Surfing Waves

HEY
I have been surfing for the past year and am now god enough to catch waves easily and get up on the board. What I want to learn, is how to get to the next step and start moving along the wave instead of riding the white water! What steps should I take?

Um, you're several years away from being an 'intermediate' surfer.

So you can catch a wave. Great, now turn along the face of the wave.

o thats fleshin' marvelous advise you bloody idiot! "turn along the face" great tip!

paulminors wrote:o thats fleshin' marvelous advise you bloody idiot! "turn along the face" great tip!

Bottom turning is the key set up a good bottom turn and you will be connect on the trim line. Or simple just taking off at a slight angle will enable you to be in a position to glide along the wave

Now now, language. Thats quite refreshing - I Havent seen "fleshing" for ages

paulminors wrote:I'm a bloody idiot! "I cant turn along the face"

You seem to need some quite basic advice.

been out of here for a while but good to see drowning hasn't developed any more patience since last time i've been on here.

if you want to learn to get onto the face and ride the line in the near future mate, it's very simple:
SURFING THE FACE IN 10 EASY STEPS
1) find the biggest, floatiest, hugest board you can.
2) paddle out on a beach with a clearly defined take-off zone (peak), with chest height waves preferably.
3) sit just behind above mentioned peak, and wait for swell that looks big enough to break there.
4) paddle hard as you can.
5) paddle a bit harder
6) you should now feel the wave take you enough to stand well before the wave is even about to break.
7) turn the board onto what in a second or two will be the face.
you are now trimming as the wave breaks behind you.
9) stay ahead of the white by taking a high line, let it catch up to you by turning back towards the beach for a second.
10) you now know the benefits of learning on a bigger board and are well on your way to becoming an intermediate surfer.

hey man!!! thats great advise! will definatly try that out! cheers

Actually Paul, I like the first two answers best because the last one is mainly about how to catch a wave (and in point 7 replies to your original question by also saying "turn"...)

In essence, you need to turn along the face by either bottom turning or popping up at an angle.

Spend some time watching the other surfers in the line up to see how they do it.

use your hips to turn like your snowboarding. but as your turn with your hips but pressure on yourback foot which should be on the tail.that will pop the nose up a bit so you dont catch a rail. GL

Good advise, but if you want a quick fix here it is:Do not point the board at the beach!!!!

Bottom turns are great, fun, but if you have only been surfing a year a bottom turn into the shoulder is not an easy thing.

Solution? Point the board slightly sideways towads the open face. Not too much or you will miss the wave. This will send you down the face towards the peeling wave, away from the whitewash, and a lot easier that bottom turns or anything else. Think of it as acceptable cheating...

By the way, surfing a year still makes you a begginer, just a better one, and maybe no longer a kook LOL

haha thanks for the advise guys! wil try this when i get out there!

jon.biarritz wrote:Actually Paul, I like the first two answers best because the last one is mainly about how to catch a wave (and in point 7 replies to your original question by also saying "turn"...)

In essence, you need to turn along the face by either bottom turning or popping up at an angle.

my point here is that a good fluid bottom turn needs to be done faster on a smaller board...
a much floatier board will give him much more time to get that turn in. as he gets faster he can move on to smaller boards.