colas said..
Thanks Ozzie, your analogy to balancing on a roller, slackline or narrow beam is quite relevant. I didn't thought of it, but now that you explain it, it seems so right.

Note that the first pic of the post is not from me but a friend, lighter and and on a smaller board than me. I have my feet 1" - 2" more apart, I guess the actual position depends a lot on each board and is quite personal. Pro riders on their toothpicks have their feet very close to the stringer.

ghost4man said..
I find just moving my back foot what seems to be a miniscule amount can sink the back of the board too much which causes instability

colas said..
After some experiments, I think I have found an easy way to have a good lateral balance on a small board. A small board being one with little lateral stability, be it because it is narrow, have thin rails, low volume, ...

Your front foot must be parallel to the stringer, and the less the board is stable laterally, the less distance it must have from the stringer.
The back foot will naturally position itself symmetrically wrt the stringer, so you actually only have to focus on the front foot.

To find this magic position, look at the following diagram:

- top row: if your feet are too close together, when you lean on one side, the leverage on the board will be not strong enough to make it roll at the same angle as your body: you feel the urge to widen your stance to keep balance

- middle row: if your feet are too wide apart (the problem of most people), when you lean on one side, the leverage on the board will make it roll faster than your body and you will be thrown overboard and your low foot will slip.

- bottom row: the perfect position: you will wobble as if your board and you was a solid culbuto toy. You want to be one with your board, as for banking in turns on a bike. Balance suddenly becomes super natural and smooth. It still needs a lot of concentration and it is still tiring, but it is definitively easier.

And once you experience this feeling, it is easy to re-find this perfect foot position by feeling how your board react to your wobbles.
It will not feel natural at all at first, but you must resist the urge to widen your stance, you will get quickly used to it.

It is especially useful if your rails are underwater. If your board has too much volume, it will not roll smoothly on its side (it resistance to rolling will vary with the angle), and the foot position is less critical. But for small and/or narrow boards, it is a very convenient rule of thumb to find the quickest way to feel at ease.

In practice this means that your feet are quite close to the stringer:

Johndesu said..




Hi Colas
Just wondering what would the volume of the board in the photo be? and also what do you think would be the weight of the rider for the water to be up to his thighs? I am thinking of buying an eco Bean ll surfboard 6'6"x23 1/4" =56.4L (surfboard warehouse) to use as a surfing wave sup because I want the low volume, I am only 61 kgs and i can not find a low volume sup so that the water level will be around / over my ankles, I want to be under the water when standing / waiting for a wave / slow paddling.?:-)

colas said..




Water around your ankles means in practice that the board volume in liters is about your weight in kg.
Getting lower volume means sinking till the volume of your body underwater compensate for the difference.
On the pic above, he says in the video that the board is 63 liters for his 74 kg.

At your weight, using a prone surfboards is a good idea, it is a cheap way to find the dimensions you can manage compared to directly go to a custom SUP.

supthecreek said..
Good thread, I'll join in to support what Cola's has said.

Everything being relative..... "short" board means different things to different people
at 107 kg, a 9'1 - 125L board is basically at water level with me on it.
At 71 years old, everything becomes more of a challenge.

One of the boards I took to Portugal was 9'0 at 133 L.
I always stand in narrow semi surf stance, when in the surf.
Sometimes I close up the stance to near parallel to change it up a bit, but only momentarily.

I made this video on a tiny day in Portugal, because it was one of the few days I could actually set up the Soloshot on the beach.
I had sprained my ankle a few days before, so I was testing it out..... ha ha, I couldn't surf for 3 weeks after this session.
But, it does show pretty clearly, my paddle in stance and my paddle out stance.... both the same. Narrow, slightly surf stance.



This picture is one I made a while ago to show someone my stance on two relatively small boards for me.

Kami said..




Ok Johndesu, I will work on your prescription next.

Johndesu said..
Yes Colas i was thinking the same but I am a bit concerned about the length 6'6", but I think the volume (56.4L) is about right and also the highest volume of a surfboard that is available I think. My goal is to have / experience a super low volume surfing sup for balance and training and for use when the conditions are just right for it (an extra bow to my quiver) and any other ideas or advice from you would be much welcomed and appreciated thanks :-)

colas said..




The Walden is interesting, as it should float you: so you will only have to tackle the reduced length & width, it may end up as actually SUPable in the waves for you quite quickly.

The Eco Bean 2 would be to test a really sinking board, even though it may not be practical in actual waves....

Kami said..
What a thread about "lateral balance on a small SUP" because this ability allows getting board looking more like surfboards rather than a floating objet
Thanks to the synergy of Seabreeze's elder athlete and younger one for their melt of passions and means with the technical help of Colas.
So Following your SUP feedbacks and the need of Jhondesu to find the right board to fit his agility and mensuration, my input will be to design the accurate board needed with S3D program which I'm mastering more than my SUP practice now
As Johndesu said :
Nice board Kami but a bit longer and a bit wider and a bit more volume and a bit more nose & tail kick/rocker (eg 6.8 - 6.10 x 24 - 26" = 54 - 60L) and a rolled deck is fine and I love the thin rails as they are I think ?:-)

So here comes Jhondesu specifications like that now= www.shape3d.com/Viewers/Viewer3D.aspx?Board=5711
I thinned the rail getting the apex lower, I didn't change or kick the rocker but the board may seem more scooped because of the change on upper lines of the deck.
The bottom shape is a flat entry coming into a vee where 2 concaves are flattening the planning areas in front of the fins . The tail is flat or a bit of vee to fit the round pin outline. (see B&W picture of the bottom shape below)
If you would prefer a full concave from nose to tail with concave vee as a modern shortboard are please tell me. In that case, I will have to add more kick/rocker.
I still can change any dims or shape up to you.