Hi,
New to the sport and just did a one-on-one training session with Stu of Sup Explore, being a prize from entering the Cockatoo cup in Sydney.
He introduced me to the concept of Gears (Differing paddle styles to match the conditions.) I guess it's not a new concept and I heard Danny Ching talking about it on You-Tube.
If anyone's willing to share, how many "gears" do people have, say in a Flatwater race as opposed to a downwinder and briefly describe the paddle style/technique and when employed.
Cheers
I'm pretty new to the sport too, but it's a matter of how many gears you can fit in your gearbox really. From what I can gather there's techniques for upwind, downwind, flatwater, choppy water, cross-chop, long powerful strokes, short sharp strokes and combinations of all those. Looking at recent video's of the flatwater championships in Adelaide, everyone's stroke is different in the same conditions. All I can suggest is watch carefully and ask heaps of people lots of questions and some things will start to resonate with you...
Yep, Stu just mentioned to me a couiple of years ago that idea of different "gears" for different contexts. Opened my mind to different approaches for paddling in the surf. My blade technique & stance varies a lot in chop, cross wind, etc. It works.
I think te size of the blade work like geares on bike you could have good cadance with less power and the power on our bady is bettr i like paddle thar isnarrow and long and the size is90 to 100 forbig man
Last Saturday, Naish team rider, Toby Cracknell and the female assistant (apologies, I cannot recall the ladies name), held a paddle clinic at Lake Macquarie (Newcastle), sponsored by a couple of the local SUP retailers.
We covered paddle technique involving stroke correction, turns and racing starts.
For the 20 ? 25 people who attended, the 90 minute session was relaxed and very informative.
Basically the racing start involves quick short strokes, at a high cadence to get you moving prior to settling down to your natural stroke.
It is all about getting up to speed as quickly as possible by using a different stroke technique, choked down on the paddle, with the top hand 6"-8" under the top handle grip and concentrating on quick short sharp strokes.
Toby demonstrated all techniques. His balance on a 23 inch wide board is ridiculous, he walks around on it like it's a swim platform. He has tremendous speed across the water, which is more likely attributable to his a high cadence, relatively lightweight and power.
It was an amazing experience to witness just how fast a SUP can move across the water with the right engine.
