I wanted to practice paddling without fins today. Tried the different techniques for paddling on one side only: J-stroke, C-stroke, pitch stroke, and although it feels like it's working great, it's nowhere near as good as with a fin.

It's easiest to see when paddling along a straight wall on the shore. Me and the board are moving parallel to the wall, just like intended, but the angle of the board to the wall is some 20°, so the board itself is moving through the water diagonally, which I assume sacrifices quite a bit of speed. With a fin, that angle immediately goes back to virtually 0°.

That speed sacrifice plays a big role when attaining (which is what I do a lot, as fitness training). There are a couple of currents that I can not paddle against without the fin.

My favorite option is either a low profile fin, or otherwise a retractable fin.

Anybody any ideas on how to paddle really perfectly straight without a fin?

It's the same problem for all I think.... Before coming up with my flip up skeg, I usually paddled without fins out of pure necessity to avoid hitting it on rocks and flying off the board. You lose a lot of directional drive, but that was better than falling off. Now with the skeg I always use a fin - I have that drive AND the fin just flips out of the way when it hits a rock.

Corran

i think it depends on the outline of the board too.
if you paddle a longer board with sharp rails you could try to use the rails to keep you straight by slightly tilting the board, but i never tried this without a fin