People often look at advances in sporting technology with suspicion. They often see such advances as only for the elite or non-traditionalist.

A few years ago I was sea kayaking with a friend, I was using a wing blade and my friend had a flat blade. My friend had never used a wing blade so we swapped paddles for a while. The immediate change in kayak speed was significant. I had to work considerably harder to keep up, when before I was always stopping to wait. That for me was a defining point, confirming for me that wing blades gave significant performance improvement, without any other change to paddling technique.

The truth is, wing blades are one of the great innovations in kayaking that everyone can take advantage of. They give greater forward propulsion of the kayak for the same energy expended by the paddler. This means your distance made good, (movement towards your destination), is greater for no more effort.

Honestly, it's simple, the wing blade just has less energy loss, so more effort is transferred into forward movement.

The great thing is you don't need to have any special technique to get a benefit from using a wing blade. Even "traditional" flat blade stroke style paddling will have improved distance made good using a wing blade.

I do recommend that if you get a wing blade, try to get some coaching, or at least a training video. The correct technique will give even greater improvemants and greater enjoyment of the sport.

You will get great benefit and enjoyment from owning a wing blade if you do any of the following paddle sports:

• Sprint
• Surf Ski
• Multisport
• Sea kayaking
• Day touring
• Fitness paddling

The facts are:

• Wing blades give greater distance made good.
• You can expect a 7% to 10% increase in speed for no extra effort over a flat blade!
• Wing blades allow massive bracing off the forward stoke.
• Wing blades are great for low bracing.
• Wing blades are easy to roll with.
• Wing blades give great feel for the water.
• Wing blades work better than flat blades even using the traditional stroke technique.
• Wing blades are easy to use.

Wing blades are the standard blade of choice in New Zealand, South Africa, and Europe. They are used by everyone from Olympic sprint kayakers, to people out for a casual day paddle in their cruising kayak.