How to Stand Up Paddle with Verena Mei

Learn how to SUP with Verena Mei and Blue Planet Surf.  

Verena is a professional race car driver. She grew up in Hawaii and recently moved back to Oahu.  She got into Stand Up Paddleboarding and has been a great customer and supporter of Blue Planet Surf Shop. In this series she is getting tips on safety, technique, board handling and more from Blue Planet Surf founder Robert Stehlik.  We will post regularly new videos on our blueplanetsurf youtube channel and plan to release the parts of this series in the Spring of 2016. For new videos please check back here and subscribe to our youtube channel.  

Watch the first video in the series:

How to Stand Up Paddle Board with Verena Mei, Part 1: Safety

SUP is a great, fun, health and safe sport if practiced with some common sense.

Basic points covered in this video are:

1) Be aware of conditions. Light wind and protected water are the best conditions for beginner and learning quickly.  Light winds are fine but the chop created by the wind will make balancing more difficult and you should always make sure to paddle into the wind first to make sure you can get back to where you started.  Don't go out if the wind is strong, offshore winds (blowing you away from the shore) can be very dangerous as they can carry you out to sea and usually get stronger the farther out you get.

2) Always wear a leash.  In Hawaii we are not required to wear a personal floatation device when Stand Up Paddle boarding but you should always wear a good leash and make sure it is attached securely, that way your boards is always attached to you and acts as your floatation device.

3) Know how to swim.  This should be self explanatory, but before you learn how to SUP, you should learn how to swim first.  The rule of thumb is: don't go out further from shore than you could swim back on your own power.

This is the second video in this series: board handling and gear

In this video you learn how to protect your board from heat and fin damage, how to safely lift up and carry your board and some things to consider when choosing your first board.  At Blue Planet we always recommend trying several SUP's before choosing one as nothing beats trying a board to get an idea of whether it will work for you or not.  Balancing should be challenging at first, as your balance quickly improves.  We often talk to customers that bought their first board without trying it first and then finding out that it is just not a good board for their needs.  Let's face it, it does not matter how cheap a board is or how great the deal seems to be, if you don't enjoy using the board and it sits around collecting dust, it's a waste of money.  We want you to get out on the water and enjoy your board, so we want to make sure you get one that is right for you.  

Click here for more information on how to choose the right board and watch the video.

Click here for more information on our free SUP Clinics for Blue Plane customers.

Keep watching the playlist to see all 11 episodes on "How to Stand Up Paddle with Verena Mei"

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!

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.   Click here for more information on downwind coaching with offered by Blue Planet.

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'm narrating while doing a downwinder on a SIC 17 Bullet.  Turn up the volume to the max to hear.  I split it up into 3 videos to keep them shorter, enjoy!  
This is a playlist with downwinder videos, so just keep watching to see all our downwind videos.

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

Aloha, Robert Stehlik

www.blueplanetsurf.com

2012 Molokai to Oahu race coaching bootcamp by Robert Stehlik

If you ask anyone who has raced in the Molokai to Oahu race what the hardest part of the race was, the answer will most likely be: the last few miles.   Being prepared and training for this last part is key to having a good race, so for the last couple of years, I offered to coach some racers on race strategy, picking a good line and doing a run from Sandy Beach to Hawaii Kai to prepare for the Molokai race. 

This year, Jeff Chang and I joined together to offer a Molokai race training workshop the Wednesday before the race and we had a great group of nine first time Molokai racers sign up.  Although all the participants were experienced racers and have spent a lot of time training and preparing for this race, everyone said they learned a lot.  

The M2O race is considered the ultimate challenge in SUP and when I first got into SUP racing, completing the M2O race became a big goal of mine.  I often hear from new SUP racers that completing this race is on their bucket list.  I have talked to several paddlers doing this race for the first time that say they enjoyed my race recaps and videos on this blog and that it helped them prepare for the race as there is not much information out there.

I decided to put together this post and the narrated video to put out more information for anyone planning to participate in this race.  

Here is a video of the workshop:

We are planning to hold this workshop again next year, so if you are interested check back with us a few weeks before the race as we limit it to 10 participants.

Here is a recap of our workshop.

Molokai to Oahu race coaching workshop

Stand Up Paddle race technique workshop, presented by Blue Planet Surf and Wet Feet, open only to racers signed up for the M2O race.

Coached by:  Robert Stehlik and Jeff Chang

Date: Thursday July 26th, meet at the dirt parking lot close to the finish line of the Molokai race, look for the trailer.

8 am - load boards on the trailer, go over race strategy, explain objectives. Set finish of race as waypoint on GPS for navigating.

8:15 to 9:00 - drive to China Wall (Portlock point)- go over reef areas and talk about options and strategy depending on conditions on race day.

9:15 to 12:00- drive to Sandy Beach, launch through break and paddle downwind along coast, past Hanauma Bay, along Portlock to finish through rough waters to prepare for last few miles of Molokai race.  Faster paddlers will paddle past China Walls several times, exploring several lines.  Debrief on beach, Q&A

M2O bootcamp course- this map shows the course we paddled as well as the straight "rum line" from the start to the finish and the recommended line for the Molokai race.

This map shows the whole M2O race course, with the straight "rum line" and the recommended line: going a little north of the "rum line" at first and ending up along the wall at Portlock point.

I did the race as part of a 3 man team this year, partnering with Jeff Chang and Doug Lock, sponsored by Bluerush Boardsports in Sausalito, CA.  Some of the screenshots in the video show the actual course we took during the race. Here is the complete GPS data from our race:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/204630679

Below is a gopro video of the start and first leg of the Molokai race:

Aloha, Robert Stehlik
www.blueplanetsurf.com

Downwind Coaching video by Robert Stehlik

I shot this video with a headmount gopro cam this morning on a downwind coaching run from Hawaii Kai to Kahala with two students, Sean and Dalbert.  I did a voiceover and think this is a helpful video to watch for anyone new to downwind standup paddling.



This is a downwind coaching session with voiceover. A grey, overcast morning on July 7th, 2011. For more information on downwind lessons, please visit:
http://blueplanetsurf.com/collections/lessons/products/downwind-coaching-hawaii-kai-to-kahala-downwinder

Aloha,
Robert Stehlik
www.blueplanetsurf.com