How To: Surf on a SUP

What is SUP Surfing?

Paddlesurfing, surfSUP, SUP surfing – it’s surfing, on a stand-up paddleboard. That means riding a breaking wave, standing up just like a ‘normal’ surfer, but with a paddle in your hands! SUP surfing is not the same as simply paddling around in choppy or wavey conditions, which can be very difficult indeed but doesn’t in itself constitute surfing until you’re genuinely riding waves. ‘Surf’ means a breaking wave, and when surfing a board will ‘plane’ over the water at speed rather than ploughing through it. It’s also quite different to ‘downwinding’, which is about catching glides on wind-driven bumps and swell, usually on much longer, racier boards.

What Kit?

To go SUP surfing you just need a suitable board, paddle and leash.

Let’s start with the board: experienced paddlesurfers will generally use the smallest, shortest board they can manage, as that will perform best in terms of speed and manoeuvrability once riding a wave. Our dedicated surfSUP, the 8'10" Compact is a proper SUPsurf shape for full-on surfing – however, unless you’re a very capable paddler and/or pretty lightweight, a board this small might not offer enough float and stability to begin with. Its great once you’re riding a wave, but you really won’t catch many if you’re not comfortable and balanced enough getting out through the whitewater and steadily into position out back, for which you might appreciate more width and volume underfoot at first.

For beginners or new SUP surfers, our all-round Ride range might be better for at least your first couple of forays into small surf, then you can upgrade to the 8'10" Compact once you’ve got to grips with catching waves and are ready for a more specialised waveboard.

As to the paddle, SUPsurfing demands short, punchy bursts of paddling so choose a reasonably powerful, all-round blade shape. Light is definitely good, but as your paddle’s likely to take some punishment in the surf you also need it to be robust enough to cope. Our Prime Paddle is an ideal blend of strength and performance.

The leash is simple – for SUP surfing you want a straight ankle leash like our 10ft Surf Leash (not coiled as you don’t want your board springing straight back at you after a wipe-out, and definitely not a waist leash as you’ll get all sorts of tangled up in it!).

And that’s it for kit: buoyancy aids and PFDs aren’t suitable for surf as you often need to get underwater rather than being washed around by every wave.

What to Wear for SUP Surfing

In high summer (or warm climates!) and mellow surf, you may well get away with boardshorts and a rashvest or Performance T-Shirt. But on the whole you’ll want a decent wetsuit for SUPsurfing as you’re likely to be getting wet pretty frequently so it’s easy to chill off. If it’s mild enough just a shortie or long-johns will do, but in colder conditions a good quality surfing suit is definitely the way forward. Most SUPsurfers prefer to go barefoot when possible, using neoprene surf shoes if necessary for rocky / reefy beaches or boots in cold conditions.

Flat Water First…

Ridiculous as it sounds, the best way to get into the surf is to thoroughly prepare on flat water first! To ride a wave you need to be standing in surf stance (both feet on the centreline, facing across the board, with the front foot up near the handle and back foot towards the tail). If the first time you ever try this is in the surf, it won’t end well – whereas if, on flat water, you get completely comfortable effortlessly moving your feet around on the board from ‘square’ to ‘surf stance’ without effecting your stroke or altering the trim of the board, you’ll be much better off when you have to do it ‘in anger’ in a wavey environment.

There’s plenty more you can do on flat water too (particularly if you don’t live near regular surf, it really will maximise the precious time you do get to spend in the waves). Step-back turns are of course great training for SUPsurfing. The turn itself is almost secondary though: most importantly, get used to using your hips to shift your weight backwards and forwards – on a wave, it’s front foot to accelerate, back foot to turn. Also in surf stance, practice accelerating from a standstill with your weight forward over that front foot, taking good deep strokes at a nice high cadence (rate / tempo) – this is how you’ll paddle for and therefore catch a wave.

Draw strokes and j-strokes can be really useful in the surf too, to help you keep paddling straight without changing sides. And solid reverse-sweep turns are invaluable to for positioning, plus paddle-slaps and skim-recoveries to brace yourself against and stay upright. All of this should be done on your chosen waveboard too, so you’re completely confident on it. Quite literally, childish as it may sound, pretend you’re turning onto and paddling for waves – this visualisation will really help when it comes to doing the real thing.

Where & When To Try SUP Surfing?

Knowing how to find suitable surf conditions is a real art, that can take a lifetime to learn – but of course these days there are dedicated websites and apps that offer a shortcut! Even with a perfect forecast at just the right spot, the tide and weather will have an impact on the surf: for example, low tide might mean ‘dumpy’ hollow waves that are very hard to ride, and/or high tide may mean no breaking waves at all, or just a suicidal shoredump. Meanwhile too much or the wrong direction of wind can ruin the surf. Different spots have different characteristics – and location knowledge will come experience.

To begin with you want a nice, gently breaking wave, ideally over sand in reasonably deep water, that’s not too busy. You absolutely don’t want to hit the most famous, popular, world-class break in the area: leave that to the shortboard surfers until you really really know what you’re doing!

Don’t fall into that trap of looking for big waves: you just want knee-high to waist-high surf that’ll be a lot of fun to ride when you get it right, but won’t be too punishing when you inevitably get it wrong. (Remember, a cubic metre of water weights a metric ton, which is a lot to have landing on your head!) So don’t hold out for big forecasts, look for maybe 1-2 or 2-3 feet of surf at a reasonably long ‘period’ (the time between each wave is a better indicator of quality than size: say 8 seconds+ ‘groundswell’ is much more predictable than choppy short-period sub-6-second ‘windswell’). You’re after the sort of waves that shortboard surfers really aren’t interested in – nice, mellow, fun-sized SUP surfing (or what the surf guidebooks may call ‘longboarding’) conditions. It could be you find them at the other end of the beach, or tucked around the next headland, from the well-known surfing line-ups.

Getting Out

This can often be the most difficult part of SUPsurfing – getting out through / over the whitewater and breaking waves in the ‘impact zone’ to end up safely ‘out back’, beyond where the waves are breaking. If it’s nice and gentle, you can just stand square and paddle strong, straight over the waves. If it’s a bit bigger, you might choose to step back into hybrid or surf stance to bring the nose up and over the incoming waves – and timing is key (aim to paddle out between ‘sets’, when there’s a break in significant waves). Either way, keep getting that paddle back down and fully into the water, both to keep your board moving and give you something to balance against. If things are a bit crazy you might choose to kneel, or even lie down prone (with the paddle under your chest, and the shaft out to one side so it doesn’t hit you in the face!) and paddle out like a surfer.

Even if you’re just standing by your board, at pretty much all times the key principal is to always keep your board pointing directly towards (or directly away from) the incoming waves and/or white-water. Whereas if a wave hits your board side-on, it will inevitably take it (and you) straight back towards the beach.

Catching a Wave

At its most basic, to catch a wave you need to get your board moving at broadly the same speed and direction as the wave as it comes under you, just as it gets steeper (‘jacks up’) before breaking – then gravity takes over and your board will accelerate down the face of the wave. Assuming you’re standing in surf stance, really bend your knees to get your centre of gravity down nice and low … and congratulations: you’re surfing!

You’re now able to ‘trim’ the board by either moving your weight forward (over your front foot) to accelerate, or if necessary shift your weight back to bring the nose up so it doesn’t ‘pearl’ (start to bury under water, which will inevitably result in a nosedive…) Of course, that’s often easier said than done and it will inevitably take a lot of trial and error to start getting it right. Which is precisely why it’s good to have all of your key skills dialled on flat water first, then choose a nice mellow spot that’s not too busy, so you’re just dealing with the added dimensions of waves and timing – without the extra dangers of getting hurt or annoying the locals!

Technique-wise, you don’t want to swap sides whilst you’re paddling for a wave, so the best approach is akin to a long, drawn-out step-back turn: start looking out to sea, so you can see your wave approaching, then switch to surf stance and gently pick up speed while paddling in an arc to meet it, before really committing your weight forward and taking several deep, powerful, high-cadence strokes to paddle onto it as the wave comes through underneath you. Once you’ve felt the acceleration onto the wave, stop paddling and bend those knees.

SUP Surfing Etiquette

Ideally, if you’re new to the surf environment the very best thing you can do is try to stay well out of everyone else’s way until you know what you’re doing. Particularly when out with experienced surfers, there are some largely unwritten rules to abide by, known as ‘surf etiquette’. When paddling out, it’s your responsibility to keep out of the way of anyone riding a wave. Then, in terms of rights of way, the surfer closest to the wave’s peak has priority – ‘dropping in’, by catching a wave that someone else is already riding, is a serious offence. ‘Snaking’, by paddling around someone to gain priority on the wave, is also a real no-no. As we’re able to paddle so much quicker and take off further offshore than prone surfers, paddleboarders can often inadvertently be guilty of this. So be aware of who else is out, and don’t be selfish – the best policy is always to allow prone surfers their waves. Respecting the line-up and waiting your turn is essential: have some humility, apologise for any mistakes, and just be super-polite.

Wipe-Out!

Once you start to paddle for and hopefully catch waves, wipe-outs are an inevitable part of SUP surfing – the bigger the waves, the harder the falls. And they can sometimes be scary, as can surfacing after a rinsing to see the next wave bearing down on you, about to send you through another ‘rinse cycle’…

It’s much easier said than done to begin with, but the key is to relax, not panic, and get control of your board as soon as possible. We wear straight leashes so our boards stay safely away from us once we’ve fallen off – but it’s therefore easy to forget that they soon become hazardous to others instead. For example, if you’re 6' tall, with a 10' leash, and 10' board, that all adds up to a 26-foot exclusion zone within which your board could hit someone else. So grab that leash, and pull your board back towards you as soon as possible – particularly if there are kids splashing around in the shorebreak inside, you’ll be getting washed their way so you need to look out for them. Ideally of course you want to keep a hold of your paddle too, although if not don’t worry too much – get your board back first, then you can always prone paddle to go and collect your blade…

Making Turns

Over time, you’ll gradually begin to get more comfortable catching waves and can start to ride them ‘down the line’ – ie; at more of an angle across the wave, rather than simply heading straight towards the beach. The ultimate aim is to stay on the ‘green’ unbroken part of the wave, just ahead of where it’s breaking (ie; turning into whitewater) ideally on the steepest part of the wave, known as the ‘pocket’ or ‘critical section’.

From straight-lining initially, you should start making gentle turns up and down the wave. To do so, shift your weight over your back foot and lean / twist your body in the direction you’re trying to go. An effective way of doing this is to point your front hand (and therefore the paddle) and look towards where you want to go, which will help you commit your weight onto the rail of the board to make it turn. (Albeit very gently at first!) After every turn it’s really important to then shift your weight forward again, over your front foot to accelerate away and pick up speed … before then trying to turn back the other way. Eventually you’re aiming to link ‘bottom turns’ to head up the wave-face with ‘top turns’ (maybe ‘off-the-lip’ one day) to drop back down.

See You Out There!

SUP surfing is highly addictive, so whether you’re able to get into the waves every time it’s working or just the precious few times you get away to surf on holiday, once you’ve experienced that first ride you’re bound to keep coming back for more. SUP surfers are generally a friendly bunch, so do paddle over and say hi…