Speed is Everything: Pendulum Surfing

I was watching surfing in town a few days ago. A thought struck me. The surfers that looked good managed to keep a type of speed and flow in their surfing. They were easy to look at. Conversely, the surfers that looked jerky and rough failed to maintain speed throughout their ride. They were hard to look at. This leaded me to the question: “how does one maintain speed through the whole ride?” It is a simple question yet a very difficult task. My conclusion was that one must surf as if they were a pendulum! Here are a few tips.



I was once told by the famous shaper Ben Aipa that surfboards were like airplane wings. This is true. If you look at your tail; the upper rails are rounded and the lower rail section is usually flat (in modern surfboards). As the water wraps around the rail there is more friction on the top rounded rail and less friction on the lower edged rail. This causes lift. If you are surfing with no speed, you are handicapping yourself as your board wants to lift but cannot as you are going to slow. It is as if you are on a jet airplane that is going down a runway yet cannot take off due to low speed. The question becomes, “how do you create speed?” if your board only works at a certain threshold of speed?



The Take Off



The take-off is key to good surfing. This is your initial burst of energy as you start off at the top of the wave and gravity accelerates you down to the bottom of the wave. Utilizing this speed cannot be understated as it is the first event in a process of speed “nurturing” and “continuance”. You carry this speed into your first maneuver. If you fail to use the speed in your drop, you are destroying the potential of the wave to be surfed in a pendulum fashion. The drop sets up for your fist turn; the bottom turn.


The Bottom Turn



After you drop to the bottom of the wave, you will usually have a great deal of velocity. You must utilize this speed or lose it. The best way to transform the speed from the drop in to a maneuver is to bottom turn. A bottom turn literally means turning off the bottom of the wave and heading towards the top of the wave where you prepare for your top turn. Classic speed surfing is an activity where you move the board from top to bottom of the wave, bottom to top of the wave and top to bottom of the wave (that is a mouthful, yet it is key to understand). Like a pendulum, you do not bleed off any speed! Up, down, up, down. You utilize the force of gravity, as a pendulum. It is really that simple!


The Top-Turn


The top turn has many variations. Yet any good top turn is set up by a solid bottom turn. A top turn is done, as the name entails, at the top of the wave. A top turn can be an off the lip, floater, or snap at the top of the wave. The important fact is that it is done in the top ¼ of the wave face. By turning at the very top of the wave you start heading back down to the bottom of the wave gaining a great deal of momentum and speed. This speed is then used again in the bottom turn to project you up the face for another top turn. In this way, you do not loose speed throughout your entire ride.



Top turn—Bottom turn---Top turn---Bottom turn = FLOW!




A surfer who is able to utilize this type of Pendulum speed, moving from the top of the wave to the bottom repetitively, gains what surfers call “good flow”. If you look at Kelly Slater surfing, he is continually manipulating his speed in this pendulum, yoyo fashion and he draws a beautiful line in the process. No one can argue that Slater does not have good flow in his surfing. We can create flow like he does by surfing like a pendulum.



Don’t surf the bottom of the wave



Some SUP surfers and long-boarders make the mistake of surfing the bottom 1/3 of the wave. By doing this they miss the “power pocket” of the wave. Because they are not continually climbing and dropping, they lose speed and fall off or bog a rail. They are not utilizing the “gravity potential of the wave” as they don’t climb high enough up the face to gain speed dropping down the face. This is a common mistake of beginners that I wish you to avoid.



Don’t worry if you can get pendulum surfing right off the bat. It takes a lot of time to master. Yet once you get it down, your surfing experience will be greatly enhanced. Also, I believe that drawing a good line in ones surfing is like being an artist. The wave is your canvas. Why just use the bottom third of your art piece? Use the whole canvas to draw out your dreams! Until next time, practice you pendulum surfing!

Random acts of Kindness, Best South Swell in Years

Random acts of kindness: I will be forever grateful to the surfer that gave me his leash after mine broke on my first takeoff attempt. He just paddled up to me and said: "I'm going to give you my leash, I had enough waves for today". That just blew me away. He saved my session and I ended up getting lots of waves like this one. I promise to pay it forward. Mahalo!

This video shows the board going over the falls, snapping the leash:

Thanks to mother nature for providing us with the best weekend of south swell waves I can remember. Here is some video of Sunday, May 19, 2013, I used a harness mount that I borrowed from a friend in the morning and the nose mount in the afternoon. I was using the GoPro 3, the wifi remote is nice but the battery life is way to short, it ran out halfway through both sessions, will have to buy the extended battery, I guess.

Surf A Big Board. Don't Just Ride it. By Len Barrow

Most people just “ride” their SUP or long board. Ben Aipa, the famous coach, always told me to “surf” a big board and not to ride it. Well what does this mean, you may ask? Most surfers just half turn and don’t think much of truly engaging the rail. Engaging the rail means holding a cutback on your SUP for more than just a second, to fully sweep the board in a 180 degree arc toward the white wash. This is Surfing, not riding. This is what looks good.








Yet this is easier said than done as a SUP or long board has so much rail and thickness compared to short-boards. On a short-board, it is easy to make mistakes as you can recover easily as the rail is so short (less rail to dig) and the board is so rockered. On a SUP or longboard there is no room for error due to the sheer volume of the board. This is how you do it.








The Sweeping “20%” turn:





Most people turn their big board using too much rail. This means that they engage about 40-60% of the rail in the wave while they pivot into turn. The end result is a turn that is slow, sluggish and a “Half turn” due to loss of speed. This is called bogging, or weak surfing in surfing terminology. That is why most expert surfers are horrified to see sup surfers ride. Most Sup -surfers don’t surf with speed power and flow because they are engaging to much rail in the water and rapidly bleeding off to much speed.








The solution to this is literally what I call “wheelie” surfing. When you pivot on your tail to cutback, the rear 20-30% of the tail should be in the water and engaged. This is where the sharp “edge” of the rail is (chime) and the most lift of the board comes from. As your board is designed with sharp, chimed rails in the rear, use it! This allows you to keep speed through the turn. If you pivot on the forward rounded rail you lose too much speed as the water wraps around the full, non-chimed rail. That is why experienced shapers keep a high edge in the tail of the boards rail.









More importantly, as you engage so little rail friction becomes your ally not your enemy. More specifically; the rail that is designed to lift is on your tail-block. Due the sharp chimed tail edge of your tail-block, your board loses no speed and you are allowed to “surf” a 180 degree turn. This allows you to surf with speed power and flow. Use the least amount of rail when you pivot a big board.







Pop release the board







After conducting a longs sustained turn simply Pop the board by literally jumping lightly of your board like a skateboard “olly jump”. When a skateboarder olly’s his board literally gets off the ground as he is lifting his weight off the board briefly. You see, after conducting a long sweeping turn, you lose speed. To counter this, you must unweight the board to regain momentum again. This maintains speed power and flow. This sounds weird, yet any good surfing coach knows the value of “surfing Light” by popping the board.







The above techniques center around small to moderate waves. My next will address utilizing the full length of the rail as a type of fin to power surf. Stay tuned. This is a another story!









In the end, do you want your surfing to look weak and soft? Professional Coaches call this “limp wrist surfing (yes with all of the obvious connotations)”. Or, do you want to be a “Carvin Marvin with a Pocket Pistol?” The choice is yours. It’s not as hard as it seems if you follow these tips. Surf your Board, don’t just ride it. It’s all good! See you in the water!

Paddling around Oahu- 124 miles in 3 days- by Robert Stehlik

Ok, we did not do it on consecutive days and it was not a circumnavigation but Jeff Chang and I paddled around the entire coastline of Oahu, 124 miles total in 3 days, here is the story.

Originally we had talked about circumnavigating Oahu in 3 consecutive days,  we were waiting for good conditions (light wind) to be able to paddle all the way around Oahu.  Unfortunately it is very rare for the winds to shut off for three days in a row and for us to be able to make time to do it.  
So, this mission started as just a long day of paddling, we wanted to see how far we could paddle in one day and how we would feel afterwards.  After paddling all day for 47 miles, we decided that we would try to paddle around the island in three days, just not consecutive.  We would wait for good conditions and choose a day when we would both be able to go.

Jeff Chang was training for the OC1 Molokai race so he paddled on his outrigger while I was using an 18' Ohana board that Jared Vargas left here when he moved back to California.  This board is not very good for downwinders and quite tippy but its fast and smooth in calmer waters.  We launched at Pinky's Restaurant in Kailua before sunrise and started paddling towards the Mokulua Islands.  The wind was light and the water was fairly calm until we got closer to Makapuu, where the water was rough and choppy, as usual, and I had to paddle on my knees around Makapuu point.  

This post is a work in progress, but here are some pictures of the journey:

Sun rising behind the Mokulua Islands outside of Lanikai

Day one: 47 miles from Kailua to Ko Olina

Day 2: 42.6 miles- Kailua to Haleiwa

Our launch area on day 2 was where President Obama comes for his Christmas vacation

The point at the Kaneohe Marine Coprs base reminded me of Ireland for some reason

Paddling along the Windward coast, the straight line took us pretty far out.

Finally approaching Turtle Bay after paddling almost 30 miles. 

Re-fuleing stop  at the Turtle Bay resort 

Day 3: 35 miles- Haleiwa to Ko Olina

Launching in front of Surf 'N Sea on our third day

Launching in Haleiwa

There were some big waves rolling in at Avalanches

The channel marker outside Haleiwa

An efficient stroke is key when paddling for 8 hours+ 

Coming around Ka'ena Point

Getting closer to our final destination, Ko Olina

A pod of dolphins passes directly in front of me outside Mokuleia

Coming around Ka'ena Point to the Westside was spectacular

We saw lots of sea creatures, including whales, sharks, dolphins and turtles.  A huge whale surfaced about 20 feet away from me, which freaked me out.

GPS summary of the three days of paddling

Day 3: Haleiwa to Ko Olina

Paddle Technique Part 7: Catching Waves

You were probably wondering when I would finally get around to how to catch and surf waves on a SUP.  Ideally, everyone would learn the basics first before even attempting to go into the surf to catch waves.  Unfortunately many head straight into the surf without basic skills and little knowledge of surfing etiquette.  I hope you are not one of them.  Please make sure you have a good grasp of all the basic skills covered in the first 6 technique posts and knowledge of surfing etiquette before even thinking about catching waves, especially if there are others in the waves with you.

For a pretty good summary of SUP etiquette, check out: http://www.supright.com

I worked with a class from Hawaii Pacific College that made these videos as part of their business school projects.

This first one is about how to catch a wave and how you want to approach the wave differently when you are Stand Up Paddling than when you are surfing without a paddle:


This video is about switching your stance from parallel stance to surf stance as you are catching the wave:


This video is about how to use your paddle on the wave for balance and turning:


Thanks for watching.  Again, please remember to make sure you first master the basic concepts of SUP before attempting to go into the surf zone:

Links to the paddle technique series posts:

Paddle Technique Part 0: Introduction to SUP

Paddle Technique Part 1: Choosing the Right Paddle

Paddle Technique Part 2: The Three Ingredients of a Powerful Stroke
Paddle Technique Part 3: Stacking the Shoulders

Paddle Technique Part 4: Reach and Catch

Paddle Technique Part 5: Recovery, Paddle Length and Grip

Paddle Technique Part 6: Turning the Board
Paddle Technique Part 7: Catching Waves

Aloha, 
Robert Stehlik 

Surfing and SUP are Not a Fast Food Experiences

By Len Barrow

A few days ago I was watching a surfer.  The man zoomed into the parking lot at the surf break.  He literally ripped his board off the surf racks in his haste to get to the surf.  Oddly enough he was wearing a type of “sling”.  To my surprise he inserted a cell phone in to the water proof sling and rushed off to surf.  I watched him notice and ignore some garbage on the beach as he ran across the beach.

In the water the, this man was aggressive, paddling under people to get position.  He would not wait his turn.  It seemed that the man thought that the world revolved around him and his rushed schedule.  The locals at the break were getting a bit irritated but the man was tolerated.  Everyone almost felt sorry for him.  He completely missed the point of surfing.  He was not paying attention and by doing this he degraded his surfing experience.

Surfing is sport that should be regarded as sacred from my point of view.  How do you treat the activity of surfing as being sacred?  You pay attention and make surfing a type of ritual, not a fast food experience.   Here are a few tips on how to pay attention to the whole surfing experience; and not be limited to parts of it.

When you arrive at the beach make it a habit to slow down.  Stop and study the conditions.   This act is actually very soothing and calm.  You can ask yourself:  ‘what is the tide like?; where is the swell focusing or defocusing?; how are the winds affecting the surf?”  By doing this, you slow your mind down and  turn surfing into a type of focused meditation.  This is the joy and magic of the surfing experience.   To just enjoy the moment by paying attention to it!

Engage in activities at your local beach.  It is so important to give compassion to the beach which brings you so much happiness.  If you see a piece of garbage, pick it up and throw it away.  I know locals who routinely pick up garbage.  Duane Desoto has a little rake and dustbin!  If you see a piece of garbage floating in the water, pick it up and stick it in your shorts to throw away later.  If your beach has a ”clean up” day, participate.  By treating the beach and ocean with respect, you turn your surf-spot into a place which helps to purify your thoughts and soul.    

Respecting other people is key to enjoying the whole surfing experience.  Smile and take the time to say hello to other surfers.  Pay attention to who has not been getting waves.  When a set comes, let this person have it.   Take care of the little kid surfers at the break.  They will become older and one day and take care of you.  Be that person that people want to see.   I go to the beach every-day and just see genuine smiles as people want to talk to me.  This is a wonderful feeling.   Don’t be a “DICK”.  Keep the karma flow positive in regards to other humans!

Don’t multitask!  Multitasking is the opposite of single pointed attention.  As a trend, more and more people are bringing cell phones out into the water.  It is still rare, but it is an alarming development from my point of view.   People are forgetting that surfing is a sacred experience and turning our wonderful sport into a fast-food experience.  How can you enjoy something if you cannot pour your whole soul and attention into it single pointedly?

The above ideas may seem a bit idealistic.  Despite this, you need to remember why you started surfing in the first place.  Most “old-school” surfers that I know, believed that surfing was a type of magical, if not sacred experience.  It was something that you cared about and even worshipped.   When you treat the sport and everything around it like any other ”rushed”  modern day activity, you lose the point of surfing and turn it into a fast food experience.    Let’s re-enchant ourselves and slow down and pay attention.  I guarantee that this will enhance your surfing experience tenfold and you will remember why you started in the first place!

Narrated downwind run- Hawaii Kai run tips by Robert Stehlik

Downwind runs are exciting and fun.   In the surf, you are often waiting for a set or your turn to catch the next wave.  On a downwinder, there are no crowds, you have long windswells that stretch across the whole ocean to play with, you are always on the move, going from one glide to the next, surfing the bumps.

It's not easy though, it takes balance, timing, patience, good paddling skills, fitness, and experience which comes from lots of time on the water.  
It can also be dangerous to head out into the open ocean unprepared, so make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.
I enjoy sharing what I have learned and have been offering coaching to paddlers that want to experience the joy of downwind paddling.   For more information on SUP lessons and coaching offered by Blue Planet, please visit:
http://www.getupstanduphawaii.com

I was inspired by a video from Jermey Riggs (click to watch it) on Maui doing a Maliko run to do a narrated downwind run while talking about some of the things I try to teach on a coaching run.  Watching these videos will not replace a good coach but it will be helpful before doing your first downwinder, especially a Hawaii Kai run on Oahu.  I split it up into 3 videos to keep them shorter, enjoy!







This is another video of a run a few days earlier, 
no narrating in this one but more action showing other paddlers with music.  The paddlers shown in this video are:  Greg Pavao, Joey Napoleon, Ed Wheeler, Jimmy Fitt, Scott Gamble, Charlie Herr, and Jennifer Fratzke





Here is an older video with some more tips for the Hawaii Kai run, filmed and edited by Morgan Hoestery: 

This is the Hawaii Kai run GPS track from the Blinker Buoy (last channel marker in Hawaii Kai) to the Windsock outside Kaimana Beach.

Here is the data of this run from my GPS:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/281329873

What Does Good Surfing on a SUP or Longboard Look Like? by Len Barrow

Commitment, this is what it looks like. Photo: Paul Teruya

As a professional surfing coach, I am sometimes asked what does it take to be a good surfer.  I always reply “the basics”.  Powerful surfing that looks “good “relies on a few simple foundations.  There is nothing fancy.  Here are a few base points that a SUP or long boarder can always rely on to improve their surfing.

Surf in the Pocket

One of the most basic mistakes that I see is when surfers don’t “pocket surf”.  The pocket is where the most power of the wave is.  It exists on every breaking wave and the pocket is directly next to the breaking portion of the wave.  It is where the wave bowls up the most.  By surfing the pocket one can utilize the natural power of the wave in the most efficient manner.  Many surfers and SUP surfers miss the pocket and get too far out on the shoulder of the wave.  As the shoulder is not as steep as the pocket, it lacks power to push your board and hence you lose speed.   This leads to ugly surfing that is slow and jerky.  When you pocket surf, you look as if you are integrated with the wave and flowing.  When you miss the pocket, this flow is interrupted and bad form is the result.

Sweep your Board

Many surfers new to the sport of SUP or longboarding fail to Sweep the board.  What does this mean?  When you don’t sweep the board you “half turn”.  A half turn is just that, a short turn.  A short turn which is held for only a second creates an ugly surfing style.  When you half turn the board only does short arcs.  Your surfing will lack flow.  That is why sweeping your turns looks good.  When you sweep your turn, you engage your maneuver a full 180 degrees in a long arc across the wave.  You start off with your turn with your nose pointed towards the shoulder and you cutback a long arc where you boards sweeps and face the whitewash in a full ½ circle turn.  This may sound confusing but watch Kai Lenny cutback or Kelly Slater cutback.  They sweep their boards around in beautiful arcs.  Kai and Slater certainly don’t half turn and the result is beautiful surfing that is as smooth as silk.

Commitment is Key

Some people surf as if they are almost afraid of the wave.  This is called safety surfing.  It is boring to watch and gets repetitive.  It also destroys your style.  Good surfing relies on commitment!  One day I was surfing a contest and the head judge jack Shiply came up to me and told me to get more committed to my maneuvers.  What does this mean?  If there is a lip in front of you attack it with an aggressive off the lip.  Don’t go around it.  Yes, you may fall off but at least you committed to it.  This commitment will transform into “power surfing” with time;  where you are engaging the wave in a confident and controlled manner.  You don’t want to be known as the surfer with a weak style, where one is always avoiding the lip and re-entry sections.

If you can apply these three points to your surfing approach, your surfing will definitely improve.   Don’t worry if you cannot get these techniques overnight.  It takes years of practice.  By following this simple approach to surfing you will most surely look like a better surfer or Super.  Commitment, Sweep and Pocket Surfing has always been my mantra.  Not only does it look good but you can get more out of your surfing experience. 

How to set up the SIC ASS (Assisted Steering System)

When you unpack a new SIC production board, you get the steering system in the form of a bunch of loose parts in a nice bag with no instructions.  If you have never seen a rudder system installed it can be quite difficult to figure out how to do this correctly.
You don't want to find out that you did not do it right in the middle of a race or when you are a few miles offshore.
I have put quite a few of these together over the years and took some pictures to help others assemble it properly.  Ask your dealer to do this for you if they know what to do, or you can do it yourself by following these steps.

The SIC ASS- make sure you have all the parts

The SIC board will have cables installed for regular and goofy foot steering.   Pull out the cable you don't need and save it in case you want to switch the steering in the future.  The cable can be re-threaded later.

Put the rudder in the board and check to make sure it is square.  Sometimes the rudder tube is not exactly square.  This one is slightly off, if it was exactly square it would be parallel with the grey wood trim behind it but it slants a little to the right.  Not enough to have an effect on performance, so I did not worry about it.  If it's way off, you may have to put the rudder in a padded vise and bend the rudder stem with a steel pipe that fits over the stem.  You have to be very careful not to damage the rudder when doing this, don't attempt to do it without a vise.  You can do the same thing if your rudder stem ever gets bent (can happen if you hit the reef or the rudder gets bent in the shore break).  If the rudder itself gets damaged, it needs to be replaced.

These are the parts needed to attach the rudder wheel to the rudder stem.

I find it easiest to attach the wheel to the rudder stem with the board upside down so the rudder can't drop out of the board.  If you have it right side up, you will need someone to hold the rudder while you attach the wheel.  Put the plastic washers on the rudder stem as spacers, then attach the wheel by screwing the bolt into the threaded hole in the rudder stem.

Turn the board right side up and loop the cable around the wheel twice.  Once under the screw and once over it.




Line up the cables so they are the same length on both sides with the rudder centered, then tighten the screw and make sure the cables get held under the washer.   Don't tighten the screw down all the way yet, so you can adjust the wheel position later by allowing the cables to slide under the washer.

The next step is to install the steering arm, these are the parts needed.

Use the right size bit to tighten center screw into insert in board with the two big plastic washers underneath the arm.

Attach the steering batten like this

Put the black plastic tubes over the cable ends and then thread the ends through the tightening bolts like this.

Once tension is added, the loops tighten themselves down.

Adjust the cable length before tightening down the loops.  You want the adjustment screws to go onto the  bolts with light  tension so that the tension can be adjusted.  If there is too much play, you have to shorten the wire loops to a good length.

After the length is adjusted properly, tighten the knots and insert the excess cable ends into the black tubes.

Use needle nose pliers to hold and tension the bolts while tightening the screws  by hand, try to get about the same amount of rotations on both sides, so you have space left to tighten the cables on both sides later.   You will find more tips on fine tuning the rudder in another post linked below.

After the cables are tightened properly, you can adjust the angle of the rudder by twisting the rudder wheel.  With the rudder screw not tightened down, the cables can slide around the wheel to the right position.

Once the wheel is adjusted properly (fine tuning is done later with the hand screws), tighten it down well, so the cables are held tightly in place and the cables can't slip.

The last step is to stick the carbon sliding plate under the rudder arm.  The plate provided is quite big and can be slippery if stepped on, so for my board I  cut out a smaller strip that will do the same job as the bigger plate.

The sliding plate is placed under the tip or the steering arm in the shortest setting, then peel back the adhesive backing and stick down.

All pau, for tips on how to tune the rudder, please visit this older post: 

Fine tuning the rudder