I’ve read as much as I could find about SUP on here but would like to ask a question about what people think about SUP in beach break waves. From reading the posts on here it always seems that the talk about SUP and the shapes for boards deals with guys riding in reef waves or at least nice long period beach break waves. I’m based in Europe and surf mainly beach break waves of differing quality. What do people think about a) SUP in short period mushy waves with no channels? Do you think it would work or be loads of hassle? and b)The kind of shapes that should be considered in these kind of waves.
Design a SUP that you can stand up and paddle on and double as a tandem board. I am sure that there are lakes, rivers, bays and flat days that will allow you to practice. Its killer exercise.
Unlike CarveNalu and his crew that are really good and charge big North Shore waves, I use my SUP as a cross training activity and go out on really small days. Not knowing how you are built, I would stick to the basic 11-12’ long, 28-31" wide and 4-5" thick shapes. (There are lots of threads here.) You can even copy the dems from the Surftech Laird SUP. Channels in the break really make it easy. The bottom line is to have fun!
I have a little sup experience in the waves you are describing. It’s still really fun, challenging, and should improve your general skills as a surfer (balance/corestrength). I find the sup boards to be great fun on mushy waves.
I built my own sup last year about this time and learned alot. I also have a store bought Micky Munoz surftech 12’. My homemade board probably weighs twice what the surftech does. Now, that sucks for putting it on the car and carrying down the beach, but it’s actually pretty handy in the water. The weight made paddle outs much easier because the board would really ‘punch through’ waves and whitewater. Paddle outs on the surftech are more of a yardsale situation.
I also learned that nose rocker is very important on a beach break sup. While many beachies start out mushy, they don’t always end that way. A big heavy board with too little nose rocker is a dangerous pearl fest on the inside. Things like that can be overcome with technique and experience, but to be honest, my homemade board surfers quite poorly in comparison to the munoz. There is quite a big difference.
That’s all really helpful, thank you. I’ve been considering either buying a board or making my own. I can’t find anybody stocking any SUP boards or even Munoz ST’s in the UK so may go down the self build route (again) or get one shaped, still early days as it’s hammering with rain outside and still mid winter. I also spend sometime on the west coasts of France and Portugal so loads of different kind of waves to get some SUP experience.
I’m looking at SUP for a mix of reasons, all of which you have mentioned. Cross training on flat days as well as giving something new a “go” before everybody else gets on the case!! I have rivers and Canals near me so loads of places to practice.
My main concerns were that in a more “relentless” wave situations a SUP board would be difficult to ride, but then I guess I’m not going to be riding when it’s big or blown out to start with, and would rather wait for smaller, less hectic days to ride it.
I can only speak about beach breaks on the East Coast, US. We have a lot of situations where waves will roll over an outside bar, and almost but not quite break. I expect (project on my list but likely won’t get to it this year) that an SUP would be perfect for catching and enjoying some of these.