After surfing for many weeks at famous surfing spots in Laguna Beach: Thalia Street, Rockpile Beach, Newport Beach, San Clemente, and Trestles, I realized that my surf paddling could use improvement.
I discovered Rob, a local surf trainer, teaches proper surf paddling techniques. He runs a website called surfingpaddling.com. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and offers online and private lessons.
I contacted Rob and discussed various training options, selecting the Level-1 Paddling Technique 4-session bundle.
4 sessions (~3 hrs each): Pool, Ocean 1, Pool/Lagoon, Ocean 2
Included:
- Level 1 Paddling Technique Lessons and Coaching
- Before/After Paddling Analysis
- LIFETIME Access to the Surfing Paddling Academy Level 1 Online Course. Begins after the last session.
- Guided Drill and Practice
- Breathing for Paddling
- Commentary and Practice Assignments for Continued Practice
- Two Ocean Application Sessions
- One additional Level 1 Technique Coaching Session
I purchased it on October 21, 2020. I look forward to improving my training in the upcoming sessions.
My first surf paddling session has been scheduled for Sunday, October 25, 2020, from 13:30 to 17:00 in Novato, CA.
Saturday, October 2, 2021
This was my 4th and final surf paddling session with Rob Case at Linda Mar in Pacifica. I have never surfed here before, so I was excited about the opportunity to experience surfing here.
When I arrived at 08:00, Rob was already in his wetsuit and ready to go. After changing into my 4/3mm Promotion wetsuit, I waxed my Firewire Spitfire 6'6" surfboard.
We surfed on the southern side of the beach. I caught one nice ride but continued to practice take-off techniques.
Main Points:
1. When you feel the wave picking you up, paddle hard for 3 strokes and move your head down!
Hi Boris,
Great day today. We covered a lot of various Level 1 and Level 2 concepts.
Summary:
- Your regular efficiency stroke looked good. That a testament to your practice and focus. You were efficient and there was speed, even on that 6’6”
- Continue to practice the wave catching sequence: momentum builders (strokes, cork technique, sculling) + 3-stroke burst.
- Practice the sequence in flatwater – watch your entry point to make sure you are entering at the tape.
- Practice the sequence outside of the waves – time the 3-stroke burst with the lift from a swell, knowing you won’t be able to catch it.
- Practice the sequence a little closer to the impact zone.
- Timing: set up so that your 3-stroke burst happens right as the wave lifts the tail of the board. Anticipate the moment right before this in your mind so that your arms react on time.
- Good energy management. Remember, when a bigger set arrives, it’s sometimes better to turn and head towards the beach to remove yourself from the impact zone (for waves 2, 3, …). Once the ocean calms down, you can head out, or walk around to a different paddle out location. Smarter, not harder, in everything we do in the water.
Keep up the good work and let me know if you have any questions. I’ll put you on the surf skate list as well so hopefully we’ll catch up in person soon.
I’ll be sure to follow up in a few weeks to see how things are going.
Assignments:
- Watch the beginning 3 videos in Module 1 in the Online Course to get an overview (Discover the Fundamentals, The MAP REVEALED!, Muscle Memory Method Overview).
- Module 1 –
- Watch Step 1: Get Horizontal
- Visual Cue: Keep the nose of the board at the surface of the water on average to cut the frontal drag.
- Once positioned in the sweet spot range of the board, practice using the other techniques to modify horizontal balance while you paddle (head, feet/legs, chest press). This is supercritical. If the nose rises more than an inch above the surface, use these techniques to drive it back down. If it goes below the water's surface more than an inch, use these techniques to bring the nose back up. The goal will be to keep it at the water's surface to an inch above average.
- Practice - Step 1 Drill 1: Horizontal Balance Drill Dryland out of the water on an exercise ball.
- Practice - Step 1 Drill 3: Horiz. Balance Advanced Dryland
- Practice – attached thoracic spine exercises to 1. Increase mobility in your thoracic range. 2. Increase endurance
- Feel free to contact Jim Cegelnik, DPT, with any questions about these exercises. Just mention you are taking the Level 1 course from me, and he can provide some assistance.
- Watch Step 2: Keep It Together
- Practice – feet together, using the lower back and glutes to control lateral balance control.
- Module 2 –
- Watch Step 3: It's All About The Entry
- Good hand entry form. Continue to slice the water, and make sure the fingers enter first.
- Practice Entry Point – 8-12 inches in front of your face. Mindful practice for now. Use tape or stickers at that location to remind your brain subconsciously.
- Practice Entry Angle - 10-15 degree entry angle for shortboards using the efficiency stroke. This angle is the water's surface to your elbow (with no broken wrist). Elevate the elbow and drive it forward underwater to break frontal drag. Slice through the water!
- Watch Step 4: Making Magic Happen
- Practice Drill: Catch-Up - Enter and extend. Be streamlined.
- Progress from a 2-second pause between strokes to a 1-second pause to simply replacing the hand in front with the other.
- Work on moving between the various “gears” (gears 1-3 for efficiency stroke) like on a car.
- Module 3 –
- Watch Step 5: The Clock We Need To Be Able to Understand – we will cover this more in the next session.
- WATCH Dryland Underwater Armstroke Drill SPECIAL. We will cover this more in the next session.
- Watch Breathing For Paddling Mini-Course (it is one of the Bonuses in the Online course):
- Exhaling slows the heart rate
- The belly breathes from the diaphragm.
- Meter your exhale, like blowing out through a straw, controlled.
- Practice 2 counts inhale, 6 counts exhale on land.
- Practice land activities such as walking, jogging, rowing, etc., and try to maintain 2 in, 6 out. Progress to 2 in 4 out when under more exertion and 2 into 2 out at max exertion.
- Practice land activity – medium to high exertion, go to the ground on the stomach, and practice slowing the heart rate down while in a paddling position.
- Practice while paddling the above rhythm in sync with paddling strokes
- Try to exhale when applying force and inhale in between.
- Relaxation pattern (when waiting for waves, at home, not moving):
- 2:00 total (or longer if you like)
- 2 sec inhale
- 2-sec hold
- 10 sec (or longer) exhale
- Relax into this
NEXT SESSION: Sunday, November 15, 2020. Meet me at 8:00 a.m. Location: The Hook, Santa Cruz. Based on conditions, it will be somewhere in between us. I’ll tell you a few days before or even the night before via text and email. In this session, we’ll focus on applying the above techniques to the ocean, focusing on energy conservation, and introducing concepts for the next Pool/Lagoon Session.
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Great day today. Surfing with you was a lot of fun. Here’s a summary of what we discussed, as well as assignments for next time:
- Horizontal balance is coming along. What was really great to see was that your horizontal balance looked better at the end than at the beginning, which means you made unconscious adjustments. Remember, we want the nose between an inch below and above the water for that board. Today was lumpy, so you would have liked it closer to an inch above the water, and in the second half of our session, I saw that more often.
- Practice 20 minutes with your shortboard in every session and catch waves on your longboard for the rest of the time. Continue this every session to get those repetitions in on the shortboard, paddling around and paddling for waves. Then, after about 20-30 minutes, switch onto your longboard and practice the longboard technique of catching waves. Consistency will be essential.
- Focus on the four techniques we’ve worked on so far:
- Horizontal Balance
- Lateral Balance
- Entry
- Lengthening the Vessel
- In this order. Balance is the foundation for everything.
- You can practice your transition to the power paddle stroke (sprint) between waves during a lull. Or, in between waves, you can practice any of the above techniques.
Saturday, May 1, 2021
Hi Boris,
Great
day. Thank you so much for your time and attention. After reviewing
the videos, you can see the improvement (and more will come with
continued practice) – at 1:13 (per 100m) pace on your 6’6”, you took 78
strokes in your baseline paddle. After making a few adjustments, you
took only 61 strokes going the same speed over the same distance (a 22% improvement in stroke efficiency). As a by-product, you increased your distance per stroke by 28%, from 1.28 meters/stroke to 1.64 meters/stroke. Amazing job! It was apparent you practiced well.
To
put this into perspective, you saved the equivalent of about 838
strokes per hour of paddling. A typical 2-hour session has about 1.5
hours of paddling (i.e., 1,257 strokes saved).
Here
is an unlisted playlist of the videos with some commentary from me.
Unlisted means that it can only be viewed with this link and is not
searchable by any search engine. Each individual video is also
unlisted.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBKPSW8fVj2Q1fau_2LopSY-vr6ndMJRA
Please review the videos. These videos remind you of a couple of things we discussed and practiced.
Then, here are your following “assignments” to practice and continue learning. Please continue the other drills from last time and add these -
- Module 3 –
- Watch again Step 5: The Clock We Need To Be Able to Understand
- Practice transition from Lift to Front Propulsive Phase.
- A
hand goes down first, then the forearm, elbow…THEN, you can move your
upper arm backward (with your now vertical forearm and hand).
- Take the hand deep into the stroke at first.
- Progressive force from front to back
- Drop the arm down.
- Practice Dryland Underwater Armstroke Drill SPECIAL, 20 double-arm, 20 single, 20 single, 20 double, 3x per week.
- Slow and controlled
- Backward and forward
- Follow the directions on the video
- If
you practice next to a mirror or video yourself, you’ll be able to
see if your arms are vertical from front to back.
- The progressive force from front to back
- Practice Drill 5: Power Scull - focus on the hand “feeling” the water – not slipping
- Module 4 –
- Practice Drill 2: Fists, alternating 4 strokes fist, 4 regular strokes.
- SurfPT exercises (see PPT for sets and reps for each):
- Thoracic
Spine Extension with Roller (slide 8) – focus on one area of the
thoracic, then move to another once you’ve down all sets and reps
- Thoracic Spine open books (slide 9) – keep the knee down, only available to tension, and then return to the starting position
- Lumbar spine prone press (slide 12)
- Lumbar spine open book (slide 13) – maintain and increase that mobility in the lumbar
- Extension
Endurance test (slide 15) – quantifiable test to gauge your progress. Use a ball below your chest. Max, hold before you drop. Set
your own personal best and strive to beat that each time.
- Introduction to Sprint Paddling:
- The technique remains the same except for three things:
- 1. Elimination of Lift Phase, which is the elimination of any glide
- 2. Increase in Stroke Rate – one arm after the other
- 3. Increase in Stroke Force – within each arm stroke and with each sprint stroke – start at 60% and work your way up to only 80% effort by the last stroke.
- A 3-stroke burst is all you need to catch waves
- Take 1-5 regular strokes further out, building your speed
- 3-stroke burst builds also, at the right time (see next)
- BUILD MOMENTUM into the 3-stroke burst sequence
- Timing:
- When the wave lifts your feet, start your 3-stroke burst. Build speed up until that point.
- Be sure to already be moving, so you’ll have to line up further out
- Line
up further out most of the time, and if the wave goes under you, try
again until you find the correct runway. We cover exactly how to find
this in Level 2, but for now, try this out and see what you can do with
it.
- Take no more than the 4 sprint strokes. Ideally, just the 3; if you don’t get it, pull back and work on timing it more.
- Focus on energy conservation and using bursts of energy at the right moment, but no extra energy usage. Be lazy most of the time and expend energy only when necessary.
- FINAL REMARKS:
- Focus on paddling Quality over Quantity
Next to the Ocean session it is focused on the 3-stroke burst and timing along with everything else. Looking forward to it.
Cheers,
Rob
Global Surfing Paddling Technique Expert
Creator of the Surfing Paddling Academy and XSWIM Surfing & Paddling Fitness Program
New Paddling Links
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