In this video, we will look at a side-by-side view of Kelly Slater’s paddling technique next to an up and coming WQS surfer Taylor Clark and his
paddling technique.
These are two surfers who are pretty much 25 years apart in age.
One who really needs no description of his talents and accomplishments,
and another who has potential talent to take him very far on the professional surfing tour.
Taylor is a kid who I was watching at Seaside a lot and he was young
and he was just blowing it up there, and he continues to be a fantastic surfer,
but I’m not one to analyze surfing technique.
What I have noticed most was Taylor’s paddling technique in the contest and over the years at Seaside
and I wanted to see if you could see the same things that I do.
The main two reasons I wanted to post this analysis are one,
to help WQS surfers, especially younger WQS surfers with increasing their stroke efficiency early in their careers rather than later when
fatigue comes on faster. And two,
help more experienced surfers who have already hit that fatigue level,
help them surf longer through increased efficiency in their stroke.
So let’s take a quick look at first a side-by-side view of Kelly and Taylor.
Here is Kelly paddling back out,
and just to remind you of what makes his stroke so efficient, from the other video I posted,
we can see that he has his head still, looking forward, high elbows in his recovery and in his catch phase,
and he puts a very slight roll into his stroke from rail to rail.
Click here if you need a refresher from that video.
Here is Kelly again from behind.
Now let’s take a look at Taylor’s paddling.
First from behind.
Then side by side with Kelly.
Did you see what I did?
The biggest tell is this yawing motion you see here.
Watch Taylor’s body go left and his feet go right and then vice versa, his feet go left and his body goes right.
That is yawing, that side to side motion, a term I reference in the other video.
Yawing slows you down, it’s inefficient and caused by the lack of roll in the stroke and the swaying of the head from side to side.
The lack of roll and swaying of the head also affects the elbow recovery and catch.
So really one problem causes another.
When I saw Taylor out in the lineup at Seaside when he was younger doing this,
I just thought it might be an age thing or generational.
I thought he may grow out of it, and he may still grow out of it.
But then I saw John John Florence who, grant it, they aren’t the same age, but fairly close.
Take a look at John John’s technique.
Looks similar to Kelly.
And then take a look at two other world champions, Mick and Parko.
Both with similar technique.
So these techniques can be fixed.
It’s all about muscle memory.
Taylor’s muscle memory for surfing is absolutely incredible, he is a great surfer,
but his paddling technique can certainly improve and help him catch waves more efficiently.
Take a look at this clip.
From those heats, I noticed if Taylor was not in the absolute best position to catch a wave, he struggled a little bit.
You can see here he bogged a little at takeoff and needs to work a bit to get into the wave.
I didn’t see that with his other competitors in the same heat.
That may be due to the paddling stroke.
When paddling into a wave, you increase your stroke rate,
it goes faster,
but you use the same techniques that you would for regular paddling.
So when you get it right during regular strokes, regular paddling, you’ll get it right when you increase your stroke rate to catch a wave.
Your muscles will remember.
So next time you go surf, try and notice whether you are yawing from side to side, moving from side to side with your body.
In the other video, I outlined some drills you can do in the pool during a workout or in the water while you are surfing.
So take a look at that again if you would like to.
In another video series, about the Bernoulli Principle, a seasoned swim coach breaks down another problem that both swimmers and surfers
run into - what is called slippage.
You can click here to go directly to that video if you’d like to.
Take a look at those videos and the xswim for surfers blog to improve your paddling.
And as always, we have 30, 60, and 90 day surfing fitness workout programs available at xswimforsurfers.com
Thanks again for watching.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
See you in the water.