Paddle with Power
How to Paddle with Power
The Stroke
1. Twist your upper body slightly to reach forward and slide the paddle into the water with your bottom arm straight and your top arm "cocked" for a knock out punch.
2. Upper arm does the work as you push forward and down, the upper arm will end the stroke straight with the hand slightly above belly button height.
3. The lower arm remains straight through-out forcing you to twist your body, turn your head to watch as you slide the paddle sideways out of the water.
The Return
4. Describe an arc - Lower arm remains straight - paddle slides out and never comes above knee height as it swings in a half circle, your body twists until the blade is as far forward as you can reach. (ready to begin "The Stroke 1")
5. Blade slips back into the water. Each stroke is long and deep, the paddle creates almost no splash as it enters and leaves the water. Straight line stroke, half circle re-load. Bottom arm never bends, top arm pushes/drives down and forward. Half way through the stroke the hands are in vertical alignment.
How to Paddle Straight
1. At the end of your power stroke - try putting more weight on one foot or the other. Notice how you engage the rail of the board and the board turns towards that rail?
2. As we paddle the board has a tendency to turn away from that side. There are 2 main ways to counter this.
3. Put more weight on the foot that is on the same side as the side you are paddling on. Also the "J stroke" - which involves pushing the paddle away from the board at the end of the stroke, this turns the nose of the board into back into the stroke.
4. Dont over do it. - To paddle efficiently you need to correct only just enough, over correcting, like splashing is a waste of energy.
Note: the sequence shown in the GIF above was filmed paddling into an extremely strong current, so the strokes had to be done very fast. (to prevent drifting backwards while the paddle was not in the water) That is why there is no time to twist the upper body, and the lower arm is not fully straight. It does show that tremendous force can be generated with good technique.