SUP Width and ability to prone arm paddle

[aircube]

Hey, new here.

I building a 8' SUP for surfing and I can't decide on the width.  The reason being is that I don't want it so wide that its impossible to prone/arm paddle onto a wave.

my cruiser is 30" wide  and I "can" arm paddle it, but i was thinking 28" for the 8'er, but I am thinking if i go that narrow, its not going to be stable

any input?

thanks

[Sam Pa'e]

Aloha Colin,
I got your email and was going to reply untill I saw this post.....Welcome to the zone. It's possible to go 28" wide on an 8'ft board....but I just have a few questions.

I building a 8' SUP for surfing and I can't decide on the width.  The reason being is that I don't want it so wide that its impossible to prone/arm paddle onto a wave.

So are you building it for prone & SUP surfing? If it's for prone surfing only...then your fine! But if you building it for "SUP surfing" then your balance will play a big key. You see when the board gets smaller the nose will tend to swing left to right with every stoke. This is called "yawing" it hard to control but possible to manage. Putting a bigger fin will help to correct this problem. Now catching a wave will be a bit of a challenge also but isn't impossible. It just takes time to master.

my cruiser is 30" wide  and I "can" arm paddle it, but i was thinking 28" for the 8'er, but I am thinking if i go that narrow, its not going to be stable

The other question is your built (height & weight)?...If you go with 28" and your 230lbs (like me) then a boxier rail would be considered. If not....then tapering your rails thinner would make it easier for paddling prone & SUP surfing.

Keep in mind that when you try something new there's always a lost!.......There pros & cons to new designs and "your" ability to adapt is the key element..... I hope this helps!....PM me your contact no. and we can talk more into depth on this issue!...If not good luck...

Aloha......Sam

[aircube]

Yo, thanks for the reply man. 

yea, i'd like to paddle both ways.  we acctualy surf large inland lakes, it is possible, check out these lake wave pics( http://www.superiorsurfclub.com/gallery.html ) and while the waves can get to be fairly high, the period is very short so theres not a ton of power in them.  Those pics are of Lake Superior, Our local lake gets some nice rollers and break in certain directions as well, but  the frequendy of the waves is so high that standing and paddling is really tough.  So the last time i was out i decided to prone/arm paddle my 12' SUP, and I was finding it easier to catch waves by arm paddling, but at 12' its a beast to turn while surfing , so i'm making the 8'er.

Basically i'm building a large powerful lake surfboard for small mushy waves.  I have a std 9 and 10 foot longboard surfboards that work ok, but I need way more power in the board to get longer rides and more power in the turns.

So, having checked out "your" 7'10" on DanaiSurf site,  I was inspired to build the 8'er as a big lake surfboard that I can arm paddle, BUT, i would also like to learn to paddle it in the waves as well if possible, so i don't want to goo toooo wide so that I can't get enough arm in the water to get a good takeoff.  because at 30" the 12'er is doable but its wide enough that i'm not getting a lotof my arms/hands in the water .

I watched your vids, and you had mentioned that yours was around 28" and that the next one would be 30" with thin rails.  So it got me thinking that 28" might be too unstable. 


heres some details:  I am 200lbs  and the outline that i chose is quite paralel with a wide nose and tail.  i also chose a flatter fast FISH style surfboard rocker, is this a mistake?


thanks

Colin

[goomba271]

Have a look at the Meyerhoffer boards or the Morey Swizzle... both have something of an 'hourglass' figure.  It might be that you could prone paddle a wider board overall if it had a similar hourglass feature?

[log man]

Aircube , I just built an 8/2 x 26.5 x4.75 It's an excellent prone paddler . I built it as a kneel down paddle board . So I use a non feathered , double ended kayak paddle and pop up as per usual prone surfing . Then I can use the paddle as a standard SUP paddle . When you paddle with the paddle it gets to top speed pretty quickly as compared to prone paddling . I recon this would be good for your local wave as you have good low centre of gravity , can spin easily and accelerate to catch a wave quickly

[aircube]

Cool suggestion, i just might try a kayak paddle and kneel.