Keep Paddling

If you’re finding breaking into downwinding a challenge, then fear not. You are most certainly not alone, and, as Philip Muller lays bare here, perseverance and evolution are your manifest mantra…

Words: Philip Muller & Simeon Kepaloma
Photo: Quinn Wilson / Salty Brother

Learning to SUP foil is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life.

It took me 12 hour-long sessions to make it onto the foil. I spent a lot of time on my belly, paddling upwind into chop and spray. I also spent a lot of time paddling downwind on my belly without my pride. I put my kit up for sale after session six, confused and frustrated at my own lack of progress. I pulled the post down after session eight, buckled down and then something clicked.

There are tons of tutorials and clips of the aliens making it look effortless. I hated watching them, so I never did, which means I overlooked the hacks you find online: paddle nose to toes, keep paddle in the water for balance, place foil mast all the way back, wait for the right bump.

If you dream about the miles of the blue, white capped lumps you’ll traverse with only a paddle in your hand, that dream can be realized. But while you round the learning curve you’ll be cursing all those pros you watch on Instagram who float like actual aliens with capabilities that far surpass your own.

I know your feed is chock-a-block with SUP sessions and epic downwind runs. The boys sending these are vanguards of a new era of ocean exploration and just like the explorers of old, you salivate for the riches of this proverbial “New World”.

But much like our own global history, there’s a group of overlooked “natives” in this arena who had broken ground long ago.

Waterski enthusiasts have been hucking backflips on air chairs since the late 90s. Laird ski-booted onto a metal foil to drop into Peahi bombs in the early 2000s. And in “May of 2016, that was it.”  In the words of James Casey, Kai Lenny invented SUP downwinding after the Olukai SUP race on Maui. “Literally just after the race and he didn’t win the 14 foot… which was a bit of a shock, but no one cares about some silly race because he just changed the sport, it was like a mic drop, SUP hydrofoil downwind.”

Equipment has been the driving factor in this evolution. Like surfing’s shortboard revolution of the mid to late 60s, Casey points to this time period when larger foils made it possible to pump around and connect waves and bumps. The Kai Foil was the flint stone that sparked his whole SUP downwinding journey.

“The first time I attempted a downwind was in December [2016]…in Western Australia. Seabreezes almost every single day and 15 to 30 knots. It was my surf SUP that I converted to a SUP foil board, maybe 7 foot, and it was tuttle box. I got up twice on the Kai Foil, it was only 5k run, but I only got up for like 300 meters. I got up two or three times and mainly paddled the whole way.”

“I needed a bigger foil. It was the Maliko 160, it was ahead of its time. It was flatter, higher aspect. July 2017 I did a prone run with the Spencer boys in Maui.”

Bruno Sroka in Brittany, France was starting to adapt his kitefoils in early 2017 and testing them on larger boards, trading his kite for a SUP paddle. “It was so fun at this time because everything was totally new,” says Sroka. “I used 1200cm and 900cm foils. You need to know that French nation was in advance on the foil.”

Don’t give up.

I learned the old school way. Like a proud boomer who can’t open an email attachment. Like the kind of person who writes things down rather than making TikToks. This meant during my painstaking and embarrassing education of SUPing, I progressed at a slimeless snail’s pace. That is to say, a process fraught with friction and lots of falling.

The first five or six sessions I could only stand on the board for about three seconds, even in flat water. From my belly to my knees the wobbles began. Pushing to my feet, I swayed uncontrollably before back-splatting on the water as if I was allergic to standing.

Thinking I would leapfrog to success quickly and need a shorter, narrower board to whip tight turns in open ocean swell, I’d ordered a custom board that was too small for my size and weight. But it added another hurdle and anyone who has slogged off the back of a wave trying to surf a board without enough float knows this sinking feeling of failure.

I prefer a small high aspect foil. I am not interested in riding the biggest foil for flight security. I would rather struggle a bit and go faster. I would rather fall more with the belief that mastery will one day click and I’ll be ahead of my imaginary twin who follows the path of least resistance. I have spent all my time learning to SUP on a foil most would consider small, under 1000cm.

I’m not the only one who has stumbled on the path to self-actualization in SUP downwinding.

Simeon Kepaloma writes, “We had grown the community, we had ventured on longer runs, and I thought I was going to be a proner for life.  I had made plans to go to Hood River last fall, to attempt to downwind foil the novelty river, and initially I was trying to figure out how to prone it.  In the back of my mind I told myself maybe I should learn to SUP as a backup plan. It turned out I wouldn't be able to prone, so I borrowed an SUP setup from Big Winds and gave it a go. I failed miserably and it was completely embarrassing, being the Voyager from Hawaii. After the trip I came home, put my head down and was determined to figure this thing out. I did my first Hawaii Kai run shortly after returning, and was amazed at how different, more challenging, and bigger/better the bumps were when you go on longer runs way out to sea, and also the new sensations of riding a bigger board.

“I was completely hooked and had a new task, to convince and influence the boys in the Kaiko’os crew to graduate to the SUP to experience the new feels and grow our group in the direction of SUP. It was challenging but so worth it and I loved helping all the boys in the best way we could in order to get everyone doing Hawaii Kai runs daily. But for some reason, that moment of time we were able to grow the sport and community so quickly and rapidly with a unique stoke and enthusiasm. It's still special to think about.”   

Foiling connects us to each other. And with each new milestone the tribe’s bond grows. As the axion says, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” I was lucky to have a brother in shred who was also keen to share the humble pie of learning to SUP foil with me. We did some flat water training days to sort paddle strokes and balance. And some drop-the-wing days to get used to the bigger boards.

Dropping the wing gives you a fast entry point onto the wave of your choice and allows you to pick up wherever you fell. As long as you paddle a bit and catch the wing as it tumbleweeds toward you. Everyone hates that stupid wrist leash anyways, so next session just put it down it.

Make sure to get yourself a mate to share the struggle with and push each other. Don’t be like me: get a big(ger) board, a big(ger) foil, wait for the wind to start pumping above 15 mph. Wind is the key element.

Once you get your gear sorted, organize a shuttle back upwind, be ambitious and don’t give up. As you climb back up onto your board time and time again, remember that each time you do let the ocean wash away a bit of your old self, as you emerge into the SUP lord you’re destined to be.