Downwind Technique

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These are some general ideas to try and keep in mind as a beginner downwinding. But what you will learn over time is that some choices and techniques will apply more to your benefit in specific conditions that can vary tremendously depending on where you paddle and what the weather and waves are doing. The greater variety of on-water conditions you experience and practice in, the more you will increase your ability to recognize and adjust your tactics to your advantage - usually…

• Important Basics
  • Keep your speed up. Speed begets speed. It will be much easier to catch waves and avoid being swamped from behind. This will be easier said than done, but it is important to keep in mind and the benefit will become more evident as you improve your downwinding.
  • Focus on what's in front of you, scanning from 10 to 2 looking for waves to form and for holes to drop into.
  • Use smaller waves. They can help you gain speed to get on larger waves if they are worth catching. Sometimes larger waves lead to fast dives which may be fun but may also result in losing speed and maintaining far less continuity and far less extension of runs. If you can diagonal across larger waves then you may be able to extend your runs on them, but learning how to spot smaller waves first will likely lead to greater overall skill in reading the water and finding ways to efficiently get your longest possible runs while maintaining energy and strength in reserve.
• Paddling Straight With Waves
  • When getting up to speed or regaining speed your best chance to catch a wave is paddling perpendicular to the wave line, perfectly parallel with the wave direction.
  • There can be a moment when maximum power is applied to catch a wave when your boat may seem less stable. (Dawid Mocke on the zone of uncertainty) You have to get used to that. Incrementally increase the size of waves and conditions you practice in. Try to maximize opportunities when the water and weather are warmer when you don't mind (as much) getting wet. If you keep backing off to brace you won't be catching nearly as many waves. So you want to build confidence in being able to continue applying power until you are definitely on the wave and can then brace and/or steer a diagonal without losing the wave.
  • Sometimes you can also catch a wave a little sooner or hang on to a wave longer if you lean forward - moving your center of gravity a little forward
• Paddling Diagonally Across Waves
  • Once you have caught a wave you may not want to continue paddling parallel with the wave direction.
  • Too much speed directly down your wave face will maximize the likelihood of diving into the back of the wave in front of you, burying your nose and losing all that speed you worked so hard to get. But there are times when the wave in front is starting to drop and you can keep speed, either crashing through the top of the wave in front or just paddling over the flat that has developed in front of you, keeping speed until you can jump all the way to the next trough in front that is catchable.
  • If the backside of the wave in front of you is too steep/large to push through or jump over then don't go straight down your wave face; surf down at an angle. You can avoid diving into the wave back in front, while keeping your speed staying on your current wave.
  • One trick to paddling at angles and changing angles while surfing on waves is to not turn too far and broach.
  • In big waves you may not want or be able to angle sideways. If you are going to hit the wave in front of you, you can lessen the force of your nose plant and loss of speed by leaning back. You can also brace a little harder and/or drag a hand in the water to shed speed and sometimes avoid over running the wave you want to stay on.
• Gateways
  • changing direction - the intersections of waves traveling at different angles can provide easier “gateways” for passage over waves. Look for these intersections to sometimes guide your angle on the waves you are angling across. These gateways are opportunities to switch to the other waves you are intersecting with and/or to jump ahead to the next wave in the direction you are currently following.
  • maintaining speed - instead of losing speed because all you seem to have in front of you is the backside of waves either too large to climb, you are too tired to climb, or maybe most importantly - you want to minimize exhausting your energy supply on, look for gaps between waves or the lower outside edges or shoulders of waves. These gaps may not pull you along like the sweet pockets behind nice waves, but they can allow you to more easily keep your speed up and give you time to spot and hop onto more waves to ride.
• Missing Waves
  • Don't waste your energy paddling up the back of a wave. If you miss a wave, let it pass underneath you and jump on the next.
  • Repeatedly missing waves and sliding down their backsides is called “wallowing”.
  • You are going to miss waves but if you miss one there is always going to be the next one. If your boat filled with water or you lost too much speed it may take a number of waves before you recover enough speed to get back in sync with the waves
  • Chasing the Right Waves For You TCSurfski
• Bracing While Surfing
  • Boyan Z., in Tarifa, teaches students while surfing to brace on the side you are angling toward. Regardless of any steering effect, when you are on the front of a wave the side you are angling toward allows a brace on your wave somewhat higher than your boat level requiring little or no lean. Most of the time what you want is very light contact with complete relaxation and little application of force so that you do not lose any speed but you still can instantly respond to any upsetting force if needed.
  • Keep in mind - the harder you have to brace the more you will slow down. You CAN increase your turning capacity with your paddle via a brace or rudder stroke, but you have to BALANCE what you gain from extra turning/steering ability against the accompanying loss of speed which will lead to less control and more difficulty staying on or catching waves.
• Steering
  • “Initiate your turns by tilting your ski, like a surfer uses her board to carve. Minimize the use of your rudder.”
    • Wait a second - ​​​​​​according to who? ​Not so sure about this one - we've heard it before but it may be fairly minimal and variable depending on specific surfski model design. Experiment with your own surfski and see what you can do in various conditions. Start with small waves then if you prove you can steer effectively with boat lean move up and test your technique in bigger waves. Getting more comfortable with boat tilt while maintaining forward stroke power is not a bad way to improve your rough water paddling in general anyway.
  • Pumping/resetting rudder pedals/angle in a stall (to recover steering)
  • by the same token, steering too much in waves can tend to work as braking and slow your boat down causing you to drop off of or miss waves
• Summary
  • You have to work a combination of the above suggestions - conservation of energy, your level of fitness, competition or fun, and specific wave and wind conditions can indicate what to work on and what to pay less attention to. But learn to look for and stay on smaller waves when there are clear options between bigger and smaller swell and wind waves and swell waves. Tarifa (Boyan Z.) Video about making choices. Recognizing and being able to work with smaller wave options will help your continuity in all kinds of conditions.
  • Remember, time spent in downwinding conditions is extremely important: there is a lot to learn. Listen to Clint Robinson interviewing Greg Barton
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A somewhat related transition to learning downwinding for many paddlers is going from flatwater paddling to open ocean paddling. If you live somewhere where there are waves to surf but little or no ocean swell you may have the luxury of being able to learn to downwind paddle without quite as much dynamic energy in the water (or shore break to deal with) as is often present in locations fully exposed to ocean swell. Examples include the Columbia River Gorge and much of Puget Sound where islands block swell across a large area of marine shoreline. Even Tarifa (because of its unique location at the intersection of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean?) does not typically get large ocean swell (on rougher days the Bajeta tide race can get interesting). Such places may offer their own unique challenges but they will probably not completely prepare you for open ocean paddling. That experience you will only get by spending time paddling in places where you are fully exposed to ocean swell. Also take into consideration that many open ocean paddling locations have their own particular character (and challenges, and risk?) that you may need to learn to adjust to and get competent in after you already have some open ocean experience. All this being said, the more competent and confident you are with basic technique where you can fully rely on your forward stroke for good connection and forward movement in the water, the better prepared you will be to make the transition into paddling through a variety of on water conditions.

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Something that usually accompanies learning to paddle where there is real swell is learning to get in and out through shore break. This wiki includes suggestions, videos, etc. about this skill, but it clearly is one only acquired through significant practice and experience.

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