Here’s an interesting post from over on SUP Surfing Global Forums on how to use your paddle while on the wave.  The thread starts off with a question: "I have seen a lot of the Hawaiian guys swap hands on the paddle when turning front hand and back hand – but it feels really unnatural to me (not that I am as good as those guys) how do you guys get into the turns ?"  One of the answers goes like this:

You can get ‘big turns’ with the paddle either way- the ‘Hawaian’ preferred treatment for the backside turn seems to lean heavily in favour of laying back against the paddle placed behind your back foot.

this definitely allows you to bury the rail and tail and produce the most effective turn, but beware getting too far over the back of your board as you throw a big one of these cos without the Hawaiian power you might find yourself falling off the back! it’s possible to completely slide even an SUP board one-eighty like this.

This seems to be the easiest way to turn in smaller surf as well i think because you don’t have to take the time to swap the paddle over, so you are more likely to get yout turn in what little power section you have available! on the larger waves though, try swapping your hands and leaning on the paddle placed behind your front foot (so if you’re surfing regular the paddle is on the left of the board and your left hand is down the paddle shaft) this provides more stability than committing to the tail of the board, whilst still allowing a lot of back foot pressure to turn, but will also put your weight much further forward after the turn which will make the following drop or turn easier to progress into. if you’re lucky enough to find a good backside day this is the way to make really powerful bottom turns on your backhand as it lets you really get forward and drive the board, rather than kinda ‘crusin’ round the backhand turn which is a missed opportunity to smack what comes next!!!

Stand Up Paddle Surfing Global Forums • View topic – Big turns