Alright! This is Robert Stehlik, with Blue Planet Surf and I’m going to talk about
the five most common mistakes I see people make that are just new to downwinding, just
getting into it. And I’m going to paddle as I’m doing it to demonstrate what I’m
talking about. So first of all, I do a lot of downwind coaching.
A lot of my customers are pretty good paddlers. But a lot of the times they come from the
mainland or somewhere where they haven’t had an opportunity to do a lot of downwinders
especially not in the ocean. So they are not used to a doing open ocean downwinders.
Some of the common mistakes I see are first of all, just paddling too much basically.
Paddling too much and paddling at a steady pace instead of sprinting and then pausing.
So knowing when NOT to paddle is very important; when to paddle lightly in between.
Right now there’s not many waves. I’m going to wait for good opportunity and I’m
just going to paddle lightly, save my energy. And then when I see something good coming
along, I’m going to take a few quick hard strokes and try to follow that bump in front
of me. And once I kind of get on it, I’m just going to follow it and let my board glide.
I’m just going to let it glide out, see how far I can let it glide.
And as I’m slowing down, the wave passes under me. That’s when it’s time to paddle
again to get into the next one. I’m just going to move back a little bit, back and forth.
So it’s all about switching up your speed. Gliding, resting, whenever you can, and then
taking quick hard fast strokes when you see opportunity to catch a bump.
So my first tip is to STOP paddling. Don’t paddle at a steady pace. It’s not about
a steady slow paddle. It’s about quick sprints to get in the bumps.
The second common mistake I see is to start paddling for the bump too late. Basically,
what you want to do is rest, paddle lightly until you see an opportunity. And as a bump
passes underneath you, that’s when you want to start loading up your paddle, kind of paddling
into the back of the wave that I just passed you.
Now, wait for a good one to pass underneath you and then, kind of paddle onto the back
of it. And I like to think of it as the bump in front of me pulling me along, rather than
the bump behind me pushing me. So, that bump in front of me is pulling me along.
My GPS says I’m going like eight or nine mile an hour, ten miles an hour. That’s
pretty good. Another good one.
Paddle for it, kind of going to the left, so I’m going to follow it to the left. No need
to paddle, moving back a little bit. Keep the nose out of the water. Following that bump
in front of me, kind of reforming. Another one. This one is going to the right so I’m
going to follow it that way.
Alright, back to the left again. That was a long one. The more you can connect the
better. But you don’t want to worry about that too much in the beginning.
So the third common mistake I see people do is not using their paddle for balance. So
if you lose your balance, throwing your paddle around in the air might help a little bit.
But the best way to find balance is by skimming the blade over the surface when you’re gliding.
And also if you are on a bump, the nose tries to catch a little bit, get your paddle behind
you and lean back on a paddle. That will help you keep the nose up, keep your weight back and be in a balanced,
stable position. Especially when your board is accelerating, you’re going to have the
tendency to kind of fall backwards.
Now, I’m way back on the tail, just skimmming my paddle. I’m still on it, way back, skimming.
So using the paddle for balance is really key. So when you lose your balance, just boom, fall
on your paddle. Lean on it. It’s going to g ive you a lot of stability.
Anyway, so mistake number four is not having the right board. And that being said, some people are
really good at making pretty much any board work in a downwinder. But if you do have a flat
rockered board, it's definitely possible to make it go fast in a downwinder.
The trick is basically to move around more. You have to move more front and back to keep
that nose out so you can plane on the tail without the nose catching in front of you.
And especially on longer drawn out bumps or on a light wind day, having a flatter rocker
is definitely an advantage.
Also the rails of the board and the surface is flat on the bottom versus the curved bottom.
A flat bottom will generate more lift so it’s easier to get that board on a plane.
Flat water race is definitely having narrower board is definitely an advantage because you
just have less drag. But in downwinders, narrower is also faster at top speed.
But what I find is that a wider board actually sometimes can be an advantage as well because
the wider board has more surface area so it generates more lift. It gets on a plane a
little bit quicker than the narrower board. But sometimes it easier to get a wider board
on a plane and glide a little bit longer on it from that extra lift the bottom generates
on a wider board. So it's kind of a tradeoff, not always necessarily faster on a narrow board,
definitely not faster if you’re in the water versus on the water. So if you fall in
a few times, then you would have been faster on a wider board without falling in, you know.
So, I would always err on the side of caution, especially if you’re not buying the board
and you just rent it. Get a wider one on your first time.
When you’re comfortable and you are fine on a 30 inch wide one, you can think
about moving down to 28 or 27. Some guys go even narrower than that. But like I said,
unless you have really good balance, it’s not always faster to go narrower.
I’ve tested some 26 inch wide boards and on windy days, I’m actually slower on 26
than on 28 so keep that in mind.
Ok, then the fifth common mistake is not standing in the right place on the board. You want to
make sure you’re not too far forward where your board can’t release when you’re on
a bump. So as soon as you’re on a bump, you want to move pretty far back the board. As soon
as you slow down, you got to move forward again.
Just keep your stance generally a little bit more back than when you’re paddling
in flat water; you keep your weight right over the middle of the board right where the
handle is. In a downwinder, that’s too far board.
So, on my bump rider, I always keep my feet behind to the handle and I also have a slightly
staggered stance as you can see. One foot is about six inches behind the other foot.
Alright, so those are the five most common mistakes I see people do on downwinders the first
time. Thanks for watching. Come again soon.
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Alright! Thank you and Aloha!