regularly swapping feathers??

Does anyone change their feather according to boats and conditions.  Thinking typically  one feather for high angle sprint paddling with no real need for skim bracing, compared to low angle downwind surfski paddling and using correspondingly different feathers?

If so do you quickly adapt to switching between different settings? I have been using 20-30 or so for a while now on both ski and k1, and tried back to 60 and instantly pulled myself in for a swim on a sprint start.

Not asking whether you use high or low feather, but do you regularly switch, is it even possible without messing you up?

Hi

I did for a while until I actually figured out how to do the unfeathered stroke. I was going between 0 - 45 regularly for about a year. It was fine until I got the unfeathered stroke and how to make each hand a control. Since that happened I cannot feather anymore it just feels wrong. 

Up until that point changing feather up to 45 was no problem. Beyond 45 always took some practice so I abandoned it. I still change paddle length every single paddle depending on wind and ocean conditions. I feel being able to change length has more merit than trying to change feather.

Kinda similar, dont really have a dominant control had, in fact often open palm both hands, without positively rotating paddle, 0degrees  feels odd but moving 20-40 doesnt affect style, going over that really throws it out. With my old flat blade it was set at 60 and definitely rotated one hand, but then my paddling was probably lousy then with little hip rotation, so not a good comparison.

Wouldnt change feather during a session, it would probably be a flat water vs open water thing, but do regularly change length

I don't think changing feather for different conditions makes sense. Flat water paddling is where the stroke is the same each time, and repetition is how technique is ingrained. Over time the brain learns very specific patterns in which to fire the many muscles involved in the paddle stroke. It is very hard to change these patterns, as anyone who has struggled to unlearn bad technique can attest. When things get intense in rough water the body (which actually means the brain) is likely to revert to whatever it has been trained to do. If that is a high feather flatwater stroke and the feather has been lowered significantly, things might not go well.  I recall that when Oscar went from a normal feather to zero feather he made increments 5 degrees at a time and it took something like a couple years to make the transition. 

On the subject of zero feather paddling, I have only played around with it a little.  But my understanding from what I have read is that it really requires abandoning single hand dominance. With each stroke each hand switches roles from being the control hand to being the loose hand. So it is not just a matter of twisting less as would be the case going from 60 to 45 degrees; it is an entirely different way to paddle. 

Does anyone change their feather according to boats and conditions.  Thinking typically  one feather for high angle sprint paddling with no
real need for skim bracing, compared to low angle downwind surfski
paddling and using correspondingly different feathers?

Nope!

My thoughts would be that your stroke shouldn't change, fundamentally, whatever the conditions.

The big O's support for zero feather is mostly, from what I understand, aimed at beginners; his take is that having to rotate your wrist to brace is unnatural and is the cause of much swimming on the part of beginner paddlers and that they always swim on the one side. 

But if you've been paddling for a while and your stroke is ingrained, for me it there's not a convincing argument to change to zero feather.