Standing up on a small SUP

Hi, I had a question on how to stand up on a short SUP (any size actually, as long as it is one you are not - yet - comfortable with). Here are my answers:

There 3 tricks to understand:

- Sinking is not really the problem. The problem is the instability while sinking, either with a "dead leaf" effect if the board sinks flat, where it will try to "flee" from your weight on one side or the other. Try to dig the board on one side to control where it will sink, the easiest being the rear side, so try not to have the board flat but with the nose raised.
If you bury the nose this means you are too far forward on the board, sink this tail!
Yes, this means the board will push water when paddling, and you will paddle slower than with the nose close to the water... but believe me, better to be slow than to be underwater :-)

- A bit of speed will make wonders, so just paddle 2-3 strokes prone before trying to stand up, and grab you paddle to begin paddling as soon as possible, even if not properly (both hands on the shaft, etc...). And try to always paddle a bit. be wary that going backwards (pushed by the wind) will have the opposite, catastrophic, effect of making your board sink fast

- The paddle in the water will provide an invaluable "3rd leg", try to never keep your paddle in the air more than needed

And of course, knees bent and weight on the ball of your feet (not on the heels), and the rear foot a bit moved backwards are general tricks for keeping your balance.

Great tips, Colas! One of the very first tips I was given when I started on SUP was to get a little mo' (momentum) before trying to stand up. Invaluable! And keeping your stick in the water is critical for these small shapes. All good advice. Thanks Colas, you yourself are an invaluable resource on here. Grateful for all you contribute!

i have a Sunova Speeed 7'11" x 26" and 94 litres. I weigh 82 kgs plus wet suit and paddle. i was out for a couple of hours 2 days ago in dumping waves and an offshore breeze of 10 to 20 knots. I use all of Colas' points from above to keep me moving. One thing I noticed was how much more of a work out it is compared to my normal board. i could feel it in my legs, back and shoulders. Normally i would have had no pain. They do say no pain, no gain.

Once on a wave the smaller size is not an issue. it just goes better.

The only other point I could add is that I belly paddle through the shore break. This may be like cheating however it means i can last longer on the water. On a board like this a small movement makes a big difference. Bending the knees and using the paddle help in recovering from possible falls.

Look at my extraordinary paddling position as Marie said holding and commenting this video ; demo:

This board is 6'5" <28" 85 liters and I weight 79 kg ( beers and rhum included)

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Thanks Jhon. I hope it's work now.

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Kami said..
Look at my extraordinary paddling position as Marie said holding and commenting this video ; demo:

This board is 6'5" <28" 85 liters and I weight 79 kg ( beers and rhum included)

Thanks for sharing Kami. It is interesting to see someone on such a short board where you can easily see the position of their feet. I can't believe such a short board is still floating. I am 10 kg more, but that looks like my Minion (7'10 x 29" 124 ltr) in terms of buoyancy. (Maybe I do ride higher - I have not seen film from the beach with expert commentary before )

Also you feet are wider than I expected, and less staggered than I expected they would need to be.

They are nice conditions. Do you have that much control when it gets a bit choppy?

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Grenfell said..
Jesus that's one alarming pair of lycra's!

I wanted to get sunburn to say back home that I have been surfing and nor drinking beers and rhum listening music in the shade, as I really do in fact thanks to reward me.

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cantSUPenough said..
Thanks for sharing Kami. It is interesting to see someone on such a short board where you can easily see the position of their feet. I can't believe such a short board is still floating. I am 10 kg more, but that looks like my Minion (7'10 x 29" 124 ltr) in terms of buoyancy. (Maybe I do ride higher - I have not seen film from the beach with expert commentary before )

Also you feet are wider than I expected, and less staggered than I expected they would need to be.

They are nice conditions. Do you have that much control when it gets a bit choppy?

Thanks to Marie my friend's wife to comment her video with so much fun as she does for anything in life

Usually I'm more staged feet instead of that goat position, on this sequence I was just entering water so I was not warm up getting a bit stiffer position than I use to do after few minutes. As well note short paddle I have . I bought it in second hand condition and the owner stuck the yellow grip too low on the paddle shaft. It's a bit too low when i'm getting my hand down the shaft while bending my knees during paddle strokes to cath the wave. I have to remove this grip.
About Balance, again I do reckon that balance is not a fact of buoyancy . Balance is a fact of where buoyancy has been distributed over the shaped board. So Your 90kg should be confort on a 100 liters Minion's. I say Minion because what I say would be not true on a pointed nose board.
When choppy condition this place on the video here is very tricky because there is a rip coming from and cross the shore so the trick is to stay front of the wind chop and turn to the wave and through the cross rip but it's doable and very good exercice for my poor legs. This is why I love short SUP , surfing is a challenge and victory is more tasty that way

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Jeroensurf said..
Interesting to see that you make the transistion to surfstance when you allready have momentum while I learned to do that before that to prevent the wave passes under you. and impressive how much speed you create straight away.

Yes, an other shortSUP purpose is to create instant glide and speed already the wave crest is showing off.
Here an other wave later on than the first one posted up here with a bit of warming up too

I would love to try on a really small board, just to see what it is like. 128 ltrs is the smallest I have tried. Good in calm conditions, and a bit of a struggle to confidently control well enough to catch waves in choppy conditions. (6'3" 90 kg)

(And I did not mean my comments to be a criticism - just wanted to know how on earth you ride such a short board!)

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cantSUPenough said..
I would love to try on a really small board, just to see what it is like. 128 ltrs is the smallest I have tried. Good in calm conditions, and a bit of a struggle to confidently control well enough to catch waves in choppy conditions. (6'3" 90 kg)

(And I did not mean my comments to be a criticism - just wanted to know how on earth you ride such a short board!)

In truth take me one full season to learn enough tricks to stand on it . Can be due to my age and have been my right shoulder in heavy surgery too. Took me 4 years to cure and paddle both side efficiently. And I still learn tricks during any new session
This is not so easy as do think this cool local guy same weight as me who did think it was easy to catch wave further out than him.
He tried it at least , many other proned surfers should try before been against SUP in its all.