11' NSP sup

[highlander51]

I have a 11' NSP that I seem to have a lot of trouble catching small waves with.  I'm a good surfer, been longboarding for 40 years and surf the same point break so I know the break well.  I'm 220 # 6'  58 yrs. old.  if I move up half way from the hand hold to the nose I can get it to drop in but it's hard to keep the nose out of the water.  I'm wodering if this board is too short for me.  Also been using the 2+1 fin set up and I'm thinking that the board may have too much drag for small waves.
I'm looking to buy a Starboard big easy as a solution. Does this make sense or any suggestions?


Mike

[TiltPilot]

how long have you been SUPing?  i had that problem initially.  time on the water and refining my technique to catch waves fixed the problem.

[highlander51]

I've been suping for a couple of months.   I'm talking about 2' waves.  I'm working really hard to catch these, and my friends are just glideing into nothing waves. Feels like the board does not glide well with my weight and not enough nose rocker.

[beachcomber]

I’m 190 and riding a PSH 11WAA and I also had problems catching waves at first. I’ve been surfing for quite a few years, everything from prone to 18’ sea kayaks. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong until I started to analyze my stroke. When paddling for a wave I was taking short quick strokes and just couldn’t seem to pull in. After looking at some photos of guys paddling for waves, and seeing some noticeable bend in their paddle shafts, I switched to deep power strokes and it’s made all the difference. I read on the Zone of someone describing planting the blade deep and envisioning pulling yourself past the shaft, and that’s what I now do, seems to work well for me.

I would relate it to bicycling. When going up hills, some people are mashers, using high gear, and putting muscle to the pedal, and some people are spinners, using lower gears and spinning quickly. I was spinning and it just wasn’t working for me, I now mash that paddle. LOL

The down side is that mashing is hard on the joints, whether it’s the knee joints while peddling or the shoulder/elbow joints while paddling.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I’m a SUP noob, but this seemed to work for me.

[highlander51]

I switched to a Starboard 12' big Easy and now catch pretty much anything I want. Big difference in glide but this board surfs really well. This board is what I was looking for.

[Nate Burgoyne]

The 11' NSP has a lot of rocker. The board performs much better than you'd think by looking at it sitting on the beach. The rocker makes it a very forgiving board in the surf but does push some water in the flat. The rocker is a gradual one so it does allow the water to flow under it well but definitely a little slower paddling than some other boards out there. It's a really fun board and extremely family friendly.

[jdmotes]

The 11' NSP has a lot of rocker. The board performs much better than you'd think by looking at it sitting on the beach. The rocker makes it a very forgiving board in the surf but does push some water in the flat. The rocker is a gradual one so it does allow the water to flow under it well but definitely a little slower paddling than some other boards out there. It's a really fun board and extremely family friendly.

 My wife has the NSP 10'6" that I ride once in a while when we switch off out in the waves. I find it catches waves as well as my Magic 9'11" (maybe a little better). I always atrib' it to the extra length but I do think 'wave catching technique' plays into it a whole lot too...   Later,   JD

[crtraveler]

Hey Highlander - I dealt w/ the exact same thing....I'm riding the Southpoint Kalama 11'6".  Don't get too frustrated.  The best thing I found was slightly bigger waves.  You have a little more room to work with which keeps the big wide noses out of the water until you can get back to the tail and drop in.  Now, I'm not talking huge waves, but maybe waist or stomach high and you should see a major improvement.  Paddle technique and timing also have alot to do w/ it.  Learn your paddle and timing on slightly bigger waves and it will be much easier to surf the small ones.  Same thing w/ turning, you can't learn how to turn these big boards on small waves - you just don't have the speed needed to make it work right.  However, after learning how to turn on bigger waves, smaller waves become a lot easier.  Hopefully this helps.

[robcasey]

I'm 6-5, 220 and rented the NSP board for a few months and had no issues catching small waves.  I come from the surf kayaking side of things and found that if i edged the board (like edging a kayak), i could drop in easier.  That is push one rail in to the water, while paddling into the wave. This reduces the amount of board in the water, thus less drag. 

I would also for small waves move forward towards the nose to weight the front which also helped (whether i edged it or not).

For my size, I liked the board, but ended up getting the 12' Laird as it was easier to paddle longer distances which I often do on Puget Sound near Seattle.

[highlander51]

Thanks all for the replies.  I've since traded off the NSP for a 10'6" C4 which I'm growing into slowly, but my main board is the 12'6" Big Easy.  I love this board for my intended purpose which is 2-4 waves. Anything bigger I take out my reg. surfboard.
I will say that I think what you guys had to say about technique did play into the wave catching problem, but the bigger Starboard smoothed out that learning curve.  It's like one day you just go   oh that was easy what was the big deal.  Again thanks