My first SUP race was the second ‘Battle of the Paddle.” I had trained for months and was in pretty good shape. My beach start was decent, but after the first lap, my body began to to shut down: first my biceps, then my triceps followed by my shoulders and pecs…then my lower back. It was not fun. I remember this little, round Hawaiian man was laughing at me as he paddled right past me. “You needa technique to paddle mo fasta,” or something like that. He was taking these quick, little strokes…it made no sense. I was clearly, the superior athelete. But, the harder I paddled, the slower I moved it seemed.
I participated in a few more races…and repeatedly got my ass kicked. The same guys kept winning and I couldn’t figure it out.
One day, I ran into my buddy, Joey Calderon. He was paddling this one-man outrigger canoe at our training spot. I asked him if I could take it for a cruise. It was so fast…I loved it! Long story short, I joined the local outrigger canoe club. Interestingly, at these canoe races, were all those guys who embarrassed me on the paddleboard. There must be some sort of correlation here, I thought. And of course there was.
If you can move a canoe through the water, you can sure as hell move a paddleboard. The stroke is almost the same. After all, the SUP is just a modern derivative of the dug out canoe. The Polynesians had this figured out thousands of years ago.
What I learned from paddling canoes is that the power of the stroke does not come from your biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest or lower back. It comes from your core…your lats, legs and obliques.
I will teach this technique to you. Plus, I will show you all kinds of goodies. No matter what level of paddler you are, I bet I can add to what you already know.
