Personally, I find from the beginning of my SUP experience that of all the time I spent on my knees do not train my body muscles or my flexibility to be able to prone or stand up paddle efficiently. Obviously, that makes me feel better my SUP surfing too!

Some nice waves yesterday, in cool mood (nursing a strained ankle)

Thanks Colas
you are always a good read.
and same to you bros.

Nice weaves colas, cheers!

surfinJ said..
Really nice turns Colas. Finally some break from the relentless 2m+ swells.
Maybe see you out there tomorrow early. And best wishes as well.

Thanks to all, and yes SurfingJ, hope to see you this morning in these cute petite conditions...

The way I see it is this, the whole idea is to get out the back right? then get out there the best way you can by reducing the chances of harm to yourself or others. I personally prefer to stand ( in fact kneeling pinches a nerve behind my knee) I do prone paddle at times depending on the location.
Please try and work things out for yourselves for what works best, its ok to seek advise but don't take it as gospel.
There are those amongst us that are full of it

that is a niceee lookin board

colas said..

supthecreek said..
please don't forget that everyone is different.

Yes you are right, I should have been more nuanced...
Although I would argue that on your photos, if you could prone paddle, you would have started paddling a bit earlier and faster, enough to reach the wave before it broke :-)

BTW, I was wondering if a regular knee paddler like you tried to slightly stagger his/her knees to have more control of the rocking motion?

I also do a bunch of knee paddling, despite the warnings, as I can get out there quickly (and kookily). But I do give up quickly if the white water is going to be too big. I am an advanced beginner / intermediate. SupboarderPro has a bunch of great videos on how to get out. One is in above in this . It is a paid subscription to get all the vids, but its pretty cool.

Another great resource for me was this Chase Kosterlitz video. I wish I was as composed as he is paddling out. He really focuses on the paddle and bracing with his technique videos, which has been instrumental in getting balance right in the white-water. He also speaks to prone paddling.

bluezonesup.com/2019/02/21/how-to-paddle-out-on-your-sup-surf-board/

I also love his J-Stroke video, that I am using more and more.
bluezonesup.com/2018/11/08/sup-surf-paddling-technique-to-catch-waves-and-paddle-out/

And this one on popping up:
bluezonesup.com/2019/01/14/popping-up-on-your-sup-surf-board/

A quick fun session on waves that were tricky to catch (mixed swells)

shi thouse said..
^^^^^love it, thanks for posting. You riding anything longer in those waves Colas? Reckon a longer board would have done the trick in that kind of wave.

You can ride basically anything in these fun-sized waves, so whatever you like best would work.
I prefer short boards, so I even resold recently my longSUP, and now my longest board is 8'4", but one of the pleasure of Surfing is try to see how a board work and make it work at its best. So yes, definitely, you could have used a longer board... or a shorter one :-)

Here is my secret for enjoying a session, even if the waves are not so good: listen to Martha Raye's "Watch the Birdie" on the way to the spot, and have the tune in your head to rhythm your rides!

Enjoy!

surfinJ said..
it looks like some camera lens upgrading in the vid. Tomorrow early should be the same.

We went from the Sony cx130e to the Panasonic HC-V180, a nice cheap camcorder with a x60 optical zoom.

Watch the Birdie.... really fun video, and excellent surfing, dark handsome man