Sam’s Magic Handle

Sam Pa’e is a SUP surfer, board builder, all-around waterman and extremely creative guy who lives on Oahu. I’ve yet to have the pleasure of meeting him, but he’s a frequent poster on the Standup Zone. Some time ago he started a thread on the Zone about placing a handle on the tail of a SUP board to manage the board better in whitewater. At that time I was experimenting with a strap on the back of the board that I could grab for the same purpose. I posted a response talking about the strap, which irritated Sam a little–he asked me to start my own thread if I wanted to talk about straps–he wanted to talk about handles.

I complied but I didn’t really understand his irritation. Strap, handle–what’s the difference. I SHOULD have asked, I should have realized Sam is far more experienced than I and he probably had a good reason. Then recently I grabbed my strap during a fairly heavy thrashing and did this to my fingers. I’m lucky I didn’t rip one off like that poor bugger in southern California did. But it’s been at least three weeks , my fingers still look like gecko pads (shot the photo today–you should have seen them a couple of weeks ago), and I can’t close my hand.

Gecko pads

No, I don’t just have fat fingers, here’s the other hand.

Hmm, I need to cut my nails. Anyway, when I finished whining about my fingers I decided to try Sam’s approach.

Revelation! Now I know why he was so intent on the handle thing.

So okay, I don’t want to oversell this, but I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done to my boards.

Your Mileage May Vary
Here’s all the caveats. If you don’t belong in medium large surf you can, and probably will, get hurt or drown. There’s no such thing as a foolproof safety device. Good, and even great surfers get hurt or killed in big surf, and the very thing you are depending on to help you can wind up hurting you and worsening the condition. Your mileage may vary. If you get killed doing this don’t come whining to me. Here, sign this waiver before you continue reading. Sorry, I’ve been watching Boston Legal on DVD and I have visions of someone showing up in court with William Shatner in tow.

All that said, I’ve never felt so safe in big (to me) surf. Sam’s handle is magic, or pretty damned close to it. Between that and the breatholding exercises I’ve been doing, being hammered by double overhead whitewater is slightly disconcerting, instead of the terrifying, lung popping experience it previously was.

When you get caught inside or are looking at a wall of whitewater after a fall you turn the board away from you toward shore, grab the handle by curling your fingers over from the front, put the other hand under the rail and flip the board upside down. Take a couple of deep rolling breaths from your diaphragm (see BREATHING below) and pull down on the handle as the wave creams you. In most cases, unless the wave is extremely powerful, the board will gently lift you like an elevator to the top of the whitewater, and that’s it. The first few times I used it I laughed out loud.

I have since fallen in front of an overhead wave, made a wild stab at the handle with no setup, and had the exact same thing happen. The wave flipped the board, the handle pulled on me gently while the lip pounded on my head, then I popped up in the back of the wave, more or less unscathed.

I have had the handle get ripped out from my fingers when the wave is really big, but even then the wave was mostly past, the board didn’t drag me, and I just relaxed and floated to the surface with plenty of breath to spare. I’m grabbing the handle with my injured fingers, and it hasn’t harmed them a bit.

I have no idea if this works in monster waves, though I know Sam plays in that kind of territory. I’m slowly working my way up. I’m not relying on this handle to keep me safe. I’m taking my time and learning as I go, but it gives me a lot of confidence, and serves the very important purpose of not letting my board run loose and endanger someone else. Here’s my installation on the Bill Foote gecko board.

The handle is a DaKine heelstrap made for kiteboards. It has elastic in the handle to give it some give, which is very welcome. It also is canted, which makes it easy to grab the right way (fingers curling over the front of the strap) and harder to grab the wrong way.

If you grab the the board with your fingers passing through the strap your hand could be trapped as the board pulls upward.

Breathing For A Hold Down
I’ll cover this in more detail in a future article, but let’s talk a bit about holding your breath. The usual reacion to seeing a big wave bearing down in you is to take rapid breaths. These do little more than move air up and down your throat–you get very little fresh oxygen into your lungs. Instead you should breathe deeply, pushing your diaphragm by pushing your stomach outwards BEFORE you expand your chest. Breathing like this will fill your lungs more effectively and enable you to increase your breath holding time by at least 50%. Practice this sitting on a couch with someone keeping an eye on you, not face down in a pool by yourself. You’ll be surprised at how much difference this simple change in breathing can make.