Surfing Waves

..to do shortboard tricks on my 6'10 funboard. Im happy with my surfing on good days (catching and turning..) and this summer I really want to be practicing every single day to become really good. I got my Taj Burrow book on hot surfing which shows how to do every trick there is.

I know im not going to be able to do half the tricks in here but I really want to master some like Alley Oop, Basic 360's and Chop Hop's (more than anything)!!

I know this is stupid but I was wondering what you all thought of me trying to go into these kind of tricks using a 6'10 x 20 1/4 x 2 3/4 funboard.
Have I got a chance if I practice every day and realllllly hard?

you have got a chance, but if its got fcs fins, buy some high performace fins, like occy fins, or the new kelly slater, if your low on cash go for g3000's.

I was thinking about if I needed a new fin setup but I was unsure about what to get and when to get them. The ones you advise are for sharper turns right? I currently have the standard G5's, how are they?

Take out the middle fin, if you wanna be doing shortboard tricks like 360's or sliding out the tail when cutting back.
Alley Oops.. hmm if you dont call that advanced, I dont wanna know what you think is
I practise these kinda things .. pretty much all through my surfing career, and still havent quite mastered air 360's ... since they are an bugger to try land.
Its also not quite a question of pratice, but you need good waves to pull it off too.
I wouldnt advise using a 6'10 though, my personal opinion is anything around a 6'2 to a 6'4. I seriously doubt that thing of yours will lift off the water :p
Those fins are just fine, and i doubt seriously that you will notice any difference between them and standard sized fins.

Thanks for reply. Hmm... I know I wouldnt be able to do most tricks like i said, but aiming to do some of them on my 6'10 was what concerned me, guess i'll just have to do what I can on my 6'10 and then maybe next year get a really good shortboard to try practicing the other stuff.

Shortboarding is deffinately where I want to go towards, thats why I got this shorter funboard after my mini mal, trying to work my way down.

What can you do now?

a good bottom turn, cutbacks, top turns, snap off-the lip, floater, re-entries...what?

Right now i feel comfortable catching unbroken waves, turning and surfing along side the wave and doing a bottom turn. I know thats nothing really but I want to be starting to practice doing some shortboard tricks, rather than just catching and riding alongside the wave.
I know it will take me months or even years to do some of these tricks but I really want to go for it.

oh and the alley oop, I know how hard that is and I dont think i'll be able to come close to doing that in the next few years but it was just an idea of what kind of surfing I want to go in for.

You can't run before you can walk

Instead of stuff like alley oops and 360s, work on cutbacks and hittin the lip and floaters(my fav) and practice sliding that tail out.

Ye I know, I want to start on the easier stuff first like you said cutbacks and floaters (still hard to do), I just wanted to know what should I be aiming for on my 6'10 funboard and what is possible.

Thanks for all the help

that board is probably a little heavy for learning anything involving airs, not only getting it airborne but its gonna land with a lot more thump.

360s should be doable but leave them for later, work on getting the basics dialled and some more fun things like floaters (as recent as the 80s the floater was pretty much one of the hottest moves you could do on a surfboard). If you get the chance to surf somewhere where it gets hollow learn to get barrelled

like someone said already you want to at least be able to cutback and be able to hit the lip before you start on 360s. that stuff is fun in small waves but when your on bigger stuff you want to get the most out of them and that means having a good top and bottom turn etc.

Thanks for the help. Ye Ive always liked the way surfers pull off floaters, they look a bit tricky to land but I will practice that and cutbacks and carving a lot.

Does fin system play a huge role? and also are there fins that make paddling easier? lol

tbh i know very little about fins, until this board ive always had glasses on fins, and now i have fcs i just use the ones i got with it.

swimming helps with paddling. Also i used to use those webbed gloves, useful in small waves to give you that extra acceleration, i could take off before most of the longboarders when i used them, but you get tired much quicker with them on.

Laguna
witha 6ft 10 you should be able to do off th lips etc.
Its sounds liek your trying to run before you can walk.

heres a few tips to start you off on the way to getting better.

When you take off drop straightdown the face and drive out into the flat water, crouch real low and then crank a hard bottom turn dip your trailing hand in the water and use it almost as a pivot point look at the lip of the wave and the point you want to hit. You should now be rocketing back up the face now place your weight on your back foot ad when you are have way up the face turn your head so that you are looking over your leading shoulder. Now your shoulders should follow where your head was looking. Put the board up on a rail and push hard with your back foot. You should now be carving really hard of the top. Dip that leading arm in the water now and bring that trailing arm around in front of your chest. There should be an eruption of spray and should have just pulled your first huge gouge of the lip. practice this manouver over and over. Then try doingit back hand. They try doing Floaters. I think floaters are pretty easy in comparison especially forehand. Each time you go in concentrate on one manouver and trying to perfect it. Eventually you will get it and it will be second nature. When you then go down to a shorter board these manouvers will be much easier and you will be able to throw it aroundmore.

Slater doing a text book gouge!!

Thanks for the tips, I will practice these as soon as I get back out there! Thanks, will kep you all informed, no doubt i'll keep needing the help.

Laguna wrote:Does fin system play a huge role? and also are there fins that make paddling easier? lol

Fins can make a big difference to the way a board feels, but it aint gonna make the difference between being able to bash it off the lip or not!

Worth chopping and changing them though, just to see what difference it does make and whether you like the changes.
I run my 6'6 hybrid with two fins, a trailer fin, or a thruster set up depending on the conditions (..and what I feel like at the time....) Makes the difference between a stable board in lumpy surf, or loose as anything

I'm still cr@p at tricks though

lol, ye I will try out some different fins one day, eventually. They are quite costly. I dont think I need to change fins right now, maybe at the end of summer. But I was interested to know a bit more because ive heard they can make a huge difference.

So coming off the lip is the same as a floater really, except a floater it when the lip has broken, im assuming you approach th move the same way?

Practice doing the basic "tricks" first. When you start to get those down take note of the problems you might be having. Are you slipping out/not holding, turns not snappy enough for you, not enough drive...stuff like that. Some of it may be in your technique, some of it may be helped by a different set of fins. Talk to someone with experience who is really good at the moves you're trying to do and they should be able to help you out with both. Also different fins can be could for different waves/conditions.

Unfortunately I don't really know a lot of the specifics to help you. I'm still just using the one set I got with my board, and trying to learn the moves myself.

All the best Laguna, but like the others said, wlk first .. fly later

yep yep yep, aren't we all eager to progress though