So normally I do a normal "surf" bottom turn and then on the top turn I might dig in my paddle to help get some speed and a bit of extra torque to turn the board around - but I was really just taking a paddle at the top of the wave

But today I accidentally did something that I should have been doing all the time. As I did it I had flash-backs to videos of good sup-surfers doing something similar (but they were doing it properly).

As I went in to the bottom turn (the waves were pretty small) I jammed my paddle in the wave. I then use it as leverage to twist my body, and thus the board into a much faster bottom turn. As I was going back up the wave (again, small wave), I again used the paddle, embedded in the wave, as leverage to twist my body, and thus the board, back down the wave.

I could only practice it a few times as the waves were pretty puny, but I found I could really put a lot of force into the paddle to really twist my body, and thus the board, into a much faster turn. Keeping the paddle in the wave also gave me some stability after the cut-back so I could make the turn faster and faster and still be in control to initiate the next turn.

It felt great.

It felt right.

I am not sure why it has taken me this long to figure it out...

(On a bigger wave I could probably only do this on the top-turn.)

Curious to know your thoughts.