The Alternative to Towing With Your SUP
One of our favorite techniques for recovering runaway boards or fatigued paddlers is the trap and push technique. It only works in calm water, but it’s a great alternative to towing with your paddleboard.
To trap an errant board, just paddle up to the rear of the runaway SUP and step back on your board to raise the nose. Pivot the nose of your board over the tail of the other SUP and, when your nose is over the tail, gently step forward to drop the nose and trap the other board. It might take a couple of attempts to get lined up, but once you do, you can easily paddle both boards.
When assisting a fatigued paddler, use the same technique, but be sure to have the other paddler sit down before you approach their board.
Practice this technique — you’ll be surprised how often it comes in handy. It’s a great way to improve your SUP handling skills and provides an alternative to towing with your stand up paddleboard.
By the way, you can have a lot of fun with this – on your next group paddle, try creating “trains” of two or more boards and seeing how far you can paddle. We usually practice this technique with inflatable paddleboards to prevent board damage, but we’ve used this technique with all kinds of boards for distances of up to 1/2 mile in calm water.
