onno wings so you could get comparative type info from him Ill bet.
Happy Paddling,
Mark
The ARMS Race Has Begun
Okay, arms and torso. Ken the karpenter is fixin’ ta build a Pax 20 or some other fast design. If he hurts me, I’ll have to hurt him back. That’s just the way it is. Some things will never change.
(wow, does anyone else hear a piano?)
Actually you can get
a tremendous amount of bite from a greenland paddle using the sliding stroke with a full size greenland paddle. I can only use this stroke for short periods of time but it is very effective for fast cruising speed.
schizopak, A smaller wing will work
better if you cannot ‘spin’ the Mid or larger wings.
As much power as you need still, with a more ergonomically efficient cadence w/ a sea kayak. Yep ask JackL.