I looked around and couldn’t find the answer myself. When using a wing properly does the power blade exit near the hip or further back? I was told that a proper Greenland paddle stroke exits further back which is very natural for me. (and my gut tells me is more efficient than exiting at the hip).
near the hip.
The catch with a wing paddle is also closer to the feet than with a greenland paddle.
Thanks
not just "proper"
When you move the wing past your hip, you will no longer be able to keep moving it out, away from the boat (or trying to do so will feel awkward). A wing paddle needs to be moving away from the boat to be stable. Once it starts moving straight back or, worse, in toward the keel line, it will try to suck you down into the water.
Try it in a stable boat sometime. When I do an inadvertent sweep, I’m always surprised at how quickly the paddle goes from feeling like it’s planted in concrete to feeling like the river monsters have tied a string to it and are pulling you over.
This is why (one of the reasons why?) people say you can’t do draw strokes with a wing. You actually can, but it’s pretty unstable. I’m experimenting with a modified draw that also moves the wing sternward, the way its lip points, to see if that’s more stable.
– Mark