Many paddlers struggle with keeping their board tracking in a straight line. Supboardguide.com coach Bill Dawes looks at the reasons why this happens, and what to do about them.
Paddling in a relatively straight line is something that many paddlers have issues with. For sure, a little bit of ‘essing’ (paddling in more of an ‘s-shaped’ line) is inevitable, simply due to the fact that we’re paddling on one side and then the other. However, if you’re finding that you’re having to change sides with your paddle every few strokes because your board is turning so much, then there may well be some problem with your technique or your equipment.
Many of the issues addressed in this blog are a whole lot easier to see than to describe, so do check out our video on youtube accompanying this article.
Environmental Factors
Before we get into looking at the technique issues, let’s just rule out a few other factors that may be at play. First thing to understand is that the turning might simply be down to the environment you’re paddling in. If you’re paddling straight into the wind or current, your board is always going to be wanting to turn more because the wind or water flow is trying to ‘weathercock’ your board. So whatever board you’re on and however good you are, when you’re paddling into the wind or current, you’re going to have to change sides more often.
Equipment Factors
Likewise, another really important thing to understand is that board shape plays a part. Shorter boards are less directional, likewise wider boards. So if you’re on a short and wide board, such as a board designed for surfing, then it’s undoubtedly going to be a whole lot more prone to turning! It’s not your fault, it’s just the nature of the board. So with a board like that, you really will need to change sides with your paddle more often (or use advanced paddle steering techniques such as draw strokes).
Fin size and configuration plays a part too. A small, swept back fin is far less directional than a larger upright fin.
So that might be your problem right there. It’s nothing to do with your paddle technique or skills at all, you’re simply on a short wide board with small fins, trying to paddle upwind.
There are a few other aspects of equipment which are worth ruling out too. If you find the board continually wants to turn one particular way (i.e. always to the right), there might simply be something wrong with your board or paddle. Indeed I’ve been caught out by this on several occasions when trying to help a client cure their tendency for turning in one particular direction. After an on-water session where I simply could not find any obvious issue with a person’s technique, I flicked the board over when we returned to shore and discovered that their fin had about 40° of twist in it!
So if your board seems to always be wanting to turn one way, then make sure that the fin is straight when you’re looking at it from behind, and not twisted or leaning to one side. Likewise, make sure that the board itself doesn’t have twist in it. Another thing I encounter surprisingly regularly, indeed in my 15 years of working with inflatable paddleboards, I’ve encountered literally hundreds that were twisted.
Pick your board up by the tail, leaving the nose on the ground, and look down the length of the board from the tail to the nose. You may well find that your board has a degree of twist in it. If the board is relatively new then this should be grounds for a warranty return. If the board is past its warranty date or already second hand, then it’s something you’re just going to have to live with. Unfortunately there is no way of removing the twist from the board.
Check out your paddle also. If you look down the paddle from the handle to the blade, the handle should of course be exactly aligned with the blade. If the extension section doesn’t have a groove to correctly align the handle, then you will just need to rotate the handle to the correct setting. If there’s an alignment groove but it’s in the wrong place, then you have a problem. Again, if it’s a new paddle you could ask for it to be changed. Otherwise, really it’s never going to be a great paddle.
Body Asymmetry
If there doesn’t appear to be any issue with your equipment, but your paddling remains very much biased towards turning in one particular direction, then it may well be that you simply have a natural body asymmetry.
Again, this is really common. Virtually everyone has a natural lead side, which they tend to default to for regular routine stuff (writing, opening the door, picking things up, cleaning your teeth, etc), thus making it a bit stronger. However, if you have a sport or hobby that utilizes your strong side, such as racquet sports, archery, golf, etc, then you’re going to be significantly stronger on that side of your body.
Which of course will manifest itself in your paddling, and as a result you’ll put more power through the paddle on one side or the other. You can’t necessarily assume that it’ll be the side of your stronger arm, because it will depend on your paddling style. If you’re a right handed tennis player then your right hand will be at the top when you’re paddling on the left so it’ll be giving you more downward force, but when you’re paddling on the right you might instinctively be pulling back harder with it, causing more turn. Either way, the result can be more turn one way than the other, and you’re ending up doing maybe six strokes on one side and four on the other, or whatever.
The most important thing with body asymmetry is simply recognising it for what it is. It’s not a problem as such, and you don’t necessarily need to do anything about it. You can just live with it, and paddle those extra strokes on one side. No big deal. Alternatively, you can try and train it out, and work on building up the other side of your body. Personally, I usually recommend the first option, as it really isn’t a big deal to live with a bit of asymmetry. Plus which, you don’t necessarily want to be stressing your weaker side too much. Shoulders are extremely complex joints, and there are a whole lot of smaller support muscles that can easily get overloaded.
Position on the Board
So as you can see, there are plenty of factors that are important to rule out before we start even thinking about paddle technique. And we haven’t got there yet, because another important factor is simply where you’re standing on the board.
If you’re too far back, as shown above, then it will make the board more pivotal. Make sure your feet are either side of the handle. This is where the board is (almost always) designed to be paddled from. You could even stand a few inches forward from that.
Head Position
Talking of position, one other little tip that is always worth bearing in mind. It’s a well-established rule in boardsports that where your head goes, your board follows. In other words, if you’re looking to the right, your board will tend to turn in that direction – and vice versa. When higher speeds are involved, such as when you’re surfing or downwinding, this becomes really important, indeed critical. It’s almost impossible to crank a really hard surfing turn without leading it with your head. Generally, it’s not such an issue when you’re simply paddling forward in a straight line, as you tend to be naturally looking straight ahead anyway. However, if you’re paddling along beside a friend and turning to face them, then you’re quite likely going to find that you’re also tending to paddle towards them. Another scenario where the ‘head effect’ can be noticeable is if you’re trying to paddle in one direction while keeping an eye on a potential threat/hazard off to one side or the other. Maybe an obstruction in the water, maybe an approaching watercraft. Maybe even an approaching fin! However, simply by looking at it, you might just also be turning your board towards it. Which may well not be the ideal outcome.
Paddling Technique
So now let’s get into the paddling technique issues. The most common error which causes the board to turn is actually really simple. If your paddle is at an angle across your body instead of vertical when you’re paddling, then that’s your problem right there.
It’s a fact of paddleboarding that every stroke has some element of turning force in it, because you’re not doing the stroke exactly on the centerline of the board. (For obvious reasons – there’s a board in the way!). So it’s out to one side, and no matter how straight and true the stroke may be, the power from the stroke makes the board rotate around its center of lateral resistance. The closer you can get your paddle blade to the board’s longitudinal center line, the less this happens. (Which is one of the reasons why narrow raceboards are so directional; your stroke is happening very close to the centerline.). And conversely, if you’re holding your paddle at an angle so the blade is further away from the side of the board, and also scooping out at an angle rather than directly down, you’re greatly increasing the turning component of each stroke.
So what you’re aiming for in a good stroke is to get the paddle shaft as vertical as possible. However, this is surprisingly difficult to judge from your own paddler’s perspective, so the best plan is to get a friend to video you. Paddle directly towards them, and then you can see how vertical your paddle shaft is.
If it’s significantly angled, there are two ways to get it more vertical. Either push your top hand across to the other side more, or break very slightly at the waist so you’re leaning into the stroke a little bit. Start with trying to adjust your top hand position, because this is the easiest and most efficient fix. Breaking at the waist is something you will see a lot of pro sailors doing, and done right it’s effective, but it’s a tricky one to get right because it encourages weight onto the inside foot, or an instinctive counterbalance by sticking the hips out in the other direction, neither of which are great habits to get into. So at intermediate level or below, just work on getting that top hand across to achieve that vertical shaft.
The second common but easy mistake to fix, is the natural inclination to follow the curve of the board with your paddle. “Put the paddle in up by the nose”, your instructor may have told you. And good advice indeed. But what they didn’t mean was put it right by the nose, because then the path of the paddle will end up tracking outwards, as the nose of your board is significantly narrower than where you’re standing.
So what you actually need to do is put the paddle in up front, but far enough out from the side of your board that your paddle appears to follow a path through the water exactly parallel to your direction of travel. You want to go straight, so it needs to go straight!
Other things to check are that your paddle blade is completely submerged during the power phase of your stroke. If it’s not fully engaged then it’s not working properly, and you may well find that the paddle ‘flutters’ as it goes through the water, which is also going to introduce a lot of turn into the stroke.
There are many other subtle aspects of technique which will have an effect on how directional your paddling is, but they can be summarized simply as – the aim of paddling is to pull yourself forward, rather than push yourself forward. Imagine you’re on a skateboard, and you lean forward to grab something and pull yourself up to it. It’s very easy to hold your line doing that, indeed, it’s hard not to. Whereas if you push off against something behind you to make the board surge forward, it’s kind of impossible to get any proper directional stability that way – you’ll get some forward speed for sure, but your board can go in any direction.
So how does that relate to paddling? Well, if you plant your paddle nice and far forward, and then apply power so that the board moves up to the paddle, you’re essentially pulling yourself forward. Whereas pushing yourself forward is what happens if the paddle blade is being powered up as it passes you and/or goes behind you.
This is all getting into the realms of more sophisticated paddle technique work, for which we’ll refer you to our other articles and videos, which cover this in far more detail. Improving your technique is always a worthwhile goal, as well as allowing you to paddle straighter, it’ll also allow you to paddle faster and further for less effort, and reduce the risk of injury.
For now though, hopefully these essential tips will help you ensure that your environment or equipment is not to blame, and you’re getting the fundamentals right.
What NOT To Do
Let’s finish with a couple of things you don’t need to do. Firstly, we need to talk about steering strokes. This is where you actually do something with your paddle in the stroke to counteract the board’s tendency to turn. Other paddlecraft users may know them as J strokes or draw strokes. And for sure, many people coming into SUP from a kayaking background automatically assume that they need to incorporate some sort of correction into their stroke, as per a J stroke.
But this is not the case at all. For sure, steering strokes have their place in SUP, particularly in specialist environments such as river paddling, surf paddling, some racing scenarios, etc. But for general paddling, they should not be used, because they are inefficient – much of your stroke quality is lost by introducing the corrective element. You are far better off just learning to paddle well so that you don’t need to change sides too often. Proper symmetrical paddling using both sides will always beat paddling on one side only using a steering stroke.
Once you’ve learned to paddle properly using both sides, then for sure, learn to do steering strokes. But they absolutely should not be used to correct a technique deficiency that is causing your paddleboard to turn too much.
Finally, you’ll encounter a lot of advice online about how you can correct a board’s tendency to turn by weight shifting; putting more weight on one side of the board than the other. This also is fundamentally wrong. While weight shifting has a place in advanced turning techniques, it absolutely has no place or relevance in making a board track in a straight line. Indeed, if you’re at an early stage of your paddleboarding journey then attempting asymmetric weighting is deeply destabilizing.
In Summary
Check your gear, and then if that’s all good, work on ensuring that your paddle is entering the water relatively vertically, not tracking along the nose of the board, and you’re pulling yourself forward rather than pushing yourself forward.
We hope you find these tips useful and hopefully your paddling will be much straighter as a result. Check the video to see it all explained with on-water footage, and if you’re still having problems feel free to leave a comment below (or better still, under the video), and we’ll do our best to get back to you and answer any questions.
Bill Dawes has been coaching SUP at all levels for 16 years, during which time he has built up a vast amount of knowledge and experience in understanding how to teach the sport. Check out his other videos on our channel, which cover everything from beginner mistakes to advanced paddling technique. To book your own personal online coaching session with Bill check out supcoachonline.com
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