Both
For if you give your brain the time, it will adjust. It might take a week, but it will adjust to whatever you paddle. Like using a different wing paddle, the blade will feel awkward at first, but give it time, you’ll adjust. Then go back to using your old paddle, and it will now feel awkward. Best is to experiment using an Olympic K-1 or in my case, a tippy surfski. You’ll feel the urge to brace on either side, unless you have excellent balance. In a stable recreational boat, feathered or unfeathered doesn’t make a difference. To each its own, as feathered is most comfortable for me, for it extracts the most out of the wing, at least for me.
How About More Fashionable
To paddle feathered. Actually, it is more of a habit for me to paddle unfeathered than feathered, for that’s the way I started and still paddle that way on recreational kayaks. However, on K-1 and surfski, I prefer feathered using a wing due to my personal technique, which involved undoing and developing new habits due to the bio-mechanics of achieving an efficient stroke.
Make that Port Side
Just like in the video, or else the wing blade enters at an angle (on starboard) w/o left hand adjustment.
It’s more culture than necessity
I started kayaking feathered and paddled for years feathered, because I was taught that was feathering was “proper and efficient”. Since then I have used an unfeathered Greenland paddle for 20 years, and have been using a wing for about four years.
I’m currently using a V12 surfski, K1 and an 18X with an Epic wing unfeathered, I still prefer a Greenland paddle in my touring kayaks. I used 60 degree feather for awhile but prefer unfeathered. I still switch for a change of pace from time to time, but in general it’s best to choose one or the other so that you have an instinctive brace.
I simply don’t see this as an issue. I think it’s more a matter of what one is most comfortable with.
As kayakers we tend to be copycats and then hold on to what we learned with religious fervor. It’s only natural that we tend to copy what works and what most people use, and that’s why most of us learn to paddle performance kayaks/wings feathered. It’s safer to copy what works, and saves arguments, but sometimes different is better (and sometimes it is not). The wing paddle was created to address the need of kayakers who were using a lateral stroke, even though that went against the prevailing coaching of the time.
Perhaps the next “Barton” will paddle unfeathered and people will then exclaim that unfeathered is king (until the next role model comes along).
Greg Stamer
Dang it Greg ! This is no place for
logic and getting along … This is p.net ! : )
Someday I WILL build and offer an adjustable length AND FEATHER GP for all the naysayers to try.
It Hasn’t Happen In 24 Years
Maybe this summer? Lateral? Yep, that’s the way I started out. Now things have come full circle and the old parallel way is making a comeback. This “issue” all started with wrists. So check out this Olympic paddlers wrists as he paddles his feathered blade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGATHwnvIFs&feature=related
Notice wrists are straight - no cocking or limp wrists.
Interesting description re GL
paddle showing the wrist movement required with unfeathered paddle used in a high angle stroke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lThvWNLOTWQ
Cocking his right hand
and giving the paddle a slight twist so the left blade slips into the water properly. Watch his knuckles closely.
cover shot (NM)
Yes, I Saw That
And he’s going to have to work on that before Summer. Thank you, for that’s the first thing my friend, the kayak coach notices about my stroke. You think your wrists are straight, but they are not, according to the trained observer.
clyde
We’ve had this discussion about the parallel wing stroke before. I have tried it on and off, I can’t get it. There is no way to keep the boat upright and apply any real force to the paddle for any distance… I clearly don’t have a coach or anything, but I still don’t get it.
I’m still going with gregs take on this. When paddling unfeathered, the top hand stays loose and reindexes, if you will, the paddle for the next catch. Whatever wrist tweaking is occuring is not causing me any discomfort and isn’t any different than a feathered stroke. I do however notice that sometimes when fatigue has set in a tad, my left hand side catch is a bit off. Of course we are talking about hours in when technique gives way to comfort. I have messed aroung with a slight feather to offset my laziness, but really just sitting up and focusing solves the problem.
My paddling goals are different than the usual person who is having discussions about the finer points of the stroke, but eitherway it is fun.
Unfeathered for life.
Ryan L.
I Know What You Mean Radiomix
For that’s what I was experiencing last week when I was paddling my wing without feather: I just couldn’t control the blade very well. So I switched back to feather and had no problem doing so. I suppose being either a puller or puncher makes a difference too. I found that if I switched from being a puncher to a puller, I was more successful controlling the blade without feather, however, I paddled a lot slower too.