To Cup your hands or Not Cup your hands, that is the ???

[waikikikichan]

I always tell people that have problems catching waves to "not cup their hands". People figure it's natural to think that a spoon will push more water than a fork would. I even heard instructors on the beach ( and those guys on the " How to Surf Like a Pro in 25 Minutes " youtube video ) tell their students to "cup their hands". What do you guys/gals think ?

[Big H]

No cupping hands...have read and seen people in videos say it promotes tension and a resulting slower stroke cadence/speed. All I know is that I am faster with relaxed hands and fingers spread slightly.

[Lebowski]

Agreed. Cupping my hands puts tension into my wrist and forearm and I don't think it makes paddling any faster.

[IanCaio]

Nice that you brought it up waikikikichan!
I always paddle as Big H described, relaxed hands, fingers just a little spread. I was not sure if it was the right way or if I should at least keep my fingers together. But doing a "cup" seems too much

I actually was curious about the hand position on the stroke while swimming too. While swimming I either do the same thing as paddling or I keep my fingers touching each other and a flat palm (not really a cup).

[Big H]

Sometimes on long paddle outs I have a stroke thought of trying to keep my shoulders, hands and arms as supple as possible...smooths the stroke and actually builds speed.

[waikikikichan]

IanCaio - Not me, Keithwdixon was having a paddling/pop up problem which I advised not to cup his hands. And mikespeed1 was curious about the benefit of not cupping hands. So I thought many people might be wondering about the same thing. Lots of people want a board that is easy to paddle, yet they themselves have poor paddling technique ( so it won't matter what board they get ). Hopefully this post will answer some questions.

[yumyumyellow]

No cupped hands for me. Like others said, hands relaxed, fingers slightly apart.

[oldmansurfer]

I am a swimmer so never cupped my hands but what I do surfing? I am going to have to wait till next weekend to find out

[jaffa1949]

Reminds me of a song game that was played in kindergarten.
" if you're happy and you know it, cup your hands!"



Physically your fingers are controlled by muscles in the hand and further up the arm by setting a position of cupped you are isolating those muscle groups from fully taking part in the stroke.
Cupping in about as useful as the wrist flip of water at the end of a stroke or the flip the arms wide stroke.

Not to mention the I'm at the back of the board snow plough technique of any degree behind the sweet spot.
Then the demented old time river boat spider technique of flail and fail

Beginner we know exactly how far along the surf food chain you are , by your paddling!

[oldmansurfer]

In swimming they have determined that having your fingers open slightly and your hand flat but slightly cupped is the winna! I imagine it's about the same for surfing. here is a couple of blogs about it
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/Swimming/What_do_I_do_with_my_hands_while_swimming__2297.html

http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/science-of-performance-hand-entry/

[waikikikichan]

So consensus is not to cup so far. But how much to spread the fingers ? Flat palm or slightly concave ? I can just imagine all the newbies paddling looking at their hands now instead of the nose of their boards, trying to figure out their stroke ! But there is a very easy way for how your hand should be, and you do it everyday at the office or when you meet someone ( well, not so much in Japan ) .

[billie_morini]

No cuppa in the surf? What will British surfers do without their tea in cold ocean water?

[beachbumuk]

it honestly has never occurred to me what I do with my hands, but I would say they are fairly flat with fingers together, like when I swim, sleek entrance in to the water and back and slice out.

I will try the fingers slightly apart when I get back in the water in bali!

[dtc]

This is diverging a bit, but I have found that if I paddle focusing on pulling my elbows back, not my hands, its far less tiring (obviously as the elbow moves back your hands come along with it). I think concentrating on moving your elbows means you are using your back muscles more, or perhaps focusing on pulling directly back; whereas concentrating on your hands you are prone to twisting at the elbow to move your hands back and using shoulder muscles.

Probably it really just means I am paddling correctly, but that focus on the elbows causes me to do it properly

May be totally mental (in all senses) - but works for me.

[oldmansurfer]

I am like totally unaware of what I am doing while I paddle. The only thing I do conciously is to try to stay relaxed while paddling long distances so I take a little time to glide between paddles....just a little time so my arms relax, probably less than a second but a slight pause to glide forward while my hand enters the water. When I am paddling for a wave I don't think at all about paddling or popping up just about the wave and what it's doing.

[drowningbitbybit]

I asked a pro surfer (albeit a UK one) once about paddling and mentioned cupping hands, the 'keyhole stroke', bla bla...

...he just looked at me and said "Just put your arms in the water and paddle. It's really not that hard."

That about covers it for me.

[Big H]

Beginner we know exactly how far along the surf food chain you are , by your paddling!

I remember this turn of phrase pretty much every day when I see someone paddling like a bird taking a bath......classic!

[BoMan]

it honestly has never occurred to me what I do with my hands, but I would say they are fairly flat with fingers together, like when I swim, sleek entrance in to the water and back and slice out.

I'm with beachbumuk. On the high school swim team I learned to turn my hands so that the thumbs enter the water first and this helps create the efficient s stroke automatically. It seems to work with my surfing.

The only problem is my arms are too damn short for my barge.