SUP Tips: How to paddle straight on a Stand Up Paddleboard (reverse J stroke)

Aloha, this is Robert Stelik with Blue Planet Surf in Hawaii. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about how to make the board go in a straight line. A lot of times beginners struggle with that and basically every couple strokes they have to switch sides because the board's turning left and right so they can only get like one or two strokes and then have to switch. So I'll give you a couple tips on how to make the board go in a straight line so you can get more strokes per side because basically every time you have to switch the paddle from one side to the other side it slows you down a little bit. So the more you can make the board go straight the better. So one important tip is the blade angle. So if you angle your blade out this way then that's going to make the board turn more. If you angle the blade a little bit towards you it's going to make the board go more straight. Like basically you could paddle indefinitely on one side by kind of stroking a little bit with the paddle towards you starting it away from the board pulling it towards you and angling the blade a little bit towards you will pull me a little bit over to the right. So to make the board go in a straight line you want to start the blade a little bit away from the board and pull a little bit towards you. So that way I can actually make my board go straight indefinitely by pulling the blade a little bit towards me and holding the paddle upright. So if I angle the blade outward push it away from the board it's going to make the board turn more. If I pull it angle it towards me it can make the board actually turn towards the paddle like this. And if you hold it straight back it'll make the board go straight forward. Okay so the two most common things that people that make people go sideways instead of going straight are not holding the paddle straight up and down basically holding it diagonally. The more you hold it diagonally the more it's going to turn the board away from the side you're paddling on. Also the further away you have the blade from the board the more it's going to turn and the angle of the paddle if you're angling the paddle outward away from you that's also going to make the board turn. So if you want to get make the board turn you use the steering stroke you get the paddle low to the water angle the blade away from you push it out way out to the side and you can see how that makes my board turn really well. If you want to make the board go straight you got to do basically the opposite which is hold the paddle straight up and down so it's you know perpendicular to the water hold the blade so you're pulling it straight back or even a little bit towards you and pull the paddle back in a straight line. If you notice the board has a little bit of a curve to it so if you just follow the outline of your board you're actually making a slight curve with the paddle. So what you want to do is really is start the blade a little bit away from the board and then pull it kind of towards the board. So one way to check if you're holding the paddle straight up and down is if you're looking over the paddle like this that means you're holding it too diagonally you should be looking between the paddle and your arms so that's like a window you're looking through when you're paddling and the paddle should be straight up and down and then at the end of your stroke you should get the paddle as close to your board as possible. The closer you keep the paddle to the board the more it's going to drive you forward instead of sideways. So keep the paddle started a little bit away from the rail and then end it up right next to your feet. So like for example if you're starting in a race you want to be able to get a bunch of strokes on one side to accelerate before you have to switch because every time you switch you lose a little bit of momentum. So yeah so then that's where it's important too to have that good technique you pull the blade a little bit towards you and make it go straight for longer time. All right so those are just a few ways you can use to make your board go more straight. Hope you enjoyed it. See you again soon. Please subscribe and give us a thumbs up. Appreciate it. Aloha. See you on the water. Give us a thumbs up please. Hope you enjoyed the show.