SUP Forward Stroke

Hi, I'm Jimmy Blakeney, with Standup.paddling.com, here to talk to you about the great sport of standup paddle boarding. In this video, we're going to talk about the forward stroke. The forward stroke is the stroke you're going to use if you want to get somewhere.

With this stroke, there are a couple of key points that are going to get you started towards having really good technique. I have a really simple way of explaining this, and what it starts with is this position. This is what I call the start and the finish position. Notice that I'm holding the T grip with my thumb pointed down, and the power face of the paddle, which is the part that you typically pull on when you're doing a forward stroke, that's facing up.

So I'm holding the paddle, and notice that my arms don't have to bend at all in order for me to really get a lot of range of motion with my paddle. All right, that's a key point.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to have the start position. I'm going to rotate my hips and shoulders. Paddle goes vertical. Again, the number one rule of paddling, my paddle blade goes fully in the water before I pull. Then I'm going to come back to my toe, drop the top hand, and I'm back to the start position.

So it's a really simple three part process. Rotate hips and shoulders, paddle vertical. Number one rule of paddling, the blade is fully in the water before I pull. I come back to my toe, and I drop my top hand.

Be sure to visit Standup.paddling.com for more information on all things SUP, including more videos and a SUP buyer's guide.