How To: The 5-step Guide to Planning Your SUP Paddle

AN EASY 5 STEP GUIDE TO HELP YOU PLAN YOUR ROUTE AND GET ON THE WATER MORE OFTEN.

by Starboard NZ Teamrider, SUPWell PaddleFit Pro Coach and ISA / Surfing NZ Qualified SUP Instructor, Helen Blair

So you turned up at the beach expecting a light breeze and calm waters like the forecast had predicted, but instead found white caps, sizeable chop and a dumping beach break. Sure enough, the forecast had changed – sigh. Read this 5-step guide to planning your SUP paddle so that you know how to correctly asses the conditions and prepare a backup location nearby that is sheltered like a lake or bay.

As you become a more experienced paddler, you take the knowledge and skills involved in planning an enjoyable route for granted. You forget how frustrating it can be to turn up at your launch spot, only to realise the conditions aren’t what you expected.

1. Check the wind, weather, tide and forecast weather

The weather, especially wind strength and direction, influences a choice of paddle route. Most stand up paddlers don’t want to spend long periods paddling into or across the wind.

WindGuru and Windy are both great sources of information about the wind and the ocean (swell) conditions. It’s good to check a few and look for common themes in wind direction and strength as it helps you know the information is reliable. Be mindful though that the units of measurement can be different (e.g. knots vs km per hour).

The strength of the wind has a big impact on stand up paddling so as a ‘rule of thumb’:

Less than 15 knots (less than 27km/h) is ideal flat water conditions
At 15 knots small waves and whitecaps start to form
At 20-25 knots (37-46km/h), more experienced paddlers may want to use the wind to surf downwind

In the general weather forecast look for features like temperature, any rain coming and for any severe weather warnings for thunderstorms. To see how rain clouds are moving, you can use a service like MetService’s rain radars as a handy way to track the recent path of rain clouds. These weather features can affect your enjoyment and ultimately safety.

The Windy APP (iOS/ Android) or a number of other sites provide tide information. In some locations, you’ll need high or around high tide to access the water. Also, bear in mind that it’s possible to stay closer to land and maybe more out of the wind when tides are fuller. Tide information also tells you what may be happening with tidal current. ‘Slack’ tides are when the water is moving the least and are usually 2 hours either side of high or low tide. At mid tidewater is flowing in or out at it’s strongest (2-4 hours either side of high or low tide time).

2. Work out how the wind may affect your possible route(s)

Of the places, you’d thought of paddling from, look at a map and work out how the wind strength/ direction and tide might affect what you do. Wind is described in terms of where it is coming FROM. So a northerly wind is coming from the north, a southwesterly wind from the southwest and a north easterly wind from the northeast.