Hi everyone,

today I did a small downwinder . well actually there was not much wind but sometimes the tail of the board pulled left or right. because of that I lost balance and fell in the water a few times.
is there a trick to prevent this? (stand more backwards? bend the knees more? or just go faster?)
here we don't get big swells. mostly very short waveperiod and choppy sea.
thanks
charlie

SupCharlie. This squiggle feeling occurs on all boards to an extent. It is due to the action of water moving in multiple directions at once. In my experience and it put me off initially too, is that the action of the board needs to be absorbed in the lower body as much as possible while keeping the upper body as quite as possible. We have many joints down there to "go with the movement". This takes a bit of conscious practise and is worth the effort.

thanks I'll try to focus on that next time.
after a long period of training on flat water and focussing on paddle technique this almost felt like starting all over again.
my hart rate monitor showed 160 and I was hardly moving forward. I think it was just because I had trouble standing up because of the chop.
next week a 10km race in our choppy sea over here in Belgium...

I wonder if it's the nose catching and pulling left or right rather than the tail.

I wonder if your rails are catching and doing what's called opposite rail turning.

I wonder if your tail is lifting and your fin is either not big enough or too close to the tail.

I wonder what type of board you were on.. and where you were standing on it.

I wonder if you were not dragging your paddle when you need to.

It's hard to answer your question because it could be so many things.

Downwinding it tricky stuff.. I've been doing it for years and I'm still trying to get my head around it..

DJ

Hi DJ,
thanks I also wonder about some of these these things ...
I have a 2012 SB race ast 27.5 x 12.6
my weight is 75kg
upwind went better and I was standing more in front.
downwind I felt way more unstable and was standing 1 to 2 foot more to the back where the handles are.

also in what way would the same race board in brushed carbon construction react in the same conditions?
is it more nervous because there is less weight?
just being curious(will get my 2014 all star in october

charlie

G'day Charlie
To answer your question it's a lot easier to surf your Downwind SUP. Keep your 12'6'' for BOP get a bigger Sup if you wana have Bulk Fun Down-winding. The more you can get on the tail the faster you will go with control & it will help you catch the glide longer. I'm always cramping up in the right thigh for being in surf stance for to long & loving it.
A Little Glide on a 17'4'' SIC Bullet Maliko

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SupCharlie said..

Hi DJ,
thanks I also wonder about some of these these things ...
I have a 2012 SB race ast 27.5 x 12.6
my weight is 75kg
upwind went better and I was standing more in front.
downwind I felt way more unstable and was standing 1 to 2 foot more to the back where the handles are.

also in what way would the same race board in brushed carbon construction react in the same conditions?
is it more nervous because there is less weight?
just being curious(will get my 2014 all star in october

charlie

Hi Charlie.. I've used the old Starboard Race on a downwinder once and it goes great.. It's one of the better boards out there for downwinding.. It's a slight improvement on the older SurfRace.. You will notice a big improvement with the new AllStar.. With your Race it's a big mistake IMO to stand back of the normal standing position unless you're dropping into a runner.. To catch them you will often need to be slightly forward of the normal standing area and quickly move back once you've caught it.. But not too far back or you will stall the board.. As far as the differences between the normal boards and the lighter brushed carbon boards I don't think you will notice much difference once on the water and paddling.. Lighter boards are more obviously better when lifting them onto the roof of your car.. On the water they can be accelerated slightly quicker but because there is less momentum they often decelerate quicker also.. They are also more likely to tumble down the beach in the wind or flip after a fall on the water.. They are often more fragile.. So lighter is better.. But it's not all good IMO.. .. I've ordered my new 14' Glide in the GS (heavy version) to save a few bucks and don't mind the extra effort lifting it onto the roof of my car.. Have you ordered the dark grey brushed carbon or the new blue with stripes ast version?

DJ

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SupCharlie said..

Hi DJ,
thanks I also wonder about some of these these things ...
I have a 2012 SB race ast 27.5 x 12.6
my weight is 75kg
upwind went better and I was standing more in front.
downwind I felt way more unstable and was standing 1 to 2 foot more to the back where the handles are.

also in what way would the same race board in brushed carbon construction react in the same conditions?
is it more nervous because there is less weight?
just being curious(will get my 2014 all star in october

charlie

hi charlie i had the sb racex 27.5 in carbon and they are a pretty good dw board. what i did was put in a jamie mitchelle fin. i also cut out the back section fitting lug of that fin and re pinned it so i could get the fin further back over the back of the box. it surfed straighter with more control and same with the dw ing.


personally i'm over narrow board for dw ing. i purchased a gerry lopez 14' er x 28'. i'm going much better, i can paddle the whole time with no paddle checks.

so much better now to the extent of getting in front a mate on a bullet which i couldn't do on my other narrow 14'ers.

which has leads me to soon getting a new 1202 carbon race x 29.5 on a special price- old stock

they go really well and that extra width is going to allow me control and constant paddling power

Hi downwinder, that 17'4" looks good. it look as if you are going downhill. Over here in our 'little' north sea we never get this kind of swell.
well maybe sometimes but then it's 50knots on shore...
I think I stand to far back because I'm not sure how deep the nose can punch in the water and I don't want to fall off.
more sessions will make me more confident I hope.

Hi DJ, I ordered a 12.6 x 25.5 and on the pictures the 2014 brushed carbon looks dark blue with red line from nose to tail.
I hope it's not to thin but I suppose I will get used to it.
I also do a lot of flat water sessions so that's why I took this width.
it's always a bit of a gamble to choose a certain board size because over here you don't have any demo boards and few people have race boards so you can't try one from someone. Infact last weekend there was a race and there were only two guys with a race board...
so I took a 10.4 surfsup I borrowed from someone to make it fair.the sport has to grow a lot in belgium but in france, germany and the netherlands it's really booming.
the lighter board will be easyer to put on my van that's true but also when it's low tide over here you must do a 500m walk with the board...

hi lacey, I think I will keep my fin as it is but thanks for the info. I might have a buyer for my raceboard so that way I get some cash for my new board.
our starboard distributer was out of carbon raceboards so I was too late but I had a good price because of my pre-order ( I work in a surfshop so that helps .

thanks everyone

charlie

Some of this is probably just you getting used to downwinding and/or the particular handling of the board. Specialist DW boards are SO much easier...

But in my experience the first thing you should try is a bigger fin. First try a pivot style one, the biggest you can find. Sometimes pushing the fin further forward in the box helps as well because it will allow you to turn the board more easily when this happens.

In general, the advice you will get will be to use small fins to reduce drag. But sometimes in rippy shallow short period conditions you just have to have enough area and depth in your fin to hold the rear in and give you the control you need. What may work in Hawaii where the water is very deep and there is virtually no tidal range, may not work in coastal Europe where tidal ranges can several metres (it is 5 metres at my local beach, but about 30 centimetres in Hawaii) and some places in Europe you are DWing in water not much more than 20 feet deep. So you may need to experiment quite a bit to find the right fin for you, your board, and your local conditions. But my general advice is to start big - really big by Hawaii standards - and decrease the size as you get more comfortable. It can make a huge difference. Good luck!