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Firstly, it's important to understand that your balance and ability to deal with sideways waves will get better over time and practice. However, concentrating on keeping your head up, so you're not looking down, and most importantly of all, keeping paddling, will make a huge difference. You get a major amount of stability from your paddling - when your paddle is in the water during the power phase of the stroke, it is effectively acting as a third point of contact, helping you stabilise and balance. The size of your board will also have some impact on this; if you're on too narrow a board then side chop is much harder to deal with. But as said, practice is the best thing, while keeping your head up and maintaining your paddling. Hope this helps, best of luck!

Yes, it should be fine, assuming it's also reasonably wide in the nose and tail as well. (As we discuss in the video, it's not just maximum width, the plan shape matters also, particularly when it comes to determining stability.). If you're going to be carrying a whole lot of weight when you go fishing (food, drink, tackle, clothes etc!), or indeed you're planning on catching a whole lot of fish, you may want to go a bit wider still. But overall, 34" would be a sensible starting point, for sure.

Ok, great questions, both these items come up regularly in sup safety forum discussions. Firstly, re knives. Absolutely an essential part of safety equipment for many activities, but there really isn't any feasible scenario where it's going to be of use on a SUP. As said this conversation comes up regularly, but no-one has yet come up with or heard of a SUP-related situation where a knife would have been of use. (Other than overnighting/camping situations, where obviously a knife will be part of your kit). If you want to carry one fine, but almost certainly not going to get any use, and is just going to add unecessary weight to your body. Likewise, a first aid kit. Again, if you're going way off grid, back country camping or whatever, then of course yes, it will be part of your equipment. But for regular paddling, it simply isn't going to be of any practical use. Actually needing to use a first aid kit is an incredibly unlikely scenario - what's actually going to happen that requires first aid? And even if some bizarre freak accident did happen, on a board in the middle of the ocean or lake is no place to be trying to do first aid anyway. In any sort of medical emergency, the first priority should be to get the victim ashore and into the hands of the professionals. Comms are what will matter. First aid kits tend to break Golden Rule #2, as well. It's not really practical to carry it on your person, so therefore it's almost certainly going to be in a dry bag attached to your board. Therefore it's not going to be instantly to hand. The issue with paddleboarding is that we're not like kayaks; we don't have the capacity to carry lots of cargo. Realistically, the only safe place to ensure it's easily accessible is on your body. Which is moving a lot, and you really don't want to be carrying any more weight than you absolutely have to. In the early days of SUP we all carried loads of safety gear but you quite quickly realise that you're simply not actually ever going to need it, and it's just getting in the way, and adding weight. Concentrate on comms, and the essentials of appropriate PFD, leash and clothing, and you're sorted. If you're leading a group on the water then the of course situation is slightly different, and carrying some extra safety gear for the group is a smart plan. But that's a different topic altogether.

Heh, well spotted. It's a consequence of concentrating on getting a good catch for the camera. You're absolutely right, there's no need to look down on every stroke normally.

Agreed. Great tips. Appalling attitude

Nice one, hopefully you found a few things of use in it? It's one of the great things about the SUP stroke, there's always more to learn, more to understand. Bill has been paddling even longer than your impressive stats, yet he's the first to admit that he's still learning all the time and he certainly doesn't have all the answers yet.

Go for it! Let us know how you get on.

@summertime35 The valve (where you connect the hose from the pump) has an open position, and a closed position. The open position is when the centre pin is down, and air can leave the board. However, when you want to pump the board up, the valve needs to be in the closed (centre pin up) position.

@tobybatt3720 Well, nothing like a bit of carb loading before your paddle session :-)

@FionaJane-vc2tw Great stuff. Hope it goes really well! You got this... :-)

Thanks for watching!

I believe you. Best explanation I’ve heard so far.

@johnson7228 This is a complex one that is determined by a whole lot of different variables. What I'd recommend is that you read our article on choosing a paddle, you'll find plenty of information (towards the bottom of the article) on paddle length www.supboardguide.com/how-to-choose-a-sup-paddle/

Thank you. Will do. Another thing is stance. I see people with feet even on the deck. I have also seen recommendations that it is better to put 1 foot forward. The foot forward should be the one opposite the side you are paddling on. Do you have a pointer to a stance article or video? Thanks in advance!

@@johnson7228 Actually we don't have a vid on stances. Great suggestion, we'll add that to our shoot list. In short though, if you're paddling a recreational board on relatively flat water, then the 'square' stance as shown in this vid - feet side by side, either side of the handle - is absolutely fine. A staggered stance, with one foot further back than the other, does indeed have certain benefits in certain conditions and environments. But it needs to be done right and, and generally our advice will always be to stick with straight stance unless you're getting into paddling in rough conditions, river or surf paddling, or specifically working on sprinting technique.

@@supboardguide Right On! Thank you for your help!

You’re welcome 😊

@arjandejonge Is this a question for me, as in is my own paddle long enough? Or are you meaning it as a general question. For sure, if your paddle is too short it tends to naturally shorten the stroke. You can't get it in far enough forward, and you can't get it deep enough. Fine for super quick short strokes, like in a sprint or when you're catching a wave. But very much akin to cycling in too high a gear, you're throwing a whole lot of petrol into the engine, not necessarily for very much reward. However, if your paddle is too long, it pushes your top arm too high, requires a wider release and generally slows your cadence down. So yes, definitely, having the right length of paddle for your style of stroke is hugely important. The general trend over the last few years has been towards shorter paddles. Pretty much every athlete I have worked with has followed this trend and benefited from it. (Although not ad infinitum. In general, they found that a few inchs shorter than the old 'shaka overhead' has delivered entirely positive results, but it very quickly becomes apparent when you go too short. it's definitely not a case of the shorter the better). Paddle length is an entire topic in itself, but hopefully this helps a bit?

@MrTherem15 This a great question and we address it in a whole lot of detail in this blog post, which we hope you find useful. www.supboardguide.com/are-inflatable-paddleboards-good/

@katherinebeachy1971 Ok, so you've got quite a tricky set of requirements there. On the one hand, because you're petite you really don't want too big a board. However, the yoga/kayak requirements both kinda push in the other direction. If all these requirements have about the same importance then an all-round board of around 32" with an all over deck cover would be ideal. But if it's primarily about paddling I'd suggest something just slightly narrower; 31" or even 30" wide.

@marionsutcliffe1119 I freely admit that I have not heard this one before. It's a really interesting suggestion and I will explore it next time I'm on the water. My initial thoughts, from trying this in the studio, is that yes, for sure, the far heel ought to be able to lift up, as your weight drives forward onto your toes. However, lifting the entire foot off the board sounds as though it could be very destabilising. Unless you're on a very round hulled board (uncommon these days) the general aim is to keep the board running flat and smooth. So lifting the foot off might not be wise. However, I'm saying all this without having actually tried it yet. So, watch this space!

@marionsutcliffe1119 Ok, I have spent some time exploring this, and I couldn't find any merit in it at all, it was in fact deeply destabilising. Allowing your heel to come up, yes. But there's simply no way that your foot can come off completely, the balance is all wrong. I suspect that this simply might be a 'lost in translation' thing, and whoever you heard this from was referring to letting the heel come up, rather than actually lifting the foot come off completely. Have you given it a try yourself?

@@supboardguide Thanks for checking it out! This was about lifting the foot entirely - I found another video that showed this as a balance drill, not just for the catch - multiple strokes on one leg. I did try but it was a complete non-starter. I'm working on getting confidence shuffling my feet around a bit, as well as brief heel-toe lifting to unblock my feet.

@@marionsutcliffe1119 Ah, ok! So yes, that is a thing. But you need to put your other foot right on the center line when you do it, in order to balance the board. And it's really not anything to do with good or proper paddling. What you're doing is great though; getting used to moving about on the board really helps you become lighter on your feet and also significantly reduces the tension in your legs and stops the build up of lactic acid in the feet. Happy paddling!

@edwingramba8743 thanks for the feedback, great to hear that you found it useful. Good luck with that board!

I have two pioneer 3 and 1 switch 3. These things are all awesome.

@jsjs6751 The reality is that it's almost impossible to put that paddle in too deeply. Pushing it down is a guaranteed way to generate power. I could show you a stack of pix of top paddlers bent so far over that their back is horizontal. It will never hurt the stroke. For sure, it will influence how the stroke develops and what happens next in the power phase, and for some types of paddlers there may be faster stroke styles, but ultimately, a deep stroke will always be a good effective stroke. It's complicated because there are a variety of different ways of getting power out of your stroke, which I didn't get into in the vid because it adds a whole lot of extra complexity to the picture. The points I discuss in the vid are valid for all strokes, but the actual power mechanism can be from compression, twist or thrust, and as said, that's a whole different vid in itself. My preferred method is compression, whereby I am using my upper body weight and muscles to power the paddle downwards, which generates a whole lot of power. The way I coach the stroke generally is to start by getting my client comfortable with a compression stroke (ie primarily downwards), because that sorts out so many of the fundamental issues that most people have with their set up and catch. Once that's all good, and a really strong early catch has been achieved, we can then look at fine tuning how the power phase develops. Which may well mean for some people a little bit less bend, and a slightly shallower paddle. Sorry, this probably doesn't help at all. The stroke is such a complex beast, it's impossible to do it justice in a few paragraphs!

​@billdawes123 Thanks for your write-up.

@RobertHooper-b3r By rotation do you mean hip twist? That's a whole subject in itself. The twist stroke was where the paddleboarding stroke started, and many athletes still use it. But from around 2015 onwards the much more forward-focussed compression-based and thrust-based strokes have kinda pushed twist out of the limelight. Look at any race fleet now and you'll see some athletes with some twist in their stroke but plenty with none at all. I didn't reference it here because it actually doesn't work for a lot of people. Some people are natural twisters, others not. (I will be doing a vid on this soon). As for moving the feet... Move them where? Not quite sure where you're going with that one. And as for the paddle out of the water by the time you reach your feet; that's one of these crazy myths that have become pervasive, indeed we are actually right now working on a 'myth-busting' series of videos looking at weird misunderstandings like this that have been repeated so often that they become seen as gospel. You absolutely do NOT need to take your paddle out before it reaches your feet. This idea that it will suddenly slam the brakes on if it passes your feet is just nonsense. There is still plenty of absolutely useful and perfectly good power to be had at that point of the stroke. Again, just watch any top racer, and you'll see that their paddle passes their feet (other than in super-high-cadence sprinting). It's all about how you control and steer the paddle through the water when it's back at that point, and how you're applying the power to it with your hands. Yes, for sure there are inefficient things you can do with your paddle when it reaches your feet, but there are also good things. Focussing on taking the paddle out when reaches your feet all too often results in a really uncomfortable inefficient stroke, particularly for people for whom a lower cadence longer stroke is much more natural and comfortable. I see this all the time in my coaching; people obsessing about something like this, and horrified when I suggest they relax and let the paddle come up and out of the water at a more natural point in the stroke cycle, rather than obsessing about the feet thing. But then they pretty much instantly start going much faster, further, easier and more smoothly once they do find their proper, natural stroke cycle. The way you take the paddle out of the water has far more consequence than where you take it out of the water. Paddling is such a complex thing. I'm sure I say it in this vid, I certainly say it many of the other ones on this channel; there are so many ways it can be done, and there is absolutely no one right way to do it properly. Any rule you try and impose on paddling; you'll find someone doing something different and making it work. It's the most fascinating sport to coach that I've ever worked in. Anyway, hope this helps clarify things a bit.