My question was more a philosophical one... I know the wing paddle will more or less force a stroke where the blade moves laterally away from the boat and that hydrodynamic lift generated from this motion makes the stroke more efficient overall. I'm wondering if, all things being equal, this is is also true for a Euro blade... I have both a wing paddle and a Euro paddle, so it's really just curiosity.
Actually, now that you mention it, I have one Euro paddle that seems to lend itself more readily to a wing-like stroke (an Onno mid tour) and another (Werner Cyprus) that doesn't seem to lock into that stroke as much.
The other suggestion I was given -- and it seems to work quite well, particularly with the Cyprus, is aggressively popping the blade out the water at the hips instead having a gentler follow-through. But maybe that's just because I'm getting the blade out when I should. I seem to tend to want to pull the blades well past my hips when paddling and only recently learned that's not the best use of energy.
(Incidentally, I paddle an Epic 16X. No immediate plans to go the ski route, but I like to experiment with knees-up paddling and the wing paddle. Much of the discussion here seems transferable).