How to Downwind SUP Surf - More Glides and More Fun

Good afternoon. So downwinding. Tons of fun. And at the same time, when I first started, I did a lot of this, a lot of falling. Falling after falling after falling. And the whole balance thing took me a while to get. And so one of the first things I learned was how to fall safely, which is like that. Just get away from the board. Don't do what I do here, which is try to catch it or put my arm on it. Get away to bang the arm, hurt the arm, land on the face, that kind of thing. Better just to do a full yard sale and just get away. Don't try to catch it like that. So that was the first thing I learned. And then a few other things I learned. And then, well, you see here what I'm doing. I'm holding onto the paddle and almost like I want to get rid of it or I don't want it. And then a few months later, I'm much more comfortable the way I'm holding the paddle. I'd learned a few tricks, really helped my downwinding. And then here's a winter downwinder six months later and I feel much more comfortable, even though I haven't done one in a while. Catching long rides, I'm staying on board. I'm even, if I say so, looking a little stylish. And then here a full year later, this is a nuking downwinder. Like I'm feeling real comfortable, just at ease out there, having a great time and putting all these skills together. So the first one, the most important one for me is bracing. And so the first one is just bracing while paddling there. I'm just kind of looking back and get to brace. And then here I'm moving out into the rougher water. And so I braced on my right side there and then I moved the paddle over and doing just kind of this light skimming, light contact brace as I'm doing the stroke. And then here I'm out in the middle of the full on downwind stream and I go to get up and you'll see, I keep that paddle in contact, like barely away from the water. Cause it's rough, there's bumps everywhere. And just as I'm paddling, really want to keep that paddle in contact. And here, it's calm water, but same thing as it's going like upwind or over a bump, just that kind of always in contact, light contact. And here, like if you were going sidewind, just keep that paddle back in the ground and in the water and holding on. Then here's the leverage brace, like putting all my weight, pushing really hard, using it as if I'm almost like bracing on the ground, or if I was leaning on a handrail or something, like really using that paddle as a lever and as if it's stuck in the mud. And then here I do it and I'm unsuccessful. And so sometimes it's better with the leverage just to let it go and to fall in. So now that we're up and riding, we've got our balance, we're catching these bumps. And so what I do is I use the paddle as like a feeler, an antenna. I'm just keeping it as close to the water and constant contact so that when I do need to brace, like right here, I almost ate it. And then I'm like, oh, hey, you know, keep that paddle close, like let's skim here. So, you know, this is an epic day. I don't want to miss any rides. So let's keep that paddle real close and just drag it or lightly skim it or hold it close enough so that if I do get knocked off or I hit an unexpected bump, I can, you know, hold on, stay on. And then here's more of the back brace. And just, you'll see just lightly skimming, just ever ready for, to keep myself on board. You know, the more I'm on board, the more fun I have, the more waves I have and the more glides I get. And so here I'm doing a little extra, which is leaning on it to slow down and kind of keep myself in the sweet spot and almost like breaking with the paddle. And so the next one is when to paddle. It's like, you'll see here, I'm trying to catch this bump. It's going past me, it's coming, it's coming. And it's bringing my nose up and it just gets to the point where I'm paddling uphill. So I stop, take a breath, rest, and then wait, wait, it's coming and then go dig. And so what I did there is as I went beyond neutral and felt the tail lift up and that was the time to paddle. And then three good strokes and I get in and get this really fun ride on this epic, just epic day. It was about 30 and just so fun. And then I'm able to get another little one there. Just so fun. This is such a good day. And we'll see it again here in slow motion. So the angle guys that we're looking for, so like I'm uphill right now, there's no point in paddling. So wait, wait, I'm tilting and then I'm going flat. And that's the time to paddle and then really dig and get in. That's the most efficient and when we want to really put our effort into it. So here's just a few minutes later, I'm just kind of doing these kind of lazy strokes, maintenance strokes. Then I feel that bump hit me. And so I go for it and then I'm not going to get it. It's passing me. So wait, wait. And then here's the second one, same thing. Paddle, paddle, paddle. Ah, didn't get it. So a little brace, wait, wait. Now dig, dig, dig. And I get in. And that seems to be like on a lot of these days, it seems like the bumps come in sets of three. And that's kind of the rhythm for me is sometimes, you know, the first one, except on days like this. And so here I'm just kind of doing a traverse out and then I see this first bump, that nice trough and then a bigger second bump. So I just straighten up a little and paddle, you know, just, and boom, right into it. And that's the thing on these good days. Sometimes we don't even have to paddle. There's not a whole lot of effort. The wave or the bump pushes us right in. And so then it's connecting and reading the water and knowing. So here I'm just kind of going straight using, stepping back to slow down, stepping forward to speed up and just kind of, you know, trimming and just kind of going with the bump. And then here is a right. This is breaking on the shore. You know, it's mimicking a point break just on the micro level, but this is, you know, clearly we can see that that is a right. And we're doing the same thing when we're out offshore. So here on this small day, I see this set of bumps coming and I'm angling right for that little gap there, that trough to try to get in and get some momentum and catch this little bump. And I'm working, working, kind of get in. Again, this is a micro day, a good day to practice. This is how I learned and how I practice. It's just, I go out on these real small days and mess around like this. So we see to the right, it's kind of flat, but to the left it's a little steeper, more action there. So I paddle, steering myself in that direction and then it's going to the left. And so I just kind of get in and steer and with both my feet and the paddle and head in that left direction. But then I poked the nose and got bucked off. And so here on the right, it's a few months later, bigger nuking day, and I'm putting these same techniques in practice. But here my back foot is further back. My feet are a little further apart. I've got a little wider stance. And instead of just dragging the paddle lazily, I'm really leaning on it to keep myself up. And because I was able to stay up, I was able to get this bump and another bump. So sometimes you see that little trough there and I can see this little gap. That's what I'm aiming for to the right. And that's where I'm heading. And so that's what I found on these good days. And when the water is just a mess, a lot of times it's just the simple little things of like, okay, a little brace here and there, just enough to keep us on our board and in position and ready to go. And then we can get these one, two, and three connecting bumps. And so here a small day, I see that little bump there coming. There's that little trough. And so I'm start aiming for it, position, and then it goes by and here comes my chance. And I see one, two bumps, and here comes the third one. So now I'm really, I set myself up, going, going, going, paddling hard. And to the right, it's open, but to the left looks much better to me, much bigger. So I'm kind of steering that way. And once I get in, I foot steer over towards that trough just a little bit. And then to my right, I see this other trough open up and this bump coming. So I start aiming in that direction. Then as I get over there, here we could see it, that nice bump. And that's what I'm heading for. And just trying to get into that little guy and get a little glide. And so there I was able to connect one, two, three bumps. And then here on a much bigger day, you can see I just get up, don't really have to do anything other than a couple of little strokes. And I'm in, you know, the wave does it. And here it's on this nuking day, it's just kind of holding on more than anything. Because on those little days, you really have to work really hard to get in. And it's fun, but it's a lot of work. Whereas here, it's just so much, it's more effortless. And I couldn't get anybody to go out with me on this day. It was, you know, I have all these waves to myself. And so that's one of the reasons I'm sharing this is I want to, you know, get more people out there. Let's get all out there. I want, join me, you know, come on, let's do this. This is so fun and great time out there. And there's nobody out, you know, there's just waves for miles. So hope this helps. Thanks.