So, no real waves today and a 1 foot swell resulting in a slight and constant bump. Gentle onshore wind. I jumped back onto the Pro for the 4th time, if my counting is correct. I changed it from a quad to a thruster and I followed the pool dude's advice to keep my paddle out on the toe side as I am popping up. This helps to immediately brace and / or paddle forward. I can get away with doing whatever I feel like with the paddle as I am popping up on my other boards, since there is time to react and move the paddle to the toe side, if I need to brace for stability. Basically initial reactions need to be quicker on the pro and having the paddle on the correct side helps.
If I remember to keep the paddle on the toe side I am getting a pretty good success rate of staying on and I can now paddle around in a straight...ish line if I keep the paddle on the toe side. Paddling is still hopeless on the heel side. But I am managing to stay on for longer periods just bracing and not paddling as well.
Slowly but surely I am making some progress here. More flat days this week, so I'll keep kooking around until I get it.
5th session this morning and definitely getting there. This morning I realised that I needed to be more flexible with the knees to absorb the incoming swell lines. This has made a huge difference even when the nose sinks under water and I am starting to feel comfortable and in control in those situations, instead of falling off the front, or overcompensating by moving backwards and thus falling off the back.
I am able to stay on for extended periods and I even started to paddle earnestly into the little ankle biters coming past. I love how tiny and light this thing is compared to all my other boards.
Offshore, 2 foot sets this morning at my local. Long period swell, so loads of waiting for sets and I managed to catch 3 waves in an hour session. The board feels loose and great on a wave, as expected, and I can now also confirm that the Pro does not work well in these conditions (no surprises there). I could have had some fun on the Hypernut, but the Pro and I are currently at that early love / lust stage, even though she can be wild and unpredictable.
After about 10 sessions I am making good progress. Basically I had to polish and sharpen my technique in all aspects from paddling, balancing, feet placement and movement to reaction time. The board needs more of everything. More stamina, more concentration etc, but it's doable on the cleaner days.
good to hear mate. Def harder on the body when you go small. For me it's elbows.from digging in so much with the paddle to aid stability. And of course all the extra paddling.
when i go back to my normal size board it's super stable and I stay dry for longer. Everything is more dialled in, as you say.
Thanks for all your reports. Your point about late drops, etc is why I'm happy to wobble on my Blurr and miss a few waves, there's a trade off between performance getting in early vs late, I'll miss a few to feel more confident on steeper drops
First tiny bit of swell since getting th8'2. Definitely a challenge but worth it. Steepest learning curve for me was how much more I had to keep my knees bent, all the time, to absorb chop and how much more I used my rear foot/leg for stability when paddling. My wife took these picks, not the sort of ideal wave but good enough to keep me motivated. Now 83kg, hope to get rid of a bit more!
Interested to hear thoughts on J strokes and how to maintain stability on different board shapes.
For me:
-narrow board w good glide & paddling ie good front to back stability, bad side to side stability = do more J strokes and fewer switching paddle sides as causes board to rock side to side
-wide/short board, not as much glide but good side to stability = switch paddle sides more often to keep up fwd momentum for front to back stability, side to side tippyness less an issue due to width
Interesting stuff. I rarely switch paddle on any of my boards when paddling (switch on wave). Seem to be able to turn right and left just paddling on toe side using J, C, draw and sculls. Find stroke strength and stability on heel side much weaker, has interestingly contributed (with other sports) to an overdeveloped back on the right side
Think the elbow thing is called golfers elbow, not sure if my brother was winding me up when he mentioned it! Have also started to use resistant bands (the one swimmers use) practising swimming strokes and paddle strokes, to strengthen and stabilise the left side. Don't want to look any odder than I do! Ha ha!
I have discovered something kind of interesting, but I guess not very surprising. Water is currently around 8 C, which is the coldest it gets before it starts warming up again in April. Air temps have been going up, so I've climbed out of the 5mm booties I've been using since December and into some 3mm ones. The ones I tried are a year old, so they were well used and the soles were looking quite shiny, but I wanted to see if they have any life left. Long story short: they did not. Every time I tried to paddle the Pro, I simply slipped off.
I did not have spare booties with me, so I took them off and braved the water. I could pretend to be some hardcore hard man, but I won't lie - it was not nice and my feet went a bit numb after 10 minutes. I stayed in for an hour. It was incredible how much more stable I felt on the board without booties, despite the numbness. Also, I was far quicker to react to the bumps of the short period swell in the water and was almost 100% comfortable out there. The quicker reaction made fore-aft stability almost a non-issue.
It's hard to quantify, but everything feels FAR more stable barefoot than using 5mm booties (that are still grippy).
Bring on the warmer waters.
Edit: forgot to mention that I started waxing the traction pad. It's a small game changer, in my opinion.
I think it's called proprioception, much harder in booties. I don't wear booties anymore after injuring my foot, but I used to for surfing. When I tried wearing booties for sup to go out at a spot with sharp reef it was noticeably much harder as you found.