The first time I tried stand-up paddling (SUPing), I had no idea what I was doing. My friend handed me a paddle, showed me how to hold it, and took off. Thanks to my athleticism and comfort in the water, I figured out the basics, but it wasn’t until years later that I truly began to learn the ins and outs of the sport.
I began my journalism career writing for a stand-up paddle magazine and, through my work, became connected with numerous athletes. One of them is world champion Candice Appleby. We became fast friends and started paddling together regularly.
During our warmups, she would give me pointers before leaving me in the dust on the workouts. But through her, I learned so many skills and how beneficial it can be to learn from someone more experienced. Thanks to Candice’s expertise, I’ve improved drastically, medaled in races, gained confidence at paddling out through the surf, and become much better at riding waves.
If you’re new to stand-up paddling or just looking to improve, it’s super-helpful to seek out knowledge from experts. Because not everyone knows experienced paddlers, I asked Candice to share some of her top tips.
SUP G.O.A.T. Candice Appleby
Why should you care what Candice Appleby has to say about stand-up paddling? Well, she’s the most decorated female SUP paddler of all time.
She first picked up a paddle in 2006. By 2009, she had won her first SUP world title. Today, Candice has eight world titles to her name, as well as countless wins across multiple SUP disciplines.
In addition to her own training, Candice loves sharing the joy of the sport with others. She has taught surfing for over 20 years and stand-up paddling for over a decade. In 2020, she opened her own coaching business, the Ocean Academy, with the goal of creating positive experiences on the ocean as athletes progress their skills.
Top 9 SUP Tips From Candice Appleby
After decades of experience, Candice Appleby has a wealth of knowledge. Here she shares her top nine SUP tips and how to execute them.
So, let’s wade in and see what words of wisdom the world champ has for us.
1. SUP Board Selection
It’s important to have a board that’s wide enough for stability and that also has enough volume to carry your weight. If you’re new, I recommend a board that’s no shorter than 10 feet by at least 32 inches wide. As you progress in skill, you can go narrower with a sleeker design.
But keep in mind, if you’re going into more turbulent conditions, you would also want to be sure and have extra stability. And if you’re going to paddle on an inflatable, as far as safety is concerned, you don’t want to go too far offshore in case you were to have a mishap. If your board were to pop, you want to be able to get back to shore.
2. SUP Paddle Selection
As for choosing a SUP paddle, 4 to 5 inches over your head is a good length, while making sure that the blade is not too large.
And if you’re going to use an adjustable paddle, it’s important to make sure that the handle is lined up properly. Sometimes I see people paddling with the paddle backward, but a lot of times it’s because they’re paddling with an adjustable paddle, and they turned the handle around backward.
Make sure you face the paddle the right direction with the blade angle facing forward. It seems counterintuitive; it looks like it’s designed to be a scoop, but the paddle is designed to have a positive blade angle to lift the board off the water.
With paddles, you get what you pay for. If you’re opting for a paddle that’s a lower price point, it’s probably going to be heavier. You want to consider that with every stroke that you’re taking, you’re carrying the weight of the paddle.
You can get a light, durable carbon-fiber paddle for more money that’s going to last you the entirety of your paddling career. If you make the investment into an expensive paddle, you want to make sure that you’re picking the right size. Paddles are somewhat like golf clubs; the deeper you get into the sport, the more the paddle can vary depending on what specifically you’re doing.
3. Where to Paddle
When you’re starting, it’s good to start in calm water, not somewhere where you have to launch through waves. You want to start in a lake or a harbor, somewhere that is protected from the wind and from big currents.
Once you hone your skills in the flat water, you can venture out into more open water. But it’s important to understand the lay of the land in terms of traffic, wind, tides, etc.
4. Reading the Conditions
Checking the conditions before you paddle is super-important because the wind can come up halfway through your session. You want to know what the wind is going to do, so you can plan accordingly with whatever route you’re going to take. You also want to have a plan for getting back to your starting point if the wind does kick up.
Pay attention to what areas are blocked from strong headwinds and side winds. If you can, you want to make sure you do the hard work first — go upwind for the first portion of your paddle so the wind can be at your back when you’re finishing. If that’s not possible given your location, keep in mind what you need to do to get back and how much energy that’s going to take.
Reading the surface texture of the water will tell you a lot. If you have surface texture in a broad area, it is usually indicative of something happening from above the water (i.e., wind). So, if you have ripples in a large area, that’s probably generated by the wind.
If it does get windy and you see broad surface texture in a big area, but then you see a little area that’s slick, that tells you that the wind is not hitting that area. That’s a good thing to look for if you’re paddling upwind.
If you have surface texture that’s churning up in a smaller, more acute area, that usually tells you that there’s something going on beneath the water, which could be current, an animal, rocks, or a reef that is just below the surface of the water.
5. Safety Precautions
It’s important to have a leash and PFD and make sure you know how to use your PFD. But a leash is always great because it keeps you attached to your board — if you’re attached to it, you can just hold onto it.
If you want, you can also have a water pack and a whistle. In your pack you can keep a cellphone in a dry bag so you can call for help if you need it.
It’s also good to tell somebody before you go paddling. Tell them where you’re going and when you expect to be back. If you’re unsure about a particular location, look for a lifeguard and ask them questions before you launch.
If you don’t have experience in waves, you shouldn’t go out in waves. If you don’t have any ocean experience, then you shouldn’t be going out in waves. And if you don’t have any experience paddling in the wind and it’s very windy, you probably shouldn’t go out. You want to work your way into increasing conditions, work your way up as conditions get more challenging.
You want to make sure you’re in the center of the board, both front to back and side to side. Generally, that’s going to be somewhere near the carry handle on the board. Depending on your size and weight, it may be a little bit forward or behind. A general standing position is with your feet in a parallel position facing forward to the front of the board.
If you’re working up to bigger skills, like pivot turns and wave riding, then you want to be in a staggered surfing position with your feet lined up down the center line of the board. Your back foot would be perpendicular to an imaginary center line of the board, with the arch of your foot straddling that line. Your front foot would be at a 45-degree angle with the arch of your foot also straddling that center line.
7. Navigating the Surf
When you’re navigating through the surf, you want to watch the sets and time them if you can. Try to time it so there aren’t as many waves when you’re paddling out or look for the area that has fewer waves.
Sometimes paddling out through a rip current is actually helpful because it’s a bit of a conveyor belt that helps you get out. And then you want to make sure that you’re paddling out while keeping your nose perpendicular to any waves. That’s going to give you the best chance of getting up and over them.
You want to paddle on your toe side, which is the side that is your foot-dominant side. If you’re a regular footer, your toe side is your right. If you’re a goofy footer, your toe side is your left.
It’s important to know how to paddle on your knees properly as well. If you’re on your knees, you’re going to choke down farther on the paddle, keeping your hand closer to the blade, which will give you more leverage.
It’s also important to know how to brace, which is using the paddle for leverage when you go over waves, or anytime you need it because of instability.
For riding waves, you want to watch where the waves are breaking and study the lineup, see where other surfers are catching the waves, and look for the direction that they’re breaking, right or left. And then you can use landmarks to triangulate your spot in the lineup. Make sure that you’re taking off perpendicular to the waves or slightly angled toward the direction the wave is going to break.
Stroke into the wave, paddling on your toe side, while keeping your board facing the right direction. That’s going to give you the best chance of success for riding the wave, as it allows you to brace and use the paddle for turning.
One of the greatest things about the sport is the community. It’s a really good way to meet people and find a group that you can train with, which is super-beneficial. It will help you push yourself, and it’s safer to paddle with a friend, especially if you’re going to push yourself harder and go farther out into the ocean.
9. Work With a Coach
It’s helpful to hire an expert or coach, someone who can walk you through all the phases of the stroke, how to move your feet on the board, teach you how to brace properly, and teach you how to read conditions. Just like any sport, you’ll learn a lot quicker if you get the right instruction, and it will help you to avoid bad habits and overuse injuries.
There are also lots of coaching resources online. A great place to start is my two online courses, a stroke technique course as well as a footwork course.
Takeaways From the Champ
Hopefully, you learned as much as I did from these top nine paddling tips from the champ. A few big takeaways for me are to double-check that you’re holding your paddle properly, always check the conditions, and when in doubt, don’t paddle out. Now, get out there and paddle!
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