I am sure we have all seen the comments on social media posts when someone asks about using a thumb screw to hold their fin in place - ‘That’s no good for racing!’
And I wondered, why? Why is that so often stated so confidently?
If the person asking about how to hold their fin in place was a SUP racer, then surely they would already know how to hold a fin in a US-style box? Maybe there is one future world champion who stepped on a SUP for the first time, averaged 9,5kmh for an hour and wondered how they could go faster, but I doubt it.
And even if the humble thumb screw was so bad for performance, surely using it is better than having no fin? If you’ve lost your fin screw in the car park before a race and you are frantically searching for a replacement, would you turn down an offer of a screw that was a tiny bit less hydrodynamic? Of course not! You’d gladly take it, hop on your board and paddle just as fast as usual.
I have a confession, I am a habitual user of thumb screws, I have several. I train with one holding my plastic fin all winter. Fin screw and plastic fin. The Gods of racing must be glad that I am deliberately slowing myself down with the extra drag of the screw!
I am not sure how the extra drag from a thumb screw could be measured in the real world, although I am also sure someone must have done it in a lab. But when you consider where the fin is, in turbulent water behind the paddle stroke, then the impact must be minimal. I am not going to worry about it.
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| Do thumb screws slow you down? |
Marginal Gains
I am confident that replacing a thumb screw with a screw that is flush is a tiny, marginal gain. And that a thumb screw is a massive gain when compared to no fin. But what else makes a difference to a paddler's speed?
A tricky and complex question that has many answers, and all of those answers should start with
It depends
It depends on the paddler and on the type of paddling they are doing, but there is one thing that all of my paddling blogs, and especially time trials, prove: You cannot buy huge gains in speed on your SUP.
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| The Ninja should be faster than the Carolina Evo |
Looking back at my 2025 data for the SUP My Race 5km time trials, the difference between my fastest time, set on a dedicated flatwater board, and the NSP Carolina Evo, a board designed for less than flat water, is 70 seconds.
My time trial data clearly shows that there is a measurable difference between board types; you can easily check this by hopping on your mates' SUP next time you paddle. But the difference in speed is not great when those boards are paddled on flat water. In different conditions, the time gaps reduce.
When racing in perfect conditions, on glassy flat water, only the race leader enjoys flat water. Everyone else is paddling in their wake, and the further back you are in the pack, the more chop you are paddling in, further reducing the advantage you might have from a flatwater board.
Those 70 seconds are not much time; if you have a slow start, one or two falls and a nervous turn, then that can easily be more than the speed difference between boards. Sometimes an allwater board, like the Evo, is a better, faster choice.
Having typed all that, I cannot wait to get a proper go at a 5km on the Ninja!
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| Getting used to the Ninja, 5km in 32m18s |
If swapping a thumb screw to a flush fitting screw is a marginal gain, then what would be the most effective way to paddle faster? Is it a new board, paddle, or fin? Or something else?
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| Michael Booth - World Class Coach. Image Booth Training |
Maximal Gains - Fitness and Motivation
The simple answer is this: You are the biggest factor in how fast you paddle.
Instead of looking at equipment reviews, hoping to find more speed, you will get a much bigger boost in speed by investing in yourself. This is by far the best way to speed up: improve your fitness. Improve your technique. I work with Michael Booth of Booth Training fame, and it helps that he is a multiple world champion who knows his stuff. He is also the head coach of the Sorrento Life Saving club in Australia; coaching and winning are his world.
Train with a club if you have one near you, or if that is not an option, then an online coach like Michael will be a huge benefit. Go to the gym occasionally, get a bike, and walk to work if you can. Improve your fitness. Talk to a reputable coach, set yourself an achievable goal. Work towards that and paddle better. Faster.
Motivation can be the hardest thing to work on consistently. We all have dips in motivation, and it can be tough to get through them. Training in winter is hard, training alone is hard, training in the dark is hard, and scary! And motivation is the one area where it is hard to find advice or help.
I recently read a post on social media about training with an AI coach and how terrible it can be for motivation. The author, a cyclist, had almost given up their training programme because of AI, as there was no real feedback. No encouragement. This I understand, working with Michael doesn’t just get me out on the water with some purpose, he gives me feedback which encourages me to go again, and again. And try harder.
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| Booth Training Clinic, Thun 2023. Image Booth Training |
Not just positive feedback. Sometimes we need to know that we could do better, we can be better. And an AI bot sending a ‘Well done’ message after a poor session is meaningless. Sometimes we need to know that we did not do our best; this is how we learn.
Motivation comes from within, but we can build it by training with our mates at a club, working with a coach or simply by taking part in SUP My Race. Messages from that community drive me to work harder. And Boothy, he’s a taskmaster!
It takes time and dedication to improve your paddling, and if you are impatient or short of time them maybe ditching the thumb screw will help!
Investing in yourself is the BEST upgrade you can make, with no exceptions. And that is what this series of blog posts are all about, investing in this paddler with the help of World Champion Michael Booth.
You can find out more about Michael's training on his website Booth Training, from his Booth Training Instagram account and on his YouTube channel BoothTV.
You can find me running the Facebook group SUP My Race and now, occasionally, on Instagram.
You can read the previous training logs here Training Logs and you can get to individual blog posts using the labels in the sidebar.