J Stroke or use the rail

[flipperade]

New into SUP (from a short board and longboard/fish background but also wave ski's etc) and was wondering which is more efficient.

Use a J stroke (designed for powering craft with no rails) or just weight the rail slightly on the paddling side, how I would approach it from a surf board point of view for slight allignment/direction correction when on a long board that is .

Cheers

Ade (South Wales, UK)

[Paddle-Plappe]

Hi Flipperade and welcome!

Do you paddle on the right or on the left side?
imho, use a    "  (stroke   "    on the right side
and so a  "  )stroke  "    on the left side.
I mean pulling the nose help for direction correction.
Using the rail is a litle bit efficient so.

[river]

Use a bow draw stroke into a forward stroke

Here's my best explanation and hopefully it makes sense.
While paddling on the left side place your paddle in the water with blade paralell to the edge about 1-2 feet away.  Pull straight towards rail and then continue into a forward storke.  Kind of a reverse J-Stroke really...  This is called a bow draw and keep's your speed going forward throughout so you have stability and turning and forward speed in one stroke.  If your doing it right you will be able to turn right while paddling on the right and turn left while paddling on the left, but most importantly this will allow you to switch side's less often and keep your board going straight which is key for wave take offs, and forward stroke efficiency.

[motopilot]

river, we need to do a video or something on that.  Very good explanination.

[PonoBill]

Actually, there already is one: http://www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog/2007/11/27/new-video-how-to-paddle-straight/   This video is mostly about the bow draw technique, with a little about getting your paddle deep enough and a bit on doing nose turns.

J strokes don't work on surfboards--you're paddling against the fin, a losing proposition. the bow draw works because there's no fin at the nose.

[flipperade]

Excellent video and great replies

Thanks all

Ade.

[Nate Burgoyne]

river, we need to do a video or something on that.  Very good explanination.

River and I got together and shot some video about a million different strokes. The man knows his stuff. I'll see if we can get the video together for you.

[tonemike]

 thanks a lot guys.  you should be getting paid consulting fees for your input. 
do you take checks?
-mike