How to Paddle Out in Bigger Surf on a SUP

Good morning. So we pulled up to the beach and we see waves like this anywhere from chest high to overhead plus, and we need a way to get out. Duck diving on a SUP board is usually impossible or very improbable. The volume's just so much that that technique doesn't work. And so what does work is going up and over. It's essentially the mirror opposite of the duck dive. Instead of getting our board and our body under the wave as much as we can, the goal here is to get our board and our body over the wave and on the other side. So the ride over or the pop over. Here we see Kai Lenny doing it. He does this two step back, stomps on the tail, a good paddle forward. And then he does something which I haven't seen anyone else do, which is as he's going over, he does another two step forward, kind of like if he was riding a teeter-totter by himself. Here we see it again. Does that one, two, big paddle, and then two steps forward and up and over. And what Connor does, what I do and what I've seen everybody else do, which is here you see me do, I do two feet at the same time, quick two step paddle. And then here, my mistake is I left the paddle back in the behind the wave or on the front side of the wave. And then all my weight was on my back foot. And so I fell backward. And then here we see Kai's pretty balanced. He's riding and his paddle is pulled out and forward. And we see it again. The two step, the big stomp on the tail, get the nose up, paddle, then immediately lift the paddle. And he's thinking about going over the wave. That's what I'm seeing. So the next same move, just a little variation. You see that little half step back. That's just a balance transfer so that we're a little more stable front to back without having to do a big maneuver to get up and over. So we just do that little half step and keep on paddling. And then once we get over the half step forward, the no step parallel stance. So essentially we're just paddling right through it. The whitewash or the wave is small enough that we can just paddle right through it and keep going. So here, that's what I do, but I get knocked off a little balance. So I have to do a little half step forward to get back on balance and then keep going. It's crucial, at least for me, it's crucial because I've hit my face before many years ago and needed stitches. So it's crucial that we get our hands up or have that awareness that the board, once it hits that whitewash, it's going to pop up or be almost catapulted towards our head or face at a real fast speed. And the first couple of times I did it, it was really alarming. And so now that I'm aware of it, it's a lot easier, but just be real careful. You can see Casper's board just goes flying and Kai's is coming straight up. Does a good job of getting that weight on that front foot. So safety, yeah, really take care of our faces, be aware that when we do take this big board into that whitewash, it's going to come up back at us. So same technique, only this time, you know, we're caught inside, we're doing what we can. And so we swing that board around and lay on it, no time to get up and then just go up and over. It's the goal is to get the board up and over and however we do that, that works. So here we see that Kai and Casper are caught inside. And before this on the way in, they both rode the same wave as Connor and they all came in at the same time. And then we see that Connor was way further out. There's a huge gap between them. So that for me tells me that the crucial or real big difference there is just that timing of maybe he picked a better line or he just, you know, got lucky if we want to call it that, but he made that gap and got out and it just opens up that huge, makes a huge difference. And so here often on the last wave, just do that a little over and then finding an easier lane. So here we see they're all pretty close, kind of neck and neck paddling. And we see one, two, three, make it over. And then Zane and everyone else gets caught inside. Then I counted the seconds from when Zane fell off until he gets back on his board. And it's almost eight seconds. And we see the other guys, they just get out clean. They don't get caught by any of those waves. And so whether it's skill or intuition or luck, picking that or finding that open lane where we can get, if we can just get over that first wave of the set, it always seems to help and make a huge difference. So here we see Zane paddling out and he straightens up to hit the wave straight on. It's real important to straighten up when we're hitting the whitewash of the wave because that makes it easy for us to go up and over. If we aren't straight, it's real easy to get knocked off balance or to get our board swept out from under us. And the board goes one way, we go the other. And then you see Zane here aiming for that shoulder or that gap that makes often the difference between getting out or not getting out. And here, this is brilliant. The two waves are converging at the last second. He aims towards it so that he can get up and over it instead of getting knocked off his board. And here we see that gap. The two waves are coming at it and he just makes it. And often that's the difference between getting out and not getting out. So timing, often you'll see me do this and I do this a lot. I am surfing, there's no clock, there's no need to race anybody or get out. I have all the time in the world. So I just wait, wait for that lull or for that, what I think might be a gap. And then knee paddling, like often the inside here is so turbulent or it's just like a cauldron of boiling, just waves everywhere and real hard to get out. And when I've tried to just stand up and go for it, I often fall many times. I end up getting exhausted, wearing myself out. And so I've learned that this way works a lot better for me and just have the patience, doing the same technique with my hands, just pushing the board over and then waiting, waiting, waiting until I see a gap or what looks like a gap. And here I got a little impatient and went for it. And then with all those waves, I got knocked off and had to wait a little bit more. But this technique worked really well for me last winter. Once I got over my pride or whatever judgments I had about knee paddling and just did it, it works brilliantly. Like here you see, I see that gap, I see that little low and I'm paddling as hard as I can and just get on my knees and go, don't worry about standing up or any of that, just go and paddle, paddle, paddle. And there, I just barely make it through that one and get out. And had I taken the time to stand up and try to get my balance and then paddle, I probably wouldn't have made it or I would've got knocked off. And so here's the other technique of when we're, here I get this real fun wave. And as I kick out, I see, oh, here comes another wave. And I get caught in that awkward position of the wave hasn't broken, but I'm not gonna make it over. And so I'll do this like hop, scoot, shoot my board up the face and out the back. And then I fall down the face and go under the wave. And then you'll see I pop up on the other side of my board and the wave. And that works really great when I get caught in those kind of awkward positions. And here you'll see Slater Trout doing the same thing of getting caught in between waves and having to do that. So yeah, patience. This is a beautiful backlit sunset evening. And I waited and waited and waited and finally got a wave and here it was. Got this shot I've been wanting to get for a long time. And then this is very dumpy, kind of closed out. And I think I waited 10, 15 minutes to get out. And then after this wave, another 10, 15 minutes and another surfer saw me and he commented in the parking lot. He's like, wow, I was really impressed that you were able to get back out on that sub. So thanks for watching. I hope this is helpful. I hope there's something in here for you and hope to see you out there. Thank you so much.