ShortSUPs, the technique

Riding a short SUP (6' range) is technical and you’ll obviously need to pick the conditions and go out in no wind or flat water to learn the ropes all over again. As many of us dicovered at the first testing of the 2011 range in Palavas mid-november they need a special technique, otherwise you cannot even paddle in a straight line, with no hope of taking off on a wave. We were lucky to had a lesson by Patrice Guenolé himself on Sunday teaching "peyo" (85kg) his first ShortSUP lesson (on the red miapolis 6'8", and a grey 5'7" proto). Click on the image for the video:

Riding a ShortSUP is actually doable by everybody of all weight and ages, with these advises:

Firstly you must position your front foot on the rail ahead of the pad, and your back foot as far back as possible on the opposing rail, all your weight should be on your front leg and both feet must face forward, especially the back foot.
All your weight should be on the front foot. this is key, a bit like a fencing position: rear foot far back, but all your weight on the front foot.
Lean your torso forward, the goal is to play with your balance by raising and lowering your torso without standing up straight. When you stand up straight you put weight on your back leg and will stall and sink the board this is why you must stay in a forward leaning position at all times. Having a very short stiff paddle (your height or shorter) is of the essence.
During the paddle stroke you’ll have to dig the paddle in as far ahead as possible at 45 degrees, pull back gently towards the rail, and progressively increase power as the blade goes along the rail (see diagram below)
This technique is essential when using a short SUP, varying the power in order to avoid going in circles means you can’t put as much juice into it as your conventional SUP, this is the reason ShortSUPs have a slow paddle speed on the flat: you cannot apply power as on a longer SUP.
Once you are used to using this movement, you will be able to play with the 3D equilibrium that makes the short SUP experience, changing the angle of the board not only sideways but also forwards/backwards.
Find the correct angle of attack of the board into the water according to your chosen board’s rockerline, and you will soon start moving and the row effect will diminish, after this the main challenge is to keep the correct angle of the board in check.
When catching waves, you do not switch sides with the paddle as this will hinder your 3D balance on the board. when going for a wave you are facing straight out to sea, and you take off in 5 paddle strokes: 3 to turn around, 2 to get on the wave. If you have turned too much and you need to compensate by paddling on the other side you don’t switch the paddle round, but rather do a small stroke on the opposing side without changing hands.
When going for a wave on a short SUP the goal is not to get speed paddling into it, but simply to help pop the board out of the water when the wave lifts you to take off, the nose will sometimes pop or pearl under briefly but stay with it and it will pop out again once you’re shooting down the face.
You need to put as much weight forward as possible to make the board drop in the wave face and accelerate, but not at the start of the paddling strokes.

When first trying a short SUP, the use of big fins will help a lot with stability!!!

The only other words of wisdom would be short SUP’s turn off the rail like a surfboard not off the tail like conventional larger SUP’s

In the 2011 range, The "Wombats" (Faking & Mutant) and the "Eggs" (OD & Shake)
can still somewhat be used with the standard SUP technique, especially for
lighter riders, but they work much better with this technique, and the same
can be said for the 7'7" Nanogene in the former range.

(translated from my post on http://www.gongsup.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1567, with many thanks to of Marc at supgower http://www.supgower.com/2010/11/ )

Here are some tips to be able to paddle hard on ShortSUPs (less than 7')

Try to imagine a nail (grey on the picture) sticking the tail of the board in the water at the position of the front fins. The board will pivot around it.
Paddling normally (pink arrow) means the push will go right of the nail, making the board go left: the row effect you want to suppress
What you want is to direct your effort more towards the board, so that the push follow the green arrow that hits the nail or go left of it. This way, the board goes straight, or even turns towards the paddle, even if you apply all your forces
You are actually limited in paddle travel range by the board, so you must apply all the effort in less than a foot (blue part of the green arrow), then let the paddle move along the rail and get it out of the water as soon as possible. The paddle blade seem to go through a comma or C shaped trajectory, hence the name of "C stroke" (although actually the blade does not move in the water, it is your body that moves around it)
If the board is not moving, the nail is about the middle of the board, so for the first stroke, you should exaggerate and make the arrow go through the carrying handle, but once the board moves, even a little bit, the fins grip and the nail "moves" back to the tail. On longer SUPs, the nail is so far back that the arrow naturally goes through it, this is why it is easy to counter the row effect on longer SUPs, and why if you move the fin back, you have less row: you have moved the nail with the fin. Note also that beginners will always have row as long as they row parallel to the board (pink arrow), even with a 1-mile SUP, their arrow will never meet the nail.
ShortSUPs are very sensitive to body weight longitudinally, so you must move back on the board to lift the nose before applying power, which will push the nose in the water
For take off, use the same kind of technique: get in surf position on the trim line of the wave, and "jump into action" with one big powerful stroke going through the nail. All the weight on the front foot, rear foot as far back as the wave is powerful, even on the tail block for extra late take offs
Very important: practice on flat water before trying it in the waves,and begin with small, gentle waves!

Note: the paddle is nearly one foot too long, it was a borrowed one. The paddle length should be your height, no more. The board is a Gong Angel 6'4" 2011, 111 liters for my 100kg.

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Gong 2012: 6'8" Mia/Fatal 116 proto,6'8" One 125, 7'11" Hit 120, 8'0" AS, 8'3" Empire
Pagaies: Palika, Kenu, Surf, - Demandez tests & conseils!
A Vendre: Pagaie Kenu 167cm, A venir: Proto mini simmons SUP 6'10", Proto Perv 9'3"

Coolas,
by your advices.. shortsup will be extra easy for all very soon !!!
Perfect explications...
my compliments

Very Happy

Filippo

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GONG forever
JVB custom 6,6 - fatal 105 sp - 6.11 Faking 2012 - hit 102 sp - final 105 sp - 8.4 Painy 2012- 9.0 Zero 2011 - 9.2 freak 110 6.2 ouinouin
Gong carbon surf - Salt Paddle Kenu - Salt Paddle Palika

Actually, most of my "knowledge" comes from Patrice "The Bear" Guénolé. I often just analyze and put into words and images what he taught us in his various posts.

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Gong 2012: 6'8" Mia/Fatal 116 proto,6'8" One 125, 7'11" Hit 120, 8'0" AS, 8'3" Empire
Pagaies: Palika, Kenu, Surf, - Demandez tests & conseils!
A Vendre: Pagaie Kenu 167cm, A venir: Proto mini simmons SUP 6'10", Proto Perv 9'3"

Alena shows us the proper technique to take off on a ShortSUP: all the weight on the front foot, flexed in a "fencing" stance, shoulders projected into the slope, rear foot far behind to counter any tendency to move the body back when the board is pushed by the wave. Note that she applies this technique on all kinds of SUPs now (here a 7'6")

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Gong 2012: 6'8" Mia/Fatal 116 proto,6'8" One 125, 7'11" Hit 120, 8'0" AS, 8'3" Empire
Pagaies: Palika, Kenu, Surf, - Demandez tests & conseils!
A Vendre: Pagaie Kenu 167cm, A venir: Proto mini simmons SUP 6'10", Proto Perv 9'3"

Thanks Coolas, the descriptions and photo on this Forum and on Standupzone have been really helpful to lots of people, certainly helped me a lot with my Faking 6'11.
it's amazing how it can catch very small waves, which is lucky as we have had very little for weeks!!! but it looks good soon

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Caribou 8'3 Empire, Gong Bamby Faking 6'11, Salt Paddle Palika,
Ambassador -south west area U.K.

Yup these faking are incredible, they can take off on really small waves, and shine once on the wave.

It is so adapted to our gutless mediterranean waves that Patsurf06 and me do not use anymore "longboard" SUPs in smal;l conditions, as we do not have the long, malibu-style waves to really enjoy these boards anymore once you have tasted the faking magic!

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Gong 2012: 6'8" Mia/Fatal 116 proto,6'8" One 125, 7'11" Hit 120, 8'0" AS, 8'3" Empire
Pagaies: Palika, Kenu, Surf, - Demandez tests & conseils!
A Vendre: Pagaie Kenu 167cm, A venir: Proto mini simmons SUP 6'10", Proto Perv 9'3"

The 9'9 Freak works well here, but I think the Faking will be incredible on this, incredible maybe-different definitely, it's been flat for two weeks, Wednesday and Thursday could be good, I will try to get some photos, and some ideas on how the Faking paddles into shoulder to head high.
Paddling out will be interesting as we get a lot of whitewater here !!
"I'll report back captain"

By jonysan at 2012-05-21
-Saunton, South West UK

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Caribou 8'3 Empire, Gong Bamby Faking 6'11, Salt Paddle Palika,
Ambassador -south west area U.K.

photoshop ? Smile

looks like a 12' could catch the wave 1/2 mile from the shore !!!

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9' NFA VI Mr. Green

& 8'3 REM

Carbon Curl 2012 & S.A.L.T Palika

On steeper waves, to handle the wide tail of the faking, you will have to be sure to put the board on the rail, easiest way is to have the rear foot on the tail kickpad

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Gong 2012: 6'8" Mia/Fatal 116 proto,6'8" One 125, 7'11" Hit 120, 8'0" AS, 8'3" Empire
Pagaies: Palika, Kenu, Surf, - Demandez tests & conseils!
A Vendre: Pagaie Kenu 167cm, A venir: Proto mini simmons SUP 6'10", Proto Perv 9'3"

Coolas, that seems like a good method, even in small waves the acceleration is quick, so more weigh on the tail, digging the rear corner into the wave, especially when it's big I think will be the way to go,
thanks for that advice.
Have you noticed that the Faking, and maybe most shortsups seem able to take-off at quite a tight angle to the wave?

Pierem, No PhotoShop, but certainly an unusual day, on a big day with lots of breaking waves there can be 6 or 7 lines of whitewater before getting "out the back" hard work!!

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Caribou 8'3 Empire, Gong Bamby Faking 6'11, Salt Paddle Palika,
Ambassador -south west area U.K.

	jonysan wrote:
	Have you noticed that the Faking, and maybe most shortsups seem able to take-off at quite a tight angle to the wave?

Yes, the low inertia of the ShortSUP grants them a kind of "instant on" behavior on takeoff, you can nearly take off directly on the trim line.

The Faking is especially good at this: its wide outline make the rails grab very nicely the wave face, the boards just moves forward without sliding as if on rails.

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Gong 2012: 6'8" Mia/Fatal 116 proto,6'8" One 125, 7'11" Hit 120, 8'0" AS, 8'3" Empire
Pagaies: Palika, Kenu, Surf, - Demandez tests & conseils!
A Vendre: Pagaie Kenu 167cm, A venir: Proto mini simmons SUP 6'10", Proto Perv 9'3"

Well, I've studied the method for 4 month. Today I'll try for the first time the OD. Stay turned to know what happens this afternoon!

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Umberto

SUP: OD 7'2, 8'3 Empire
Surf: 6'4 PIE
Paddles: Carbon Surf, Kenu, Curl

Good luck, and be sure to report all your feelings, it will help others a lot!

_________________
Gong 2012: 6'8" Mia/Fatal 116 proto,6'8" One 125, 7'11" Hit 120, 8'0" AS, 8'3" Empire
Pagaies: Palika, Kenu, Surf, - Demandez tests & conseils!
A Vendre: Pagaie Kenu 167cm, A venir: Proto mini simmons SUP 6'10", Proto Perv 9'3"

Umberto, the first time(s) can be surprising/frustrating/disappointing, but it is only a matter of time, and you'll make it, no worries.
Do not hesitate to practice the "half-turn and take-off in fencing position" on flat water, it will be useful. A common mistake for me, was to be in surfing, instead of fencing position. In the fencing position, my front foot is facing forward, pointing to the nose (and not lateral, pointing toward the rail), and that helps me a lot to put power in the paddle, and drive the board forward with enough speed and energy for the take-off, with relatively little row.

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1m88, 78kgs - Shake 7'4 2012 - Vulcan 8'11 - Spirit 10'11 - Paddle Gong Carbon Mix 180, Carbon Floater 190 & Salt Palika 200
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