At the blade entry we want to reach out with a straight reaching arm and we want to hit the water as far in front as possible, we want to come down and catch the water and pull to the knee. At the knee is when the top hand crosses the bottom hand, so the power phase is over, at the knee we exit.
It's all about working at the right time in the stroke. Starting from eye level and coming down through the air, remember there's no resistance on the blade as its coming down through the air, but then you hit the water and you get an incredible load on the paddle. So we can work harder as we come down through the air and the more power we generate here the easier it will be to break through the water. This downward force is like paddling straight down and when you hit the water, keep driving the paddle head to the sand below you, maintaining a vertical paddle head. This increase in downward force will generate into more boat lift and forward propulsion.
When we stroke, we want to get the blade in square to the surf ski, and we want to get the blade as far forward in front of the toes as possible. We want to pull the paddle along the surf ski and as we pull against the water directly back, the surf ski will drive directly forward. As the paddler rotates the torso through the stroke the paddle head underneath the water will pull away from the surf ski and come out 30-40cm away from the hip. The wing paddle is designed to come away from the surf ski as this helps create boat lift. Remember the paddle starts square to the surf ski, pulls directly back at the catch and as the paddler rotates the paddle head comes away from the surf ski.