Here are some of our teaching videos about SUP, which hopefully you will find useful. Click here to view just the SUP COACH SHARES youtube shorts vids.
The longer-form videos were made in conjunction with American magazine supboardguide.com. There are also many written articles from us on their blog pages.
Use the filter controls below to choose which categories of video you would like to see.
How to paddle faster
Paddling faster isn’t just for racers; every paddler benefits from being able to step it up a bit when they need to. So is it something you need to learn how to do, or is it something that you just do? It seems kind of intuitive - you just, well, paddle faster, right? But what does that look like in practice? For most people, trying to ‘paddle faster’ actually tends to end up as ‘paddling a whole lot more inefficiently, with a bunch of splashing and loads of effort’, with only a very slight change in speed achieved. Or it manifests as a crazy high-tempo paddling style with a huge number of inefficient short little strokes per minute, which very quickly has your heart-rate at red-lining levels, and is utterly unsustainable for anything other than short bursts. So how do you go faster, in a sustainable, efficient fashion? In this video, we’ll go through the various factors one by one and help you understand what’s going on, so that you can go out and experiment for yourself on what works best for you. Because that’s the first important point right there, and one we’re constantly banging on about - there is no one right way to paddle. The best approach for you to go faster may be totally different to the best approach for your mate.
The 4 Pillars of SUP Safety
There’s a lot of information online about paddleboarding safety but it’s nearly always about what safety equipment you need - which is actually just one part of the picture. Bill Dawes has been National Safety Officer for New Zealand stand up paddleboarding for many years, during which time he has been researching the subject in huge depth, to gain the fullest possible picture of what goes wrong, how it goes wrong, why it goes wrong, and what knowledge do paddlers actually need to ensure that it doesn’t go wrong. The result of this research is a much wider perspective and picture on paddleboarding safety. In this video he discusses the four cornerstones of paddleboarding safety, which gives a whole new way of looking at how to be safe on the water.
The importance of paddling efficiently
What's the very best thing you can do to improve your paddleboarding? Hint - it's not going to the gym, nor buying faster equipment. Sup coach online sets out the arguments why the most important aspect of improvement is so often the one that gets the least attention.
How To Improve your Stand Up Paddleboard Technique
In this video, we take a deep dive into paddling technique; what's really going on in the SUP stroke and how you can improve it. This has been Bill's most highly acclaimed video on youtube, with thousands of likes and nearly 100 comments praising its content and quality.
Using a beltpack PFD for stand up paddleboarding? You MUST do this safety check!
If you use a belt pack (bum bag) waist mounted bouyancy aid, then it is vital you learn how to deploy it manually, and how to check that it all works OK. You should do this at least once a season, if not more. It's not just about servicing and maintaining this vital piece of safety equipment that you are trusting your life to, it is also about learning how to use it. A golden rule with any item of safety equipment that requires actions in order to make it work, is that you must practice with it. The first time you ever use it should NOT be in the actual emergency situation. If you've already practiced deploying your bouyancy aid you'll be infinitely better prepared if you do need it 'for real'. Note: You do NOT need to use up your gas canister in order to do these drills. Indeed, that's the great thing about this. If you're completely confident deploying your PFD without using the gas canister then you may not even decide to use it in a genuine emergency situation! And most importantly, if you did try to inflate it using the gas cylinder and for whatever reason it didn't work, you're not going to be stressed at all as you'll know exactly what to do.
Quick guide to board measurements
Length, width, volume, thickness, max weight - what is the actual relevance of these numbers, which ones matter and how do they compare? Here's a quick summary of what it all means.
Understanding SUP Board Lengths
Paddleboards come in many lengths. So what difference does it make, and what is the right length for you? SUP COACH explains all...
Why do your feet hurt when you're paddleboarding?
Almost every single newcomer to paddleboarding will experience this. SUP COACH explains why it happens and the really easy fixes you can utilise to deal with it.
are you getting your blade deep enough in your paddleboard stroke?
How deep should your paddle blade go into the water when you are stand up paddleboarding? A lot of paddleboarders get this wrong and dramatically reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of their paddleboard stroke.
Improve your paddleboarding technique by using your ears
Listening to your SUP paddling tells you a whole lot about how efficient your paddle stroke is, as we explain in this video short.