Paddling a short board straight

[Phils]

I am having trouble paddling straight.  I have seen videos demonstrating the "J" stroke but it doesn't look like that is what Dave is doing on this video.  How is he paddling straight?

[PonoBill]

Dave is pushing the blade completely underwater at the catch and pressing down as he pulls, keeping the shaft close to the board and stacking his shoulders so the shaft is perpendicular to the board. That means the blade is halfway under the board, as close to the center of the board as he can get it. Any greater distance from the centerline means your stroke always creates more turning force. If you minimize that force you can paddle straight with just a little rail weighting. If you don't do that the rail weighting won't be enough to hold your course.

A J stroke is ineffective for any board with a fin, much less one with a mega fin like a foil

[Dwight (DW)]

Kalama has twin nose fins, in his recent Instagram images.

Meanwhile Flkiter takes his nose fin off, because he catches everything with one paddle stroke. The Axis 1150 lets him do amazing things.

[tarquin]

He's a F'n legend probably helps too. I was going to say he seems keen on the fwd fins.
 Went for a paddle today and really concentrated on keeping the shaft vertical and as close to the board as possible. Actually dragging  the shaft down the board sometimes. It made a huge difference. Not a foil board but same idea.

[red_tx]

Dave is pushing the blade completely underwater at the catch and pressing down as he pulls, keeping the shaft close to the board and stacking his shoulders so the shaft is perpendicular to the board. That means the blade is halfway under the board, as close to the center of the board as he can get it. Any greater distance from the centerline means your stroke always creates more turning force. If you minimize that force you can paddle straight with just a little rail weighting. If you don't do that the rail weighting won't be enough to hold your course.

A J stroke is ineffective for any board with a fin, much less one with a mega fin like a foil

+1

What Pono say...

When I first started stand up paddle surfing, I had issues with my elbows. My buddy marty taught me the exact same thing that Pono is describing. It is hard to explain, typing it out. I was luck to have a pool where I tied a coiled leash to my diving board and spent hours rehearsing.

With regards to Stacking shoulders. One thing I used to focus on was putting my top arm parallel to the board. Here my handle hand shoulder is almost closing my ear if that makes sense. My shoulders are perpendicular to the board. Both arms locked straight (as much as you can) drive power into your core as opposed to your arms.

Laird trick: I once heard or saw laird leaning the board in the water towards the paddle. Meaning each stroke you lean the board into the water, creating almost a fin with the rail , if that makes sense. **important to note that I do not do this on my standie with foil, no need as the mast keeps it pretty straight.

Another trick I learned along the way is to take shorter strokes closer to the center like Pono says. The longer more powerful strokes will inevitably turn the board.

Last trick: As the wave is approaching and you are either turning, and or just trying to get speed. Start on your heel side paddle two or three times then switch to your toe side for the commit strokes the board will turn towards your toe side while paddling on heels then correct(towards straight) when you switch to toe side.

Hope all that helps.
-red

[Califoilia]

Just slightly weight the side of the board that you're paddling on, and use the wings underneath to counteract any of the force/source of direction that you're getting from your paddle that's making you yaw.

I'm on a 6'x28" board, and I rarely change sides when paddling. If I want to go more left (I'm goofy so I paddle on my left side), I simply lean more to that side...or since I paddle with my foot in the front strap, I simply reach out perpendicular to the board with the paddle, brace against it, twist the board under me with the strap to it, and then paddle on off in that direction.

To turn to paddle to me right to catch a wave, I simply level the board (or lean it slightly to the right), and then use the normal yaw of a short board that happens in a paddle stroke or two to turn me the 90-180^o to paddle/pump into the wave.


You've got the biggest fin you could ever ask for right under you...use it. You don't need some stinking little fin in the front of you to do nothing more than be more drag under you when paddling, and getting in the way if/when you do want to suddenly pivot the board one way or the other under you.

That's another great thing about being on a short board...you can reach out and sweep a paddle stroke across the front of the board from one side to the other, and spin the thing on a dime when you want to to grab a wave suddenly, that someone just missed in front of you. Yay!! 

[burchas]

I am having trouble paddling straight.  I have seen videos demonstrating the "J" stroke but it doesn't look like that is what Dave is doing on this video.  How is he paddling straight?

It's not really a "J" stroke but the paddle is definitely entering the water at 45 degrees to the board with inward motion as you can see by the 3 examples below for flat water  dead starts by
Dave Kalama, TJ Gulizia and Eric Terrain

[jondrums]

When I was a kid I was super into sailing. Our instructors used to make us sail around without the rudder.  We learned to tip the boat to turn, and it works!

Your Foilboard WILL turn if you tip it. The rocker of the board is curved, and when tipped to the side the rocker curve arcs you to that side. so if you weight the same rail as your paddle is on, that will help a lot

[surfcowboy]

I use the Colas method, almost 45° off of the nose. Also a lot of what SanO says. I’m goofy too.

First sessions back on SUP for foil and I couldn’t do it for anything. Now I can put myself where I want pretty consistently.

I do want to know what we are all doing to put us back in symmetry from all this paddling on one side while foiling. Not a huge thing yet but I’m watching out for sure.

[jondrums]

I make it a point to paddle back out using my "weak side".  Just to balance out all that strong side paddling I do for wave catch.  I'm typically doing most of my paddling around in a SUP stance, then switch to surf stance as I'm positioning to grab a wave.

[Califoilia]

That's not a bad idea paddling out on your weak side...I'll have to remember to do that. Because I also can't turn to my left to catch a wave comfortably, so I miss a couple that I could otherwise have caught if I was much more comfortable paddling off of my weak side, and turning in that direction to catch 'em.

[J.Riggs]

I start with my blade 10-15 inches off the rail of the board at about a 30 degree angle. I'm planting the blade deep for the first couple of strokes and pulling the blade under the board. As I get the board moving I don't go as deep at the catch and I speed up the cadence and shorten my stroke. Pumping during the stoke helps generate speed. I try to keep the board flat with my weight centered. Deep strokes as you're getting lifted often result in hitting your wing with the blade. You can see the angle of the blade and depth of the stroke in the videos below. I'm using the Go Foil NL160 and the Go Foil GL180 in these videos. The NL160 took a lot more strokes and foot movement to get lifted.

[PonoBill]

See what you've done, now you got the boss to come tell us how to do it. All we need now is for Dave K and Larry Cain to drop by.

[burchas]

See what you've done, now you got the boss to come tell us how to do it. All we need now is for Dave K and Larry Cain to drop by.

We were totaly wrong Pono, it is a "J" stroke after all

[PonoBill]

Yup, and I'll shut up now. The adults are in the room.