Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

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Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby Big H » Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:46 am

I saw this yesterday browsing around the net.....was enough to catch my eye....reminescient of a golf "swing thought"....tried it this morning with really good results....I paddled further out than usual and continued to get into the waves that I would normally have said to myself not to waste the effort on.....compared to what I do it wasn't much of a tweak, but I did tweak a bit and caught a lot of waves, notably those that I was out of position for......

....check it out....


Horizontal Paddling Syndrome.

This syndrome, from which even very good surfers also suffer (it's just that they're not exposed until the waves are really sucky and drawing hard off coral or whatever a la adje), is kind of inbuilt in the whole process of paddling and takes a conscious effort to break down.

See, when you paddle around in the lineup most of the time, you're paddling in a horizontal line, across flat or more-or-less flat water. Only very rarely do you find yourself paddling uphill (maybe up a wave face every now and then though most of the time, people don't actually paddle up waves, they tend to float up or duckdive through). 70-80% of the waves you pursue involve a kick-start horizontal paddle in front of the approaching wave face. All your paddling energy is going in a flat line toward shore.

Almost never do you find yourself paddling deliberately downhill, angling down into the trough.

Thus you never get any real practice at the one thing that's most likely to assist you in the situation you've described.

There's a few tips in here about commitment etc but developing an effective downhill paddling stroke will allow you to follow up easily on the commitment. It's quite different to the horizontal paddle technique.

To paddle downhill:

Shift a fraction further forward on the board.
Lift your upper chest slightly off the board as well. (This way your hands start the paddle stroke from a better angle).
Drive your hands forward into the paddle stroke at a steepish angle, around 45 degrees, and get 'em out quick -- don't trail your hand in the water past the line of your waist. You want it back out and up around the bottom of your rib cage.
Look at where you want to go, ie the wave base.

On a steep wave this will cause your board and body to tip down the face and drive toward the wave base.

Guaranteed, the first few times you try this, it will cause you to wipe out. You will paddle all the way down the face and nosedive at the bottom and pitchpole over the falls.

But with time and practice, you will learn to minimise the strokes and time your pop-up better. And Horizontal Paddling Syndrome will be a thing of the past.

I've got to say I have learned and re-learned this technique numerous times through my surfing life and it takes a lot of the angst out of surfing sucky critical waves. Angle down!
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby oldmansurfer » Sun Apr 10, 2016 2:36 pm

I don't see how you can't be paddling down hill when you are on a wave slanting downhill? Maybe the point the author is making is about sprint paddling verses longer distance paddling?
So what is worse.... dying or regretting it for the rest of my life? Obviously I chose not regretting it.
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby Big H » Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:44 pm

You should try before commenting. I felt the same way. Go try.
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby Big H » Sun Apr 10, 2016 4:48 pm

It is all about subtle angles in the raising of the chest and angle of arm entry....then for me it was the idea of trying to paddle into the wave, actually reaching out and trying to pull myself down into the trough of the wave.
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby oldmansurfer » Sun Apr 10, 2016 9:00 pm

Of course it is true because someone wrote it on the internet. :lol:
So what is worse.... dying or regretting it for the rest of my life? Obviously I chose not regretting it.
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby oldmansurfer » Sun Apr 10, 2016 9:05 pm

I guess if I was having trouble catching waves maybe I would be trying to change things a bit but as they say if it ain't broke don't fix it.
So what is worse.... dying or regretting it for the rest of my life? Obviously I chose not regretting it.
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby dtc » Tue Apr 12, 2016 10:35 am

That sounds like a nick Carroll piece. He is a pretty good surfer (like almost as good as Tom Carroll - his brother) and a well respected coach etc. So I would listen at least

I think he is saying that people stop paddling too soon on steep waves; they have to learn to paddle a few extra strokes - downhill. When your body is saying 'get real, you want me to paddle downwards!'
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby Big H » Tue Apr 12, 2016 11:30 am

Yeah.....I used to play a lot of golf and "swing thoughts" were gold - and always changing :lol: ....magazines were full of them........

Sometimes semantics, a visualisation, a thought explained in a different way suddenly "click" for a person....there was something in that passage that struck a chord, maybe just the idea of trying my hardest to go "down"....honestly I think there is something in the leverage of keeping your chest up....that and if you can keep your head high you can also cheat forward on the board....head high stays in level trim, drop your head at all and you weight the board forward getting you down the face....I've known that for awhile, but yesterday (and today) I stretched a bit more than I'd been doing, changed my paddle angle a bit and had the mental thought of digging into the wave and I could tell a difference.....today I tested it by going further and further out until I couldn't catch anymore.....I looked at the wave in the furthest position I was able to get in and yes, I was catching outside of what I'd been able to on the same board I'd been surfing at different breaks exclusively for the past week.....

....then again, maybe it was because I ate all my spinach this morning..... :lol:
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby Big H » Tue Apr 12, 2016 11:36 am

I have noticed before the grommies paddle this way.....and the good teenagers who had started young....it's like they could balance a book on their heads, but only when they are paddling for a wave.....otherwise they relax down a bit.....but going for the wave their heads are high and shoulders are back, chest up off the board, able to turn their heads quickly side to side like a Jack Russell looking at traffic out of the living room window (had one before....reminds me exactly).....anyhow, I'd been trying to emulate that, doing stretches to help facilitate....that passage put into words what I'd been trying to do with the addition of the clawing your way down to the bottom of the wave..... :)
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby BoMan » Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:18 pm

Big H wrote:To paddle downhill:
Shift a fraction further forward on the board.


From your experience, can you tell us more about how this is better than simply taking extra strokes to get into the wave? When horizontally paddling I would have to pause my strokes to shift weight forward and this could slow momentum at a critical point. What do you think?
"A person's sense of balance is measured by how he handles the unexpected." - Brian Herbert
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Re: Downhill Paddling to catch more waves.......

Postby Big H » Tue Apr 12, 2016 4:31 pm

My experience consists of two sessions with this.... :lol:

Just give it a try....might just be a shortboard thing since it kinda deals with a shorter swing weight and less volume.....longboard doesn't react as dramatically or quickly....also catching alot later than I would on a longboard, so it is more of a paddle/pull down as you're on a steeper face...try it out though....I will next time I'm out with the big board.
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