So normally I do a normal "surf" bottom turn and then on the top turn I might dig in my paddle to help get some speed and a bit of extra torque to turn the board around - but I was really just taking a paddle at the top of the wave

But today I accidentally did something that I should have been doing all the time. As I did it I had flash-backs to videos of good sup-surfers doing something similar (but they were doing it properly).

As I went in to the bottom turn (the waves were pretty small) I jammed my paddle in the wave. I then use it as leverage to twist my body, and thus the board into a much faster bottom turn. As I was going back up the wave (again, small wave), I again used the paddle, embedded in the wave, as leverage to twist my body, and thus the board, back down the wave.

I could only practice it a few times as the waves were pretty puny, but I found I could really put a lot of force into the paddle to really twist my body, and thus the board, into a much faster turn. Keeping the paddle in the wave also gave me some stability after the cut-back so I could make the turn faster and faster and still be in control to initiate the next turn.

It felt great.

It felt right.

I am not sure why it has taken me this long to figure it out...

(On a bigger wave I could probably only do this on the top-turn.)

Curious to know your thoughts.

I watched Kai Bates recently at Medewi and he made it look so easy
I too am practicing it now , it feels good

Yes.careful on the bigger waves it can put you in it feels like its glued ...,sometimes just a stab is enough ,and it depends on the steepness and power ..but yes a great bonus of being a SUPer ...your getting on the way to getting vertical cantsupenough.
dig in and head straight for that lip .

i know this isn't my pretties face ,but putting you paddle up higher in the wave will give you a wider swing .

Yes, getting vertical will be easy now. Or maybe not. But it certainly helped to achieve sharper turns. Now I just want to get out into some better waves to try it again...

Good tips, gonna try that.

Kai Lenny said something awhile back about needing to "surf the paddle" as SUPs are so wide and big that getting leverage over the rail os the only way to turn them. When you get the feel for the paddle in the wave face you can start applying more and more energy into the paddle from your arms and that allows you to drive the rail harder with your legs as once you have pressure on the paddle you have stability and when you have stability you can really start bottom turning with power - which is the best feeling!

I struggled to pull off bottom turns well until I really moved my front foot over to the rail. Makes a huge difference on 32 inch board. Adding some crank now with the paddle and not just leaning on it to recover the turn

so, i am assuming we are talking on your fore hand arent we ?

i thought that the good guys get to the top and "paddle"off the top of the wave not jam the paddle in -

or do you mean swap sides with the paddle and place on the lower side of the wave and jam the paddle in ?