I’d be interested if Clayton has an input on this, if you’ve observed any 2stroke paddlers, or if anyone else has an idea.

Personally, I’m not a stickler for the 2 strokes, as on many breaks, the bus stop changes a little each wave or set (esp beach breaks) so at least a little bit of paddling around is needed (out / in ect) to be in position. I’m also not great at following rules, and 2 strokes seems a bit arbitrary to me- to me it’s tells me some speed generation is needed, but not too much- I’m taking the concept rather than the number 😂 .

As such, I can’t vouch for the 2 paddle part but would be curious if anyone else can has experience in this!

I wonder if Bethany Hamilton with a one arm paddle and good positioning is the inspiration for 2 strokes- she seems to get into anything with limited paddle power!

Firstly, sounds amazing!

secondly, interesting question!

I may be mistaken, but there’s an equation demonstrating that is mathmatically impossible to paddle fast enough to catch a wave over a certain size on a shortboard, so other physical forces (ie gravity) from dropping in must be used. The bigger and more powerful the wave, the faster you’d need to go to match the speed and catch it (unless you use other forces, such as gravity- and there’s more of this for grabs on a big steep wave) However, as riding guns and tow surfing demonstrates, there’s a limit to using this for bigger, more powerful, sucking waves! I’m guessing the gun enables more plaining from it’s increases surface area, but also provides more paddle speed- I imagine paddling faster is one factor that influences the equation- but if it’d be enough to make a difference, I don’t know.

Another question is, is hard paddling going to be faster (or would there just be more resistance from splashing?), or is it fast just to do some smooth strokes?

The OREO was a game changer form me too and quadrupled my wave count- esp on heavy, steeper waves. I did have this question too however, but mine was more for using the OREO for flat waves with a shortboard when gravity can’t help me much. I noticed for some of the longboard waves in Hawaii, paddling earlier or even continuing to paddle when I’d usually arch my back, glide and look down the line helped as the wave wasn’t steep enough for gravity to help me in - the glide never came and the wave never broke (it got deep again and reformed)- but maybe I was also too far back. While the steeper waves, the OREO worked a treat.

However, these werent overhead head sucking barrels by any means (more head high, steep, punchy and fun!)

I’d curious if there’s any other input!

This is gold! The explanation of how the head and body allignement leads to pop up successes vs fails makes so much sense.

I wouldn’t say pop ups are a big challenge for me, but I do get days where I mess up a fair few, and I seemed in position so don’t know what went wrong. This really explains the times I fail- as I revert to sideways stance (and old habit I’m breaking) and get off balance straightening- esp if the wave is flatter. The explanation of using gravity to put the board under you also makes so much sense and explains the times the pop up can feel easy and smooth on steeper waves

This is great! I was actually just reflecting on lines surfing in Hawaii- some breaks made it easy to go top to botton, cut back and maintain speed - these were the high performance shortboard waves. For the longobarder heavy waves, that same manouver wasn’t working for me as the waves don’t truely break or they werent steep enough (they hit deeper water soon after breaking and reform to a soft, flat wave face) -so Id loose the wave if I cut back too far and hit the wave reform accidently- it was not what the wave was giving me (likely a speed issue too and wrong board!) and I figured I needed to be more creative (and read the wave better!) to surf it well!

South east England is no surfing hot spot! I’m sure when I was looking into places to live in the UK, I recall that there were surf clubs in London taking weekend trips to share costs and transit prices.

It’s only 3 hours by train from London to Swansea, wales (my home), from there it’s a 20min drive to numerous different breaks in the gower. Trouble is you need a car once there (or it’s 1-3 more hours by public bus), and driving from London to the gower takes more like 5 hours. It’s often messy too! If they don’t have a car, there’s a train to Newquay, corwall that drops you right at the beach but from London it’s 5-7 hours and so expensive!

If I was in London, given the cheap flights from there and proximity to airports, I might go for a weekend in morroco or Portugal, warmer and likely cheaper than Uk travel and better waves! 😉

Nothing to add to Clayton ans Graham’s points (I was wondering about a more angled line, so happy to see I was on the right track!)

Walk up is looking good though! 😊

Dean Vrecko apologies, I realized you might just mean tight Achilles in general!! If so, I’d only suggest standing straighter may also make it easier to get the back foot down (I’m thinking of pros in small barrels- back heal is often up), and it also looks like you are stacking the front foot (which is good!) as if you stacked the back, the heal would lower more. I’m a fan of yoga for flexibitly if you still want to work on it! But if you ever Achilles tendinitis, you have some advice 😂🤣😂

I like you are looking where you are going- ever seen the research on mental imagery- apparently activates the same part of your brain as actually doing the activity so- pretty cool!

Dean Vrecko beyond the pointers pop up looks good!! That mat looks great- did you buy or make it? You tried on the bostsu ball?

Is that Achilles tendinitis you have? If so, how long has it been an issue and what medical assistance have you sought?

As a general rule, 0-6 month is considers acute, while 6month plus is chronic (theoretically healed). For chronic pain, Pain BC have great resources devised by experts in the field.

There are a range of interventions including physio, surgery (extreme cases), lasers, taping. Additionally, pain is multifaceted, and diet, sleep, stress, mood, social support ect all interact.

For activity, generally a graded approach is reccomended if it’s chronic- avoid overdoing it and pain flair ups but also, keep moving. However, early in the acute phase it’s best to rest to let it heal. If you google “physio exercises for…” you can probably find booklets made by a university or health authority which will provided exercises devised by professionals- however it’s generally better to get properly assessed before pursing a rehab plan (as an OT I feel I need to disclaimer this!! but hope the resource pointers help!)

Love this! Great to see a woman's perspective! For me, I want to work on confidence and believe in myself!!

I'm an intermediate, unstylish surfer with tons to learn, but when I surf, I feel like I found a missing part of me - I grew up on a windy, cold coastline and have surfed for 20 years, tackling storm swells, onshore winds and snow. I take any opportunity to surf.

Yet, when I see a crowded peak (esp if it's full of men, has an aggressive vibe or its a world-class break), I feel like I don't belong, and sit down the line waiting for wide swinging peaks and take the dregs. Likewise, when the swell gets bigger, I may find somewhere it's breaking smaller- not just because I'm scared of the size, but also, due to imposter syndrome - I doubt I have the skill to even be out there despite having done 1000s of successful duck dives in my life - It's important to know your limits, but I'm sure there're are days I had the ability to ride bigger waves, but didn't even try. 

Cath Gito that’s a lot! Taiwan was around 21-30 degrees when I was there, but it was abnormally warm for that time of year. I back in Vancouver now- so cold and dark! I used to live there and dec-feb could get cold (down to 8) or have warm days (up to 25), shoulder seasons are nicest, summer too hot. It always rains in Taiwan!

If you are surfing, taitung in the south has the best surf and is beautiful. Yilan has its days. Let me know if you ever want any more info on taiwan!

I’ve wanted to go to Siargo for ages, but we didn’t this time due to it being typhoon season- hopefully one day though!