Surfing Waves

So I can surf ok front side pumping and doing little turns but when I try and surf backside when I start going that way from a bottom turn or just going that way I almost always fall backwards into the wave and it feels like I almost have no balance going backhand compared to front Hand. why is this? and does anyone have any tips to improve on backhand surfing. Thanks in advanced

How many hours have you spent on your frontside and how many hours on your backside?


Stay balanced, look where you want to go...it's still surfing but you have to practice to get the "feels" so you don't make herky jerky turns that rub off speed.

Where are the toes on the front foot pointed to ? If you're a Regular footer and they are pointed to 3 o'clock, and if you're a Goofy footer and they are pointed 9 o'clock, that may be the reason why. Point them more towards 1-2 o'clock for Regulars and 10-11 o'clock for Goofys.

The more you can turn or open your chest to the wave, the more twist and torque you can make. Imagine having a camera stuck to your chest. In your current form, what are the photos of ? Try to take a photo of the waves face as you come off the bottom turn.

The last 4 years I have had very few chances to go left and being a goofy that has sucked. Santa Cruz has few options to go left - since living here my only option was to go right. I am now a decent backside surfer, in fact on a more critical wave I would prefer to take off backside versus front side. Surfing backside feels weird, you have limited vision of the wave and basically I just don't feel as coordinated. Force yourself to do nothing but surf backside for awhile and things will come together. Learning to stay low going backside was a big thing for me. For some reason I used to always want to stand tall going right which fffd up everything. Open up your stance like waikikichan said, stay low and practice practice practice. It will come.

I think initially there is a psychological factor that makes you want to lean into the wave probably related to not being able to see it because you have your back to it. So you need to turn your chest to face down the line so that you can turn your head to see the wave behind you then you can judge better what to do. That is what waikikichan is saying you need to rotate your chest. Anyway you are probably just like most people learning to surf and can't do backside because you never do it. It's a skill to learn from doing it over and over just like you did frontside.

I initially learned to go backside because I was surfing a wave that broke both right and left and I would takeoff with the intention of going right (frontside for me) but was slightly off balance and accidentally turned to the left so the peak broke and I could not go right because it's all whitewater that way so I went left. It was entirely unintentional. But I lived right near a great left reef break and after a while I ended up going there often since it was nearby and a nice wave. I think lots of surfers go to breaks where there are only waves breaking in one direction so they end up only learning to go that way and then when they try the other direction they have problems whether that is frontside or backside.

waikikikichan wrote:The more you can turn or open your chest to the wave, the more twist and torque you can make.

This is the most important element I think. Just to add, keep your arms at both sides of your rails. I (i'm a regular) still make the backside mistake to bring my left arm parallel to my right arm pointing to the beach. I then have to stretch my neck to see the wave face.

Sometimes I'm aware of this and I keep my inside arm to the left of the left rail, that makes the backside ride so much more easy.

When you push up from your hands during popup, you can stay in a low position keeping your fingers touching the deck, and be aware to keep your arms to the sides.

Thanks for the tip on foot positioning waikikikichan! Next time I will try to get some awareness of the position of my feet, to see if I should 'turn back the time' a bit.

Strangely I do better backside on critical waves, I then stay low and hold my right rail with my right hand to push the left rail firmly in the wave face during takeoff.. My chest is then pointed forward as it should be.

But it is a game of repeating and repeating and trying to build awareness of your body's position. But the intensity of the moment and the excitement that creates makes the learning process slow (vallen en opstaan). But for me that's part of the fun.

Surf Hound wrote:The last 4 years I have had very few chances to go left and being a goofy that has sucked. Santa Cruz has few options to go left - since living here my only option was to go right. I am now a decent backside surfer, in fact on a more critical wave I would prefer to take off backside versus front side. Surfing backside feels weird, you have limited vision of the wave and basically I just don't feel as coordinated. Force yourself to do nothing but surf backside for awhile and things will come together. Learning to stay low going backside was a big thing for me. For some reason I used to always want to stand tall going right which fffd up everything. Open up your stance like waikikichan said, stay low and practice practice practice. It will come.

As another goofy surfer riding mostly backside (so cal point breaks == right handed), I totally agree with this.

A lot of great points here. For me this was a big challenge that took a lot of trial and error to figure out. The key for me was to be patient and paddle straight and make sure I was riding the wave then turn backside. The next time trying cutting backside more and the next wave cut in even more, etc. This really helped me out big time and now going backside isn't as tedious.

Good Luck out there.

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