Alright! This is Robert Stehlik of Blue Planet Surf and today I’m going to talk a little bit
about accelerating strokes, how to make yourself accelerate more quickly. Basically, starting
in first gear is what I like to call it. When I first started paddling years ago, I
broke a few paddles and I was kind of thinking "these paddles suck, they keep braking".
But I talked to Brian Keaulana, he was watching me surf and he was saying, “You’re breaking
paddles because you’re starting in third gear!” So basically when I was trying to
catch a wave, I was just pulling on the paddle as hard as I could and take these really powerful
strokes to try to catch the wave and then, CRACK, the paddle would break right here were
my hand is. So then he’s like, it's like in a car, you don’t
start in third gear, you start in first gear. So basically first gear when you’re paddling
is short quick strokes. So keep your strokes in the front. Get a nice catch but just short,
quick strokes. That’s what’s going to get you going – high cadence, short stokes
for quick acceleration. That’s first gear.
And then once your board is moving faster, you’ve got movement, then you can take a
little bit longer strokes, a little bit more power in the strokes, once you’re moving
at a higher speed. But when you’re starting out, just use quick accelerating strokes to
get your board moving. And you’ll notice it’s not only better
and easier on your paddle, you won’t break as many paddles but it’s also a much more
efficiently to accelerate, less strain on your body, less strain on your equipment and
quicker acceleration. So, start in first gear before you switch
into second or third gear. So the technique part is basically first planting your full
blade in the water so the whole blade is under water. You don’t want to pull your paddle
down into the water because then you’re going to pull air down and your paddle is
going to slip. So, what you want to do is a nice catch and then quick strokes.
And then, as soon as you kind of yank on the paddle real quick, then you are already starting
to pull it out. So it’s really like just tapping the water in the very front of you.
That also creates lift because you’re basically pushing water down, lifting your board up.
That way you’re accelerating. On a planing hull board is all about lift. You don’t want
to pull back here because that’s where you push water up, pushing your board down, kind
of compressing onto the water and that keeps you from gliding and planning on top
of the water. So taking those long drawn-out strokes when
you’re accelerating or trying to catch whatever, trying to catch a bump is actually slowing
you down. You’re not going to lift out of the water and start to plane and that’s what
really what your trying to do. Alright, thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed
these tips on quick acceleration, starting in first gear. If you liked it, please give
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Thanks for watching again. We have a weekly training group here on Oahu, meeting every
Wednesday so you can join to learn more about how to improve your technique, how to get
faster, how to catch bumps, how to surf waves, all that stuff we’re going over in our training group.
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Thanks for watching. Aloha!
Alright! Thanks for watching give us a thumbs up please. Hope you enjoyed the show. Aloha!