Hi, pretty much a SUP newby, I've been doing some distance paddles on using a 7" Fanatic paddle. I find it a really nice paddle for 2 hour paddles. Using it surfing over the weekend, really reefing on the shaft scratching for take offs I was thinking a stiffer shaft with an 8" blade would be more suited to this type of 'sprint application'.
Any thoughts generally? Stick to the one paddle, or spend some more bucks on a more specific surf paddle, and if so, what should I be looking for?
Personally I'd stick with the 7" blade.. an 8" blade will also be good..
I think the only reason to have a separate paddle for surfing would be to have it slightly shorter.
DJ
depends how big you are.... some of the companies wave blades are very large, and run with a shorter shaft. I'd try a few first. 7" is very small. my wife uses a naish mikana 8"
I should have said, 82kegs, 185cm tall.
I found when I was reefing on the 7" I was getting a lot of air coming in behind the blade. I've never had this issue doing long paddles, it was just the 3 desperate scratches to get onto a wave where I noticed I wasn't getting max traction.
How much shorter would a surf paddle generally be than a flat water paddle?
Done a bit more research, I'm thinking now to stay with the same blade size that I'm currently using, but going for a slightly shorter but much stiffer shaft.
Anyone else done this?
Just picked up a Quck Blade 110 off Buy&Sell - should be able to try it out this w/e!
Check out this link
www.quickbladepaddles.com/documents/QB_choose_paddle_chart_sm.pdf
I run a 8" blade with a really stiff shaft for the surf.
I find that it is great for instant acceleration, especially for those late take-offs or the desperate scratch to make it over the set.
I am lucky enough to be making my own paddles so have had a lot of different ones to test out to find the best one.
I've had a go now with the QB 110 I picked up off Buy & Sell.
Paddling my 9'5" Naish Mana into 30kmh winds with the board wanting to stop after every stroke, it was a good workout, I felt the QB just let me monster the board through the chop.
Will def use the QB as my surfing SUP paddle!
