Beginning ocean paddling

Hi all,
When I was looking at getting my first ski recently, I received heaps of really helpful advice from this site so I'm now keen to pick your collective brains again.
I've now had my ski for a few weeks, had a really helpful lesson on the flat water and spent a fair bit of practise on the flat water and loving it. I live near the coast and am keen to do the majority of my paddling on the ocean so that is where I would like to end up.
So yesterday was the day to get out on the ocean for a paddle. It was by no means windy or rough but it turned out to be a very humbling experience. I think I travelled in total a few hundred metres spent more time in the water and got completely knackered in the process with all the climbing back on.
Are there any tricks to beginning on the ocean, helpful videos floating around the place or is it purely a case of racking up the hours on the ocean before feeling comfortable and stable and able to paddle more than a few strokes before having another swim?
Thanks for any advice.

Hawkey wrote: Are there any tricks to beginning on the ocean,..... or is it purely a case of racking up the hours on the ocean before feeling comfortable and stable and able to paddle more than a few strokes before having another swim?
Thanks for any advice.

What ski did you get?

Hours out there help, as well as trying to tag along with others and watching what they do. I found that having a high cadence allowed me to be ready to use a brace stroke if I needed. When I first started I needed to use a brace stroke or check me stroke about every 20 strokes. Used to count them and could tell improvement by the amount of strokes I could put in before I needed to brace or check my stroke.

When you are stable you can keep your hands up in front of your eyes as you paddle, but even the better paddlers will drop thier hands (so the stroke is flatter) to improve stability.

Make sure your paddle doesnt travel past your hips, that can create drag which will pull you in.

Dont pull the paddle down the side of the boat, the closer your paddle is to the ski the tippier you are, make sure once you have the blade in that it is travelling away from the boat as it comes back.

Hope this makes sense.

This is a basic video from Guy Leach that I found helpful when I first started out.

Welcome to surf skis.
Everyones experience will be different. But my summary is "time in the ski bucket...time in the bucket".

Refer: www.surfskiracing.com/2009/08/learning-t...ive-by-bill-lacomte/

Eventually you will not even think about balance most of the time, your body will eventually just subconsiously do what is required to keep you upright allowing you to concentrate more on going fast.
Importantly take small incremental steps (especially at first). I assume you have no issues with balance on flat water (river/lakes) without any wind? If so next step can you do the same in flatwater with a bit of wind/gusts etc, etc. Build you skill up gradually. The ocean is rarely still even on days with no wind....swells, wind generated waves, current plus wind itself all adds to the skill equation. Challenge yourself Re. conditions but don't take a big jump here and expect great results. Eventually as you skill level increases you will be fine. Until you get there be very mindful of your own safety...do you have a leash and know when to use and not use it? Consider the conditions carefully and if it is obviously beyond your skill level seek calmer water or give it a miss for another day.
Keep at it eventually it will happen.

Thanks for the replies and advice.
AR, I went with a second hand light weight prs. My thinking was that it would take a knock or 2 that any beginner would give it and if I decide to upgrade later, I thought this type of ski would hold its value and be easy to move on down the line. I hope that I am right with my thinking.
I'll take on board your tips and advice and try and get more paddling time in and step up in conditions gradually. I'm fine in flat water, however my last few paddles have been in absolute glass so perhaps that has given me a false sense of ability.
Is anyone able to explain what a brace stroke is for me?
Cheers.

After the last 5 or 6 paadling sessions in the Hawkesbury river training for the Classic, I decided to go for a paddle in the harbour as I was getting too much inspiration from watching all the down wind youtube videos.
I put in at Clontarf and paddled towards the heads and thought I'd go to Manly for a quick trip.
Within 5 minutes of rounding the point at Balgowlah Heights I'd gone all of 100 yards and decided to turn around. I dont know what made me think watching youtube videos would turn me into Oscar but I can see I need many hours practice before next years Bridge to Beach.
It wasnt a very rough or big swell day, just my enthusiasm far outweighed my skill.

Hi Hawley,

You asked what a brace stroke is. Technically it is a stoke in which the main purpose is to keep you upright! This probably doesn't help your understanding too much though at this stage!
Can I say that I have a normal paddling style which for me seems to produce the best speed in perfect conditions, this is a high paddling style. You will need to search articles on stoke analysis to understand what this means. As conditions get really nasty I often have to compromise this ideal stroke to gain stability....the fast ski is the upright ski (especially for me because of a leg disability a recovery from a swim in not super quick). So how is the stroke compromised?: depends on the conditions but it can get lower, rotation is sometimes compromised and the stroke ends earlier. The ultimate brace is a totally off stroke that is really only there to keep me upright, acting as a force to correct a lean...not for speed at all. Yesterday I was going down big waves that were further complicated by a huge current flowing out of a river....at one stage I got it all wrong and I put in a brace only stroke that almost stopped me dead in the water. This stroke though stopped me from a certain swim and I then caught the next wave and speed then exceeded 18km....without that brace only stroke I would have instantly swam instead.
When actually surfing waves it is common to skim a blade on the surface of the water for extra stability without really effecting speed. I suspect at this stage you are a long way off this though.
Research paddle strokes: there are a lot of great articles available on the net.

I would also like to chime in here. If you want to get used to the bumpier conditions on the ocean fast, get some paddling buddies that are experienced. It does really help with building the confidence. Also, paddle on the stern of a better paddler, and just look at that boat's stern, don't look at the conditions. It takes your mind off the conditions which helps you to relax. Once you start to relax your balance will improve in leaps and bounds in choppy conditions.

Hawkey

I am in the same boat as you. Just got myself a PRS 3 weeks ago and headed right out into some medium chop in a quiet bay off the mornington peninsula. At best, I got 6-8 strokes in a row before a swim.

Spent the following weekend on the flat with no wind and after an hour or two , I was up and down the bay with no swimming at all.

Spent the weekdays doing Swiss ball balancing exercises for half an hour each night.

Hit the water again on Sat, flat and little or no wind. Went like a dream.

Went out sunday in some small swells and a little chop and 6-8 strokes and swim , again and again.

After a while, I realised that I was over compensating for the chop and if i just relaxed, slowed down and focused on the horizon, off I went again. 20-30 strokes, swim, then 30-40 and swim etc.
Practice, staying calm and not trying to over compensate did it for me. Also, I did it in water where i could reach the bottom so that when I did fall off, I could re mount easily thus saving my energy for paddling.

Long way to go still but will keep practicing and upping the difficulty a little every other week.

All the best

JRED