Saturday, July 28, 2012

Fat Ass: Stand up paddle boards aren't made for the tube.

Stand up boards are wide. Even the narrowest ones (26" is a really narrow stand up board) are whales compared to modern surfboards. That's why it's so difficult to tube ride a stand up board. The wide tail and fat hips generate so much speed that our boards won't hang easily in the really steep, powerful cup that forms the opening of the tube. Time and again, when faced with a good barrel section, I've had to "hang out the laundry" (check out the photo to see what hanging out the laundry means!) to slow myself down to even get the smallest cover up. Barrel riding a stando is tough. I've come to the conclusion that it's more about anticipating the section, stalling a bottom turn to punch yourself into the hook, than simply pulling up and in as you fly down the line. And more often than not, if you're jamming down the line to make sections, you'll miss the tube. Unlike J-Lo, a stando's fat ass is sometimes a pain in one.

Photo: Manny Vargas, www.mannyvphoto.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

youre right John-for the most part, and since im mainly in kinda crappy waves with little to no green room, i surf mainly now building speed to gauge a big bottom turn and try to crank as hard a top turn as i can.Trying to work on really timing the bottom turn, not scrubing too much speed and get my sup as close to vertical as possible. 1 out of 10 results in a great turn, the other 9 are some pretty epic wipeout, mistiming the top turn either too early or late, but hey its all part of the fun, i dont know what i would do honestly if i saw an open tube on my sup, ok i would go for it and pray i didnt get smashed!
Jon

John Ashley said...

You know what I CANNOT do? I can't come off the top and snap it the way your boy and guys like Boehne do... I always end up unbalanced, paddle straight up in the air like I'm waving a flag- super dorky. I pray a lot, it helps.