wave selection

[isuckatsurfing]

so last time i went surfing i caught about 3 waves over 2 hours. when the waves are on the horizion they look massive and when they get to me they shrink and become more flat and unsurfable why does this happen also how do you surf bigger waves becasue when i tryed i paddled i take of and i fall down the face and land and just lose all my speed and when i talk about bigger waves they are big for me but probaly little to everyone else haha. thnsk in advance

[dtc]

Waves break where they break (relationship between waves height and sea floor depth), so if they aren't breaking where you are then you are in the wrong place!

I'm not sure what you mean by fall down the face - do you just fall off your surfboard or are you nose diving or something?

[isuckatsurfing]

i dont fall or nose dive instead of just riding the wave i fall from the top bit and then land at the bottom and continue to ride am i doing it wrong?

[dtc]

If you catch a wave and go down the face and are still standing - that's what you are meant to do. However you do it.

If you are falling through air then probably you aren't paddling quite fast enough are are standing up right on the lip at the top of the wave - almost missing the wave but just catching it. You just need to paddle a bit faster and catch the wave a bit below the lip. Maybe also try standing up earlier? It's a bit hard to know exactly what is causing it

[Big H]

so last time i went surfing i caught about 3 waves over 2 hours. when the waves are on the horizion they look massive and when they get to me they shrink and become more flat and unsurfable why does this happen also how do you surf bigger waves becasue when i tryed i paddled i take of and i fall down the face and land and just lose all my speed and when i talk about bigger waves they are big for me but probaly little to everyone else haha. thnsk in advance

Some breaks are like that....others the wave breaks then it gets fat and dissipates quickly....other waves at certain tide levels come out of nowhere, triple in size at the last moment....like DTC said, ignore all of that initially and figure out where they break....then after you've sorted that, sit and watch a few come in at you so you know how the wave will look when it breaks in a certain spot in a certain way (yes, can learn to recognise lefts and rights before they even break)....then you can start to figure which kinds of waves that break at a spot are ones that you'll paddle for and which you're better off letting go by (sometimes the largest waves of a set are unridable closeouts at a break I frequent....better off taking mid sized ones that come more from the south than most of the others) .......one given spot can have several different waves....and they repeat themselves over and over, not necessarily in the same pattern, but they will build with the same shapes....sitting on the beach watching the surf you can learn this, then learn where that particular wave breaks and how it behaves as it breaks.... can mean the difference between a 5 second close out ride and a 300m ride to the next area code.....wave selection; it isn't just about positioning to catch a wave...it's about reading ALL the waves available and knowing what you are looking for, then being in position ready to take the wave that you anticipate and recognise same as recognising a friend from across the room.....

[Big H]

The big wave thing sound like you aren't committing.....paddle hard, get up and take the drop but CHARGE....don't hold back.....holding back mentally translates into tentative movements which translate to late movements which ultimately translate to physically being behind the action, bogging the tail and hitting the bottom and losing all your speed as you put it.....be hungry to get to the trough of the wave, stay hungry through your bottom turn, head up and EAGERLY looking where you want to be....then go there!!! My guess is that on waves that are big for you, you are fixated on the bottom of the wave....you pop up and are in semi awe that you are on a "big" wave and stay fixated on the bottom of the wave where you promptly rock down to and.....................stop, because you are going to go where you are looking and you are looking____at the base of the wave.

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah I know what you are talking about. The wave looks big so you paddle out and you find yourself too far outside to catch it. That is a common problem and one big wave surfers face a lot. Either you take a chance of getting caught inside or you take a chance of not catching a wave. I used to only go for the set waves because I didn't want to get caught inside hahaha yeah so often guys may think "Look at that oldmansurfer he is catching all the biggest waves, he must not be scared" LOL yeah right. I am scared that is why I catch the biggest waves. But lately when it isn't so big I have been hanging in the zone where I can get caught by the set waves. I think it just takes time at the same break. You have to learn what it means when you see waves on the horizon and what to do when you get caught by a set. Then when you drop down you are just going straight and losing speed because you go out into the flat part in front of the wave. You need to work at making a turn before you get into the flat part of the wave

[icetime]

Yeah I know what you are talking about. The wave looks big so you paddle out and you find yourself too far outside to catch it. That is a common problem and one big wave surfers face a lot. Either you take a chance of getting caught inside or you take a chance of not catching a wave. I used to only go for the set waves because I didn't want to get caught inside hahaha yeah so often guys may think "Look at that oldmansurfer he is catching all the biggest waves, he must not be scared" LOL yeah right. I am scared that is why I catch the biggest waves. But lately when it isn't so big I have been hanging in the zone where I can get caught by the set waves. I think it just takes time at the same break. You have to learn what it means when you see waves on the horizon and what to do when you get caught by a set. Then when you drop down you are just going straight and losing speed because you go out into the flat part in front of the wave. You need to work at making a turn before you get into the flat part of the wave

Yep wave selection is all about positioning, nothing that time in the water won't fix, beginners tend to sit in one spot and wait for the waves to come to them after a bit of experience surfers paddle into position for a wave then paddle for the wave which is what I do, I never wait for a wave to come for me, I hunt the waves, most people leave them for me because they're too lazy to move around

[dtc]

Be the hunter not the hunted (I think that's a Surf Simply quote)

There can be really annoying waves, particularly at high tide where I go, that build up and up and just about break and then....don't. And you try to catch them and miss, obviously, and they flatten out (in the channel that sits in front of the sandbar) and don't actually break until they are another 50m closer to the beach. Then a just slightly bigger one will break, so you keep trying and paddle for another few...at least after a while you learn to 'feel' whether the wave is going to break or not so only take a few paddles rather than make a full on effort

[oldmansurfer]

Something that might help is to look at the peaks.....where is the tallest peak of the wave then follow that wave in and see what it does in the lineup. Then try follow one with a peak in a different spot. You may figure out that if the peaks are in a particular area then the wave is going to be better for you........or not. I try to do this all the time and only rarely is it useful. Most of the time I look at the wave when it's right in front of me and make a split second decision based on the shape. I used to surf a break that had a shifting peak so if I saw a huge peak way over to the left in this one area I knew it was a cleanup set and paddled like crazy to get outside. After a while all the other surfers would follow me because they hadn't figured it out yet so I would fake them out and paddle like crazy then stop and paddle back in while they were scratching for the horizon hey they were my friends so I could play a joke on them once in a while

[BoMan]

My beach break is fickle. The takeoff zone moves in with high tide and out with low tide. As conditions change I watch the foam from broken waves and re-position myself just outside. Sometimes it also helps to paddle in and take another look from the beach at what's going on.

[oldmansurfer]

I will sometimes paddle to the side of the break. I do this anyway when I paddle back out after catching a wave or when I first paddle out and just watch the waves break from the side then paddle over to where the good ones are breaking.