We hosted our very first SUP clinic with Partners, TJ boards who are local experts of the Chichester canal. We were lucky enough to have our SUP team rider Narcy who lives in Fuerteventura in the canary island who lives and breast anything water sports.

who is narcy Madeddu?

Narcy is a stand up paddle competitor who competes in the canary island as well as the European tour and has also won races in the Canary Island SUP Race Championships

Narcy has also competed in wave for the Surf SUP events on the SUP European tour in both race and surf. Narcy has been Competing in SUP since 2014 and teaching SUP for 13 years as a Watersport Instructor, Perficient in Kite surfing, Windsurfing, and traditional Surfing. As well as this Narcy works as a SUP specific Personal trainer and Nutritionist for intermediate – elite level  SUP paddlers and has run his sup clinics in Fuerteventura for the past 3 years.

whats in the course?

Choosing a beginner-friendly  surf spot will speed up your success in the waves generally whitewater beach breaks with little rip currents will be the ideal beginner conditions

Morning Am Canal Ocean Beach training 9am -1 pm

(Beach to be decided soon?)

✔ Equipment overview specification
✔Sup performance warm up
✔Sprint & Long-distance competition introduction 
✔Paddle Technique 
✔Race video analysis Paddle stroke analysis 
✔Technical race Training (Pivot Turning)
✔ Water Starts & balance techniques 
✔Sup fitness training
✔Race video analysis Paddle stroke analysis
✔SUP Nutrition for performance
✔Sup fitness training 

Lunch break 1pm-2pm

Afternoon session – 2pm-6 pm

✔Beach Start Tactics/techniques 
✔Water start Techniques
✔long distance Racing Techniques Skills
✔ Sprints and Riding Waves
✔Down winding Secrets
✔Sprint & Long-distance competition introduction
✔Paddle Technique in waves/ choppy conditions 
✔technical race Training (Pivot Turning)
✔SUP Nutrition for performance 

Review

the day begins

The days started incredibly smooth at Chichester canal and with all the sups lined up at the Chichester canoe club jetty we were ready to go. We had a great mix of paddlers who attended and all looking to improve different areas of their SUP performance.

We started the day with an introduction to Narcy as well as a full specification of the boards as well as a classification of different sup events and race events and how best to train and paddle in those events.

Narcy then took the group through a few basic and personal preference like paddle height for different sup races such as sprint long distance as well as open ocean and saltwater, Narcy also talked about the main difference and preference in a SUP paddle blade and what works best in each condition.

Narcy use An SBS Ultra-light fully carbon SUP paddle in his surf and sprint events as well as other varieties of paddles in differing situations.

It was then time to get in the water after a full briefing and get a feel for the sups so the paddler paddled up and down the canal so Narcy could get a feel for the paddler ability and skill level

Narcy then work on some paddle techniques for each individual person correct their stroke to make it more energy efficient and productive in the water. Narcy was using his 14” Longbow Race to show everyone how to paddle and the placement needed for highly efficient race strokes.

what Narcy uses?

ultra light carbon paddle

Narcy also had some great training techniques using a piece of wood to stop the guys paddling past their feet and keep their stroked quicker and create more propulsion.

After the techniques it was time to focus on turning. Turing is one of the most essential SUP paddle skills and turning whilst maintaining speed and balance can be a tough thing to do.  In a race turning can be one of the most crucial moments in a race defining who come out on top it’s where there is more likely to be collision or someone will fall off, it’s also were competitors at the back of the pack can make up ground to those at the front. Narcy went over downwind and upwind turning techniques as well as the basics of a pivot turn which is to step back on your SUP and bring the nose out of the water creating less resistance for the sup to turn easier.

Narcy then progress this into a buoy turn adding in speed when the riders felt comfortable, this was controlled caos and we enjoyed a few dunks in the canal attempting the pivot turns but as you can see after about 20 minutes of practice the riders really started to improve and the race turn were getting a lot better.

After this, it was time  to put some of those hard earned skills into action as we started work on races with a buoy turn, the team really loved this as it got a lot of smiles and encouraged some fun with a few people falling in the canal and a few sups making contact but it was smiles all around as everyone was pushing to be the winner. Narcy as a coach always like to make his technique practical and for racing nothing is more practical than practicing what you learnt in a race.

The team were then given the opportunity to try some various start positions to spice things up and make it a little more difficult to get a speedy start and really was a lot of fun to watch. Controlled carnage would be what we would describe it as but all the starts of a sup races a bit caotic .

We then finished of the morning canal session with some fun and interesting sup techniques to improve you paddle technique and paddle faster. Narcy used the paddle the opposite way around with the handle hitting the water and asked the group to work on this technique before they had one final race, which would promise to be the slowest sup race in history. If you have never done this, it’s a great way to train and really works the body hard in a short space of time so would highly recommend it.

The afternoon we had planned to go the beach and work on some sup surfing techniques as well as down winding and open ocean techniques for padding in choppy conditions but as the weather would have it was a bit too windy to try that this day so we rescheduled for 2 days later and got some great conditions for our beach clinic

Beach Clinic Bognor Regis

The Beach clinic was a whole lot of fun and we got a great turn out for the event. Narcy had planned load of open ocean training as well as beach starts and down winding as well as some fun exercises designed to really get the groups competitive nature fired up.

We started the clinic like any good session with a full introduction of what we would be doing and if anyone had done anything like this before. Most of the group hadn’t don’t any competitive sup racing before so it was a real eye opener to the sup race world for most.

After a quick warm up and full mobilisation the team were ready to go, after a small safety brief on the conditions and any dangers it was time to get on the sups as the paddler did a few short sprints working on technique and pivot turns.

The group were working on their beach starts which a crucial technique to master as in most races the first to their feel will usually be in the top 3-5 in the race, so a good start is everything.  Moving fast staying balanced and getting to the feet quickly is a great skill to master and like anything repetition is the key.

Practicing in a mock race environment with other competitors around you is a great way to get used to the intensity that a beach start brings, the paddlers did a few rounds of beach sprint to get them fired up and then moved on to a different beach start where buy the paddler would have to run about 8 meters to grab their paddle and then run back to their sup and into the water from there.

This race style really got the competitors rallied up and soon some sneaky tactics and slight cheating were employed to get the advantage all in good spirits of course, we could see the intensity of everyone trying to give 100% on their runs as well as paddle as fast as they could around the buoy and back to the beach. If you have never done this before I would highly recommend it as one, it’s a hell of a workout and two it’s a great way to keep your training intense and the work rate high.

Narcy finished of the sup clinic with three longer paddles upwind against some small choppy waves about 700m from the beach and a small downwind back  this was a great opportunity for the team to tackle some bigger distance and work on the paddle technique and foot work that had been taught earlier in the session. The group seemed to love this downwind part as it gave them a bit of time to focus on technique and control their stokes without a race mentality in mind. After this we finished with a light stretch and the standard group photo.

The beach sup clinic was such an incredible success and was amazing to see all the riders trailing our sups and giving some fantastic feedback on the boards and how they thought they paddled in the conditions. With the help of TJ board hire along with Narcy our team rider we were able to put on a great first clinic which will hopefully be the first of many in the UK and Fuerteventura

If you are interested in joining our next sup clinic or have any questions feel free to send us a message or if you looking to try before you buy or demo any of our sups feel free to send us a message in the box below to arrange a date to try any of our sups.

Or call us on 07719700503

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