Author Topic: Rail steering on longer boards  (Read 5997 times)

blueplanetsurf

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Rail steering on longer boards
« on: May 09, 2020, 12:21:06 PM »
https://youtu.be/px7kvoayj5I

Rail steering is a subtle but effective way to turn the board when standing in the middle of a stand up paddle board by leaning on the outside rail.  By pushing the rail into the water the board tends to follow the curved outline of the board and will turn more easily with steering strokes.   When surfing or planing, and turning the board from the tail with the rider weight over the fins, the board will turn in the direction the board is leaning, so if you lean left, the board will carve to the left and if you lean to the right, the board will turn right.  If standing in the middle of the board however and the whole rounded rail is engaged, the board will turn the opposite way, so if you put weight on the left rail, the board will turn right and if you push the right rail into the water, the board will veer left.  This is counter-intuitive and will often catch beginners by surprise when doing downwinders.  Once you get used to how the board reacts to rail pressure, it's a great way to initiate turns and allows even long Stand Up Paddle race boards like Jeff's rudderless 18' unlimited board shown in the video to be maneuvered quite effectively.
In this video Robert Stehlik, Jeff Chang, and Paul Zacharias share some of their rail steering secrets, learned from many years of training, and the experience that comes from paddling thousands of miles in open ocean SUP downwind conditions.  We have paddled in many Molokai to Oahu races where we cross the 32 mile Kaiwi channel in quartering winds that require continuous course adjustments. 
Robert and Jeff have been coaching the SUP training group every Wednesday, this was our first training group after taking off for about 6 weeks due to the COVID-19 crisis.  This was the first time we took a break from the training group in over 12 years!   For more information on the training group, please join the Oahu Downwind Paddlers group on Facebook where we post the Wednesday meeting time and place every week:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/downwinders/

We hope you get something out of these stand up paddleboarding technique tips, please give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it or learned something and subscribe to the blueplanetsurf YouTube channel, we post a new video every week!
Aloha!
Robert Stehlik
Blue Planet Surf Shop, Honolulu
Hawaii's SUP HQ
http://www.blueplanetsurf.com

TallDude

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Re: Rail steering on longer boards
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2020, 07:09:24 PM »
Great video. I'm an unlimited board lover, so it's great to see others who understand and enjoy paddling them. I envision or equate rail steering to snow skiing. You weight the ski more on the outside of the turn. People who ski get that.
It's not overhead to me!
8'8" L-41 ST and a whole pile of boards I rarely use.

blueplanetsurf

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Re: Rail steering on longer boards
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2020, 09:02:25 PM »
Great video. I'm an unlimited board lover, so it's great to see others who understand and enjoy paddling them. I envision or equate rail steering to snow skiing. You weight the ski more on the outside of the turn. People who ski get that.
Yes, the ski analogy where you put your weight on the outside ski in a turn and unweight the inside ski is very helpful for anyone who skis when explaining rail steering.
Robert Stehlik
Blue Planet Surf Shop, Honolulu
Hawaii's SUP HQ
http://www.blueplanetsurf.com

 


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