There has probably been a lot of discussion on this but any suggestions on paddle length for in the surf? Is it by what feels right ? Im bout 6'1 and have a QB at 2130 mm which feels good for cruising around on my big board so would I come down to around head height for the surf? Ideas?
Personally I'm thinking about 8-10" overhead for flat water and 6-8" overhead for the surf.
DJ
Select to expand quoteDavidJohn said..
Personally I'm thinking about 8-10" overhead for flat water and 6-8" overhead for the surf.
DJ
yeh that sounds like it would work. what u reckon about blade size for the surf?
It depends on your board & style.
A rule of thumb is: if you are on a board where you take off with parallel feet, DJ suggestion is sound. If you take off in fencing / surf stance, you will love a paddle your height.
But the real issues is the radius of your turns. The shorter you want to turn, the shorter your paddle must be, it can be down to -4" for performance in hollow waves.
Select to expand quotewindara said...DavidJohn said..
Personally I'm thinking about 8-10" overhead for flat water and 6-8" overhead for the surf.
DJ
yeh that sounds like it would work. what u reckon about blade size for the surf?
There's no right or wrong answers here (shaft length and blade width) and IMO around 8" wide blade is about right for everything for most people.
DJ
Select to expand quotecolas said..
It depends on your board & style.
A rule of thumb is: if you are on a board where you take off with parallel feet, DJ suggestion is sound. If you take off in fencing / surf stance, you will love a paddle your height.
But the real issues is the radius of your turns. The shorter you want to turn, the shorter your paddle must be, it can be down to -4" for performance in hollow waves.
Thanks heaps for the advice! Cant beat hands down experience!
Select to expand quotecolas said..
It depends on your board & style.
A rule of thumb is: if you are on a board where you take off with parallel feet, DJ suggestion is sound. If you take off in fencing / surf stance, you will love a paddle your height.
But the real issues is the radius of your turns. The shorter you want to turn, the shorter your paddle must be, it can be down to -4" for performance in hollow waves.
Style is the key here. I am seeing a lot of guys going shorter especially out in the surf and you can see that they are adopting a paddling style where the
emphasis is on a quite pronounced bend at the waist which results in greater reach. This works for a smaller shaft length and in fact you could not yield positive
outcomes with a longer paddle as the paddle would be well below the water line. Think about how a longer paddle would effect cadence and you will start to understand
the reasoning behind this. You have a maximum height with a parallel stance but as you widen the legs going down the board then your height reduces resulting in the
requirement for a shorter paddle.
Cheers ozzie
Some good advice here from both ends of the spectrum... you definitely don't want it too long as it will make paddling more strenuous on your body, but just how short you decide to go will depend on what performance level you want to take your surfing too, what board you're using, your weight and how the board sits in the water and how far you're planning to paddle to get to waves (and how comfortable you want to be if its a long way).
One of the things a lot of people don't take into account (or often don't even mention) when comparing paddle lengths is how high the board sits out of the water...just looking at the physics, If you're a medium weight on a big 5-6" thick all around board, your feet could be 3-4" above the waterline, whilst someone of the same weight/height pushing the performance (and floatation) limit of a short sup might have their feet 1-2" below the waterline.... So already that's a massive 5" difference between the position of top hand (where the power is applied to the paddle) and the water before taking into account any other factors.
You don't want to cut it too far (because extending a paddle is a lot harder than cutting it down) so maybe start with DJ's suggestion of 6-8" but instead of gluing with epoxy which can be hard to get off, try either taping with electrical tape, or if that's doesn't hold enough for you, use some hot glue (you can get a cheap craft heat glue gun from woollies for about $10 if you don't want anything more fancy) which you can then heat up with a hairdryer to get the handle off. That way you shouldn't have too much trouble cutting it down bit by bit until it feels comfortable.
My surf paddle is currently about 1-2" overhead (I think), but that's just personal preference so play around until you find what works, or if your surfing with other guys shorter than you, ask to borrow theirs to see how it feels?
As Ali Cat said "Some good advice here from both ends of the spectrum... "
Personally I paddle with length 2" under my height on my board feet flush on water level. I usually paddle in a surf stance on front side position and been parallel on backside take off.
Since i watch the Noah' vid surfing with a long paddle and a board 24 wide, i keep an eye on the relation between the width of the board and the length of paddle
IMO: these last two characteristics providing greater stability while paddling and far pivot for longer arc while surfing
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Stand-Up-Paddle/SUP/Some-Backside-Action-on-a-71/#1435485
I found a huge improvement in stability when I chopped down my paddle a few months ago. Since then I have a new board with much less volume that sits much lower in the water. I have been falling off heaps while getting used to the new board, and feel I was standing too upright. Today I chopped another 5" of the paddle to bring it down to forehead height. For the reasons stated by the other posters above I hope to see an improvement next time I go out.
Cheers
Technique, experience and conditions all play a part.
I started with the point where paddle blade expands at eye level. That seemed fine for starters. Then after surfing for a while the paddle started to feel long! Wonder why? Merimbula last year had a couple of the guys there recommending shortening by 4 - 6 inches. Tried it , cut my old paddle down and loved it.
May even try to get shorter again.
So, comes back to experience and technique. Suggest starting longer then cutting down a couple of inches at a time. Best of all if you can demo or use an adjustable paddle. You don't want to go too short too quickly as you can put stress on your lower back or other areas.
Select to expand quoteKami said..
Since i watch the Noah' vid surfing with a long paddle and a board 24 wide, i keep an eye on the relation between the width of the board
The jury is still out, but it also seems that for very narrow boards, the weight of the paddle becomes more and more important. Lighter paddles seems helping a lot for the quicker body adjustments needed for these boards, although you will lose some "static" balance (using the paddle as a balance pole). I already have my new light paddle (349 g... incredible) waiting for my narrower board this week to try (2" less width on my small wave 6'8" board)
Select to expand quoteDynymor said..
I found a huge improvement in stability when I chopped down my paddle a few months ago. Since then I have a new board with much less volume that sits much lower in the water. I have been falling off heaps while getting used to the new board, and feel I was standing too upright. Today I chopped another 5" of the paddle to bring it down to forehead height. For the reasons stated by the other posters above I hope to see an improvement next time I go out.
Cheers
Just stretch your lower body and legs in time of muscle strength come along session after session, be used to get knee flexed. You will see improvement soon 
waiting for the set to come, dig your paddle under water and hold it to keep your balance, hand at almost hips hight. I found as main reason to cut short a paddle is to have the more power paddling when take off. Cutting short your paddle is for holding the top of paddle horizontal to your shoulder during strong stroke paddling to enter the wave, body weight forward in a fencing/surf stance.
Select to expand quotecolas said..Kami said..
Since i watch the Noah' vid surfing with a long paddle and a board 24 wide, i keep an eye on the relation between the width of the board
The jury is still out, but it also seems that for very narrow boards, the weight of the paddle becomes more and more important. Lighter paddles seems helping a lot for the quicker body adjustments needed for these boards, although you will lose some "static" balance (using the paddle as a balance pole). I already have my new light paddle (349 g... incredible) waiting for my narrower board this week to try (2" less width on my small wave 6'8" board)
I d'ont use a paddle as balance pole
I better feel my balance digging my paddle in the water closest to me as i can.
About paddle cut under my height, i went back to my first paddle which is a Hobbie because i got flex in the shaft and some (few) buoyancy in the paddle itself . This paddle buoyancy is helpful a bit during waiting , paddle dig in water...
Thanks Kami, I have already noticed how much harder my legs have to work on the lower volume board. Definitely agree I need to be in a lower stance when the wave comes- shorter paddle will help.
Cheers
Select to expand quoteDynymor said..
Thanks Kami, I have already noticed how much harder my legs have to work on the lower volume board. Definitely agree I need to be in a lower stance when the wave comes- shorter paddle will help.
Cheers
Cheers Dynymor, before any session i always warm up and stretch until i get my hand palm flat to ground with both legs extended.
Doing this body stretch you will not only have a lower stance to take off but also more control on your bottom turn and the whole wave because your body flexed on back foot is already on the tail pad 
I have had a few sessions with the shorter paddle- my legs are toast! A 3.5 hour session on Friday left my legs too fatigued to balance for Saturday's session (fell in lots and caught 2 waves in an hour). Having a rest today and will try again during the week. Practice should build up better leg endurance (I hope!).
