Best Paddle Stroke I have Seen

[Byronmaui]

Aloha

Alot of people ask what is the correct paddle stroke and all that good stuff about bending at the waist, paddle blade needs to go under the board or whatever. I came across this vid with Woogie Marsh and he is probably the top SUP racer in Australian. The vid shows his paddle stroke which looks pretty good to me. Here he is testing the 18 foot board. (Found the vid in our vid section).


Aloha

Byron

[DavidJohn]

Ha... That's the same vid as I just posted.. 

While watching it I was thinking the same about his paddling techneque.

Looks good to me...and not someone to mess with.. 

DJ

[Byronmaui]

Ha... That's the same vid as I just posted.. 

While watching it I was thinking the same about his paddling techneque... Looks good to me.

DJ

Yeah funny. You copycat.

Anyways I keep hearing people say"Make sure the blade goes under the board" and I have not seen an example of how that is possible. Maybe I am blind who knows.

Aloha

Byron

[PonoBill]

Actually, he's doing it in the middle of every stroke. the idea is to stack your hands so the paddle is as vertical as you can comfortably make it, then put the blade fully into the water and run the shaft close to the board. That will put half the blade under the board--more or less.

Really all people are saying is to keep the paddle vertical and get it close to the board with the blade completely under the surface. Some people paddle with the shaft at too much of an angle (in other words, the paddle is too far way from the board) which makes the board turn and wastes energy. Some folks paddle with only half the blade in the water, which causes more turbulence and chews up the side of the board if you hit it with the sharp paddle edge. Saying the blade is under the board might create a misunderstanding.

[stuey c]

Hi all, my name is Stuey Campbell and I'm from Noosa Heads in Australia. Over the past 18 months I have designed, developed and built the ocean going sups such as the one you see Woogie riding in the above video. I am a second generation surfer, boardmaker and yachtbuilder. When I began designing and building my O.R. Sups there were no others being made in this country and when I scoured the net for inspiration all I really found was the F16 produced in the Islands and a few other paddleboards and such being produced in mainland USA. However my yachtbuilding background told me to take a different approach and although I was constantly being told I should be following the Hawaiians lead I went off on my own tangent and stuck with my own ideas. With the extremely talented and experienced paddler Woogie Marsh as my sounding board and chief test pilot I've come up with the very unique and extremely fast craft you see in the video. The Penetrator 572 (18"8") is the first of this model I have produced and what you see is it's maiden voyage and though consisting of only a short 500 metre run out to sea and back (due to lack of time) I was really pleased with it's performance and have already thought of some modifications to improve this further. I wanted Woogie to do Molokai on one this year but funds and time constraints prevented this so our intention now is to further develop my design and compete in next years race. Long Distance Sup racing is just about to explode over here and it's extremely exiting to be at the forefront of the sport in this country. I will post some more footage as the board develops further..........Stuey

[greatdane]

I think it is awesome that we have actual builders & designers like Stuey posting info... what a great resource!

[DavidJohn]

I think it is awesome that we have actual builders & designers like Stuey posting info... what a great resource!

I agree... Good on-ya Stuey.

DJ

[1tuberider]

I like this board.   Wow Stuey I like your design ideas.  It looks like the reduced wetted surface adds to speed and yet when the water surface got rough your design handles it nicely and keeps going.  Glides easily as well.   

Can we set up a battle of paddle here in No Cal, where you send me a board and I will let others test it?  Smile.  Like Stoneax, I want one.

I paddle like Woogie also.  I have grown into this style on my own.  It feels natural to reach out and pull poles.  Notice after the shaft passes the body that it is swept up till water release and then the pole is planted out again as far as you can reach but keeping the paddle vertical.  Great body workout.

This paddle style has me thinking about paddle design.  So I have spent well over $1500 buying tools so that I can make and test my design.  My design idea will help keep the paddle in place when submerged.   Hopefully in the next month I can share my idea with test results.

thanks for sharing.

[Big Island Mike]

I surfed with Woogie a few times in May, he had this board that was SO tippy I could barely stand on it when I tried it out. Has great balance as well as stroke, and with his six and one man canoe background, he will be scary in competition.

Stuey,  How did the weight end up on that?  Planning any molds?

[Shawn Michael]

This

[Shawn Michael]

Let me explain.  In woogies vid he seems to be just cruzing so I dont know if that is a hard charging into the wind stroke but it seems that you can really crank when you flex forward.  This is arron napoleans technique and he seems to be winning a lot as is this fellow (there is more in the latest SUP journal)

The things we strive to do in outrigger canoe to get more power is reach reach reach and with a long paddle you can get a good forward catch and flexing forward get you whole body into it.  Now how sustainable and efficient it is is not clear but look at arron napolean who does it mile after mile...



You can see he gets bent over almost parallel to the water on most of his strokes. watch at 2:48, 3:28, 5:23

[stuey c]

I surfed with Woogie a few times in May, he had this board that was SO tippy I could barely stand on it when I tried it out. Has great balance as well as stroke, and with his six and one man canoe background, he will be scary in competition.

Stuey,  How did the weight end up on that?  Planning any molds?

  Hi Mike the board in the video weighs around 12 1/2 kilos. Would like to mold it one day but at the moment I keep improving it so will hold off on the molding for a while. I will be finishing a new one for Woogie tonight I just have to sand and spray it. I'll post a vid of the testing, it has a deeper concave in the deck to get him closer to the water and a couple of vents channels out the back to get rid of any excess water that may get trapped in the deeper concave. It also has a new steering system I designed and built into it, hope it works well but won't be sure till testing....Stuey