I filmed myself trying flat water paddle ups for the first time today, and think I see why I feel like I can’t get speed: I’m sinking the tail, despite standing on the mast with back foot and said mast is slammed fwd. It felt like I wasn’t engaging the foil so getting fwd didn’t make sense to me.
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private account.
Fixed thanks!
Not an expert but I think you need higher cadence and shallower more effective strokes. My feeling as a complete sup kook figuring it out is to get very clean very smooth strokes going at a nice high cadence and then ramp up the effort to engage the foil, but appreciate that getting those clean smooth strokes is going to take a lot of effort.
It looks like as you start to put effort in your cadence drops and the accuracy gets bad.
Also I find this super difficult to put power down and go fast enough to engage the foil. By no means have I cracked it, but have made progress
On the fitness, you need the fitness to get 30 full power full accuracy strokes to “crack” the paddle up consistently on smaller foils, and I can get about 15 before it falls apart on the accuracy and 20 I get gassed… (up to 40 which is really impressive).
Paddle across the frame next time. Side to side. Can’t really confirm it from the angle the video is shot at, but, you’re paddling to far behind yourself. Your paddle should be coming out of the water by the time it get’s to your feet. It should be entering the water by the nose of the board.
Short, high cadence strokes, no splash.
Keep your paddle shaft vertical and right down the rail. You’re losing some power having that angle in the shaft and paddling further away from the rail.
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Also, I wonder if very small waves like this might be harder than flat, for learning at least? I felt like as soon as the waves passed under I could feel any progress sucked away.
Yes, it’s the hardest possible condition to paddle up. Waves are only in your way, not providing any assistance.
EDIT: oh, and your stance is good. The better you get with the paddle, the further back you’ll stand like that. You should be leaning your whole body weight forward on “the catch” and don’t want to bury the nose. Think about how a surfboard is when we’re prone paddling around the lineup. It’s not balanced flat on the water. It’s nose up.
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watching my own clip, would appreciate any feedback or suggestions. I can get on foil pretty easily in bumps but on flat it remains a real nightmare on faster foils
Paddle technique is paddle technique. So it’s always the same answer unfortunately. Just like the answer is almost always foil harder and faster for other disciplines.
Your paddle is only fully engaged when it’s at your front foot and there is lots of splash which means you’re slapping the water. When there is splash like that, you’re getting air on the blade of the paddle and that size 105 paddle is less efficient, so it’s now a size 60 paddle.
The paddle is coming out behind your back foot. Think about the angle of the paddle blade on that exit. That whole stroke was pulling you down ONTO the water. If you can paddle up in front of your feet then the angle of the paddle blade is pushing you up OFF the water.
If you’d like to hear coherent breakdowns, Casey Club can articulate and identify flaws way better than I can. It’s better than buying a new tail. 
That being said, you’re doing great. Getting off the water is what matters. The very last clip shows how slow the 1300 is to gain speed. You get up (could’ve done 2 more paddles maybe) and then have to immediately pull off because the bump is going faster than you. Then you had time to gain speed and you hang with the 2nd one for a bit. Nice job.
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Thanks! Yeah it’s crazy how there is no getting around it. Initially I wasn’t sure that there could be much to refining it, but as a surfer and swimmer I just know that good technique most of the game, and you have to work 5x harder to get the same result with sloppy technique. Somehow I initially thought the same didn’t apply because it’s just a paddle 
If you’d like to hear coherent breakdowns, Casey Club can articulate and identify flaws way better than I can. It’s better than buying a new tail.
I need to join, summer so no excuses!
Yeah this is why I give the 1300 a chance, it gives you time to get on foil, orient and find a bump well below the speed most can paddle at.
Thanks!
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Other than what have been already said-
I agree with Hdip on that Paddle Technique it’s paddle technique.
From what I see, you’re bouncing up and down trying to make to board/foil flight right away, you first need to gain forward speed. And for forward speed you’ll better gain it by leaning your weight forward, let the big muscles (high back and glutes and hips) to do the leverage by falling into the paddle and moving your board forward. In other words, you are not putting the blade to move it towards you - You want to stick the blade, lean over it and make the board and yourself towards the blade - sounds weird, but I think it makes a lot of difference in concepts. Do not depend so much on smaller muscles like your arms, you just need them to get locked in an slightly flexed position (not totally extended, not super flexed) so they just serve as energy transfer from your big back and lateral back muscles to your paddle. Do some drills, just to improve and finesse your technique before going all out on trying to paddle up (it’s really harsh on the cardio and body).
Also yes, as you mentioned, it’s harder on choppy and super small waves, it’ll help to have a clean glassy take off track.
Hope this help!
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