Surfing Waves

Hi Everyone,

I'm curious to see what techniques can be used to improve your paddle strength speed. I'll start but would like to hear more.

- keep your board parallel when paddling to reduce drag
- keep your body in a straight line
- kick and paddle on take off
- surf a lot to build strength

Axiom Surf

I surf, do weights, try to work on mechanics while I paddle back out. Not much kicking but I guess once in a while I kick too especially on my shorter boards. I use bigger boards with lots of flotation to help

took me a while to get to this level, but what I found out is a longer stroke helps. Make sure your hand really pushes water until your arm is almost fully extended back.

AxiomSurf wrote:- kick and paddle on take off

Woah Woah, back up. Did you say "KICK" ? So you are on a board where you feet/legs hang off the back ? Usually I say blame the Indian not the Arrow, but in this case if your board is way too small for your surfing ability/ level, then maybe your need a bigger board until that time when you can build up paddle technique / strength / speed.

Have a listen to this

http://surfmastery.com/podcast/004drjeremysheppard

And google up rob case

Also freestyle swimming technique can also translate well to surfing (to some extent)

Be active when you surf and paddle a lot. High elbows and chest up off the board, different strokes to alternate between muscle groups, pulling from the lats, paying attention to the pressure in your hands when you paddle and trying to maximize that, staying relaxed, being able to control the board with your core so that you can devote yourself to paddling rather than trying to stay on top of the board............but like WKK said, if this is a question then your board is too short.

All of the above. Plus position yourself correctly on the board

Thanks everyone. I've illustrated some of them here: https://www.axiomsurf.com/articles/paddle/paddle.html

So you used us, to confirm what you wanted to write on your "how-to" guide ? Some feed back:
1) The board doesn't come with a bubble-level on the deck, beginners don't know or how to judge what level is.
3) If you don't know how to paddle, you shouldn't be on a board where you CAN kick. A beginner board should be 2-3 feet over your head, meaning feet will be fully on the deck.
5) Full extension leads beginners into doing a Windmill paddle ( like those bath tub windup surfer toys )

7) Contradict #5 and confuse the beginner. You should provide a underwater view to explain.

I get this on my daily Facebook feed....this came up a few days ago:

http://www.theinertia.com/surf/how-your ... -about-it/

All great points - I'm just trying to portray issues I saw when I first started 20+ years ago. Some of these techniques, can really improving a beginners paddle. Yes you should know how to some what paddle but, if I'm going a little over board on my point it good to keep all aspects of a paddle. Surfing is really technical and there are so much more then the paddle that'll get you into the wave but, hopefully people understand this isn't just going to make you a great surfer.

Reading this raises a question I've always had. Consider one 9ft longboard, like any number we see paddling out. Some kneel like they're on a prayer rug and do the double dig while others always remain prone and do the crawl. Any preferences for kneeling position and, if so, why do you like it? Aside from stability of prone, Is one more efficient?

I knee paddle when I want to rest my prone paddling muscles. I find prone paddling faster, more stable, and overall more efficient. People knee paddled back when wetsuits weren't as wide spread in order to stay warmer during cold water months.

HyrdoDoc wrote:Any preferences for kneeling position and, if so, why do you like it?

I didn't know there's more than one type of kneeling position ? Can you describe the various styles ?

waikikikichan wrote:I didn't know there's more than one type of kneeling position ? Can you describe the various styles ?

From my read of his post, it looks like he's talking about a preference between paddling prone and knee paddling.

HyrdoDoc wrote:Reading this raises a question I've always had. Consider one 9ft longboard, like any number we see paddling out. Some kneel like they're on a prayer rug and do the double dig while others always remain prone and do the crawl. Any preferences for kneeling position and, if so, why do you like it? Aside from stability of prone, Is one more efficient?

My preference is to paddle prone because my knee complains when I knee paddle. I'm not sure which one is more efficient. I haven't popped up from a knee paddle, but I imagine popping up is more efficient from a prone position. At least it seems like a prone popup would be easier (more natural) for me.

RinkyDink wrote:My preference is to paddle prone because my knee complains when I knee paddle. I'm not sure which one is more efficient. I haven't popped up from a knee paddle, but I imagine popping up is more efficient from a prone position. At least it seems like a prone popup would be easier (more natural) for me.

I dont think you knee paddle catching the wave, just in paddling out.

Most people seem to feel that prone paddling is more efficient than knee paddling (ie uses less energy) but knee paddling gives you more power and more glide (but uses more muscles/higher effort). Arguably if you are just paddling 50 or 100m out to the line up, this wont make a huge difference, but over a few hours it might.

Prone obviously reduces your wind profile and long distance paddlers (not surfers, but those molokai guys) often prone upwind and knee downwind because of this. Prone is also more stable, which might not seem that important but for surfers paddling out through white water etc it can be quite useful; and allows greater board control. Finally, knee paddling can dent your board (a lot of weight going through your knees) and some boards arent build to be very effective with all of the weight in the middle rather than spread out (vs: when you are standing, yes your weight is only on two points of contact, but they are a few feet apart (no pun intended) and you can change your weight back and forth as needed).

So, in summary: knee is more powerful and greater effort and if you are fit enough and your board is fine and you are stable enough, its probably 'better' overall. But there is a reason almost everyone prone paddles - its less effort, more stable, greater board control etc. And its easier to learn.

From an old kneepaddler, back in balsa days, I had the boardlumps ( surfers’ knots ) to prove it.
You could go from the knee paddle into standing in one movement, you didn’t drop to prone to catch the wave.

Foot positioning was more critical but you were up quicker often with more paddle speed than prone so earlier standing on the face.