Winging it

Used a wing paddle to do my usualy 8km route and it took me 56.22 min, 1 second shy of my fastest recorded time. However, I was trying to adapt to the new technique required to paddle with a wing.

I've heard that wings are one-trick ponies and can't do much other than paddle forward and low brace. But I managed to perform the following strokes:

1. Rolling
2. J-Draw
3. Classical Draw
4. Sculling Draw
5. Sweep stroke
6. Low Brace
7. High Brace
8. Bow Rudder
9. Hanging Draw

Doing a sweep roll was especially easy due to the lift of the wing. The paddle felt like it was stuck in concrete. On the other hand sculling for support was impossible to do with the blade constantly diving down.

I switched to a regular paddle after paddling 8km with the wing and something funny happened. The blade would "pop" out of the water during the exit phase as if there was no resistance. Can understand why people say using a standard paddle after getting used to a wing is like paddling with a wet noodle.

Borrowed Sam's paddle at 0 degree feather angle and it feels odd. Low angle paddling is fine but when I switched to high angle paddling, I just couldnt get it.