First Wing

I am about to take the plunge and buy my first wing paddle and am looking at going with either the Epic or Think.

A bit of background, I just recently got into surf skis from sea kayaking and am working on my balance in a Eze with a standard paddle and was planning on mastering the wing in my sea kayak and then marrying the two. I am actually using club boats and am using a V10s (gen 1) on smoother days.

I would describe myself as a weekend warrior, and crank it up to include an evening or two during the summers. 5-10, 180 lbs and currently paddling with a Lendal Storm, and love the triangular shaped shaft BTW.

I do not ever see myself racing, and paddle only for exercise and fun.

From what I have read, smaller is better for the first paddle, but there is such a large difference between the Think Power Wing and Epic small even.

Any advice or comments?

With wings you just have to try. I also come from a sea kayaking background, and just bought an old wing (Letmann) for little money to start with. I borrowed wings whenever possible, and after a couple of months decided on an EPIC mid-small.

With wings your technique / way of paddling and the paddle have to come together, so e general advice on make and model is next to impossible.
One advice I can give: keep it small. Wings do have a lot of power, and it is easy to run into shoulder problems.

EPIC has a nice paddle calculator on their site with useable info on size and length. But in the end the feel decides on what is really correct.

Regards,

Merijn

Sounds like an Epic Small mid would be perfect for you, I came from sea kayaking as well and my first wing paddle was an Epic Mid, paddled with that for maybe a year and it was really just too big, never regretted dropping down to the small mid. I've been paddling surf ski now for about 5 years, never felt the need to move back to a mid size paddle, still use the Epic small mid for sea kayaking although prefer a downsized Jantex Gamma for the surf ski, however I still think the Epic Small Mid would be ideal for your first paddle and sea kayaking.

As personal a choice as a ski is, paddles are even more so. If you can, do try some different shapes before buying. The amount of different shapes and sizes available these days is huge. My advise is to get a split shaft, so you can play with length and feather, and if stuck between two blade sizes, go with the smaller one. It's better than being stuck with a blade size which is too big. In terms of shapes, tear drops like the two blades you have mentioned are very popular. In recent times the adoption of more extreme tear drops has seen a lot of guys move that way. Or there are old school guys like myself who still love the feel of a parallel blade.

For a new paddler not yet putting a lot of power into the stroke I would go the teardrop or Jantex Gamma shape. The gamma shape has been around so long there are probably a dozen or more copies on the market by most of the known names, although they wont call it a gamma.

I found the gamma a lot more forgiving in the ocean than other shapes when I had to brace a lot.

Now days like Stew I use mainly a parallel for kayaking where I put down a lot more power as I'm on flat water and can really plant my paddle catch and rotate, the gamma was causing me shoulder problems on the flat.

I still use a gamma for ocean but at a shorter length than flat water.

One thing a retailer did for me when I bought my first paddle was to give me two paddles to try without showing me the price tags. I paddled with them and although they looked very similar there was one that just didn't feel right through the water. That paddle is now quite popular, so if I went with what was popular I would've not been as happy than if I'd done what I did and got the blade that suited me.

I highly recommend trying various paddles before choosing one.

Good Luck,
There are no Good or bad Wing Paddles as with the Surf Ski it is what works for the driver and condition one will paddle on, Go for a Mid /Small any ones, try to use some ones for a week or two if possible ? as Many as you can. Buy Used No One buys a new wing paddle starting out and keeps it very long with out wanting another and loosing a Lot of $$$. If you can rent a wing go that way, it takes weeks to get the feel of were ""you are comfortable."" and use an adjustable to learn and play around with, after that my self I use hot Glued wings so as to adjust a bit if needed and have been for 25 when on open water at sea by ones self I do not feel safe in using Adjustable any thing miles from a beach.
Cheers Joseph