I took a leap of faith and downsized from 9 foot to 7 4. As generally happens with new boards surfs been rubbish ,took it out in some nor east slop and managed to paddle into one on my feet , finally got another paddle this morning was cleanish but backwash and rippy made it hard to stand but paddled into a few , pretty pumped with how it felt on a wave looking forward to some clean conditions.
I found that standing with my feet offset a bit sorta surf stance helped with stability / was hard to find a sweet spot when standing normal sup stance
Also found myself holding the paddle well down the shaft when paddling for a wave / is maybe a shorter paddle the go for shorter surf orientated boards
Any feedback on these couple of points or paddling short boards in general much appreciated

Cheers Pat

As JeanG said, cut your paddle to your height. On a short SUP you bend your knees more, plus the longer the paddle, the more you tend to hold it diagonally (and not straight in a vertical plane), which increases row.

Also, practice A LOT of flat water before going in the waves.

More hints:
www.gong-galaxy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1623&start=0 (nearly 5 years ago... how time flies...)
www.gongsup.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=77774#p77774

You can see my takeoff position in my videos /videos : fencing, shoulders facing forwards, weight on the front foot, rear foot back, farther and farther to match the wave power, and you drop in the wave by kneeling rather than frantic paddling: to overcome the "bump" of the wave and fall into the wave face, I often touch the deck with my rear knee.

Hi Paperboy, welcome to the new world
Please, follow what Colas, JeanG and Pete said .
My input is: paddle length will be length needed to get the top of shaft at head length and paddle in water as Colas did show on his picture up there.
The length will be up to the body position you can afford. It will take times to get it . So cut shorter and shorter shaft of your paddle progressively until you get an optimum paddling position as Colas did. Like JeanG said " practice"
Personally, during my last SUPing trip with 6'5" 28" , took me 2 weeks of daily sessions to be in physical shape and able to stand the perfect paddling position. I use to do stretching along improvement lower body strength to perform this training.
Once you get the proper paddling position and your own paddle length , this is a new world of surfing opened to you.
So follow and practice what the shortSUP chaps said

Shortened paddle under head high worth with volume board equaling your weight, because you already your feet flush to water level.
So won't worth it on volume 8'8"*32" even at 90 kg because you need to bend on your knee and torso with amphasis and uselessly. In your condition i reckon <10 cm head high will allow you to bend knees and being forcefully on paddling in a surf stance as Colas show on his picture up there .
Please, beware than second purpose to shorten paddle is to get a surfing stance to paddle for taking off with back foot on tail block, ready to drop in


Personnaly paddling back out proned most of the time on my 6'9" or 6'5". I save my energy this way to surf harder. if i stand up to paddling back, i stay upright paddling quietly with hands at lower than torso level.

cantSUPenough said..
All great advice - thanks!

You're absolutely right though, you get more power when you are down low, and if you have your feet in the right position you are in a better position to handle whatever the wave does.

I clearly need to get serious and move to a small board. I am not ready for a 6'9" or probably anything under 8', but that's for another thread.

No, you are ready to practice. So if you are 90kg tall guy, take 7'4" 29" 105 liters. If smaller than tall take 7' one versus.
Why to get your back foot already on tail block, front foot already centered and paddle stick in the wave face towing in the whole thing while taking off. Which that stance i'm please you got it
After practising sometime which is fun anyway, you will shred and have a lot of fun at small waves condition in place of cruising on 8'8" 32" .

Go for short SUP board NOW

JeanG said..
Not sure I can get on board with getting the feet spread apart when paddling, nor with getting weight low. Sounds too tiring and unstable. I prefer to keep more upright and get at shoulder distance - albeit staggered. Nice and natural. Smooth. Relaxing. I get in a more athletic stance to climb over waves etc but like to stay natural whenever I can.

Obviously when getting on a wave I put my rear foot back but only way on the block if I'm making a late drop.

I agree with you, i'm paddling as i explain only for several strokes to a minimum of 3 to catch on late drop. And well, i don't get my foot on the tail block but as you said " way on".
saying more about , my challenge is to centered both feet before paddling strokes to get ready for anything which can happens dropping late and further on the wave.
The best trick is to dive the back of the board, then to get 3 paddling stroke on the buoyancy bounce and late dropping in...

Thank you to comment what i try to say because my english doesn't allows me to say all my thoughts.

SeaBreezers , sorry about trolling some times others topics as well with my bad english speaking,.

Well explain Colas . I add that it's almost relaxing to paddle out that way you said.

My friend from Reunion island just send me pictures of him when he have a go on my 6'9" 28 at Lacanau during our Nothern summer. He was surfing is shortest 7'11'' before demo my board.
Now he become a shortSUP addict:

On the length, most of the riders I know have now a paddle their size or shorter. Mika has it at his eyebrows, but he rides powerful waves in Cabo Verde...