Surfing Waves

I was wondering how you guys pump on your shortboard while angling down the wave. I'm working on doing a cutback at the top of the wave but it seems to start closing out by the time I reach the top of the wave and its passing me by. The only way I know of pumping is pushing down on the front of the board .



>> See our article about generating speed here <<

Check this out...
http://www.surfingvancouverisland.com/surf/tricktips/


Look at "Pumping on a Frontside Wave" & "Speed on a Backside Wave"

Beachbum wrote:I was wondering how you guys pump on your shortboard while angling down the wave. I'm working on doing a cutback at the top of the wave but it seems to start closing out by the time I reach the top of the wave and its passing me by. The only way I know of pumping is pushing down on the front of the board .

sounds like your doing your cutback in the wrong place, a cutback is used to stop you from outrunning the steep powerful part of the wave - basically a quick turn back towards the curl. If the lip is starting to pitch as you get there then you dont wanna doing a cutback you want to be smacking it with a sharp top turn so it fires you back down the wave. If its already coming down and its gonna close you out then you want to come at it from a less steep angle and try and surf up onto it and "float" over it.

If you want to learn to pump watch some videos of really fast surfers (someone like cory lopez or taj) and see how they generate speed in between manouvers by pumping the board to get speed for the next manouver, any videos showing guys who are known for aerial surfing are good as you need lots of speed to get air so these guys tend to be pretty darn good at generating it- usually pumping hard down the line to get as fast as possible when they hit the section they want to punt off. Watch the way they compress and de-compress to weight and un-weight the board as the turn it down and up along the steep parts of the wave.

pumping is more than just pushing down on the nose, get the moving up and down the face a little, shallow S shape. this will give you speed down the line.

Hey just sorta adding to beachbums question. Is pumping and 'bouncing' different? From what i've seen pumping is when a surfer creates a "shallow s shape" along the wave and then i've also seen some surfers sort of bounce or jump on the nose of the board (using their front leg). I usually see the 'bouncing' when the surfer is heading towards the shore and 'pumping' when heading along the wave. Whats all this about?
Thanks for any help

Driftingalong wrote:Check this out...
http://www.surfingvancouverisland.com/surf/tricktips/


Look at "Pumping on a Frontside Wave" & "Speed on a Backside Wave"

wicked site

Pumping - generating speed by moving up and down the face of the wave.

Bouncing - you see this a lot in smaller surf, or when there is a separated inside section that you need to go through a flat or non-breaking part to get to. The bouncing is actually mixed with a side to side movement, much like skateboarding, to generate some extra forward motion to get you into that next section without dropping to your belly and paddling for it.

Thx for posting that site has some good info on a lot of techniques .

bouncing the nose up and down is generally considered bad style (cos it looks horrible) unless it to stay on a wave which is backing off for a reform or inside section as rich r said. just bouncing the nose up and down as you head along a wave will do little for your speed, but dont confuse that hopping in a straight line with a really aggressive pump as a surfer is moving up and down the wave.

I got a question about reading that section about pumping. Is it basically putting majortiy of your pressure on your front foot and pressing down on your toes and heel of that foot to pump up and down?

Thanks for the replies. Sorry if i sort've stole your topic beachbum. Im learning as well so don't take my word for it but as far as i know pumping is putting weight on your front foot and leaning slightly on the rail further from the face to go down the wave then unweighting and putting a bit of weight on the tail to go back up the steepest part of the wave. Pretty much just letting gravity do its thing. Again im not sure on this so i'll leave it to the local pros.

Putting weight on your back foot will stall you. Most movement is shifting center of gravity through the hips and legs, and then the upper body facing the direction it wants to go.

The knees are important.. bending and straightening up goes a long way towards making or breaking a move.

So while pumping you have to straighten your knees out as well? How would you do that since I'm not really sure but I do see people doing it.

Constant movement of youre whole body. You have to feel like youre connected to the board and anticipate what you want to with it.weight the board as you go down and lighten up as you head up the face. If youve ever skated a half pipe the analogy is the same

thought of bumping this up instead of opening a new one about
"speed, pumping and ~ motion"
I saw all these videos about generating speed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUZ8o5pmk4M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEUM4fCd ... re=related

http://www.surfcoach.com/free-advanced-videos/
"Creating Speed" and he says about "horizontal acceleration" and the idea of unloading the board

or this video of DR, where he gets speed like crazy at the bottom of the wave
http://blog.cisurfboards.com/2009/10/15 ... s-old-mtf/

http://www.surfcoach.com/free-advanced-videos/
the "small wave riding" video
at 4:48 it says:
<<surfing through flat sections you have to maintain speed by surfing rail to rail, as this approach is more efficient and looks more pleasing than bouncing through flat sections">>

is "pumping" different that going "up &down" the face of the wave, or they are both the same thing?

Fanning makes it too easy in his video explanation: it seems just you have to weight the internal rail and that's it.

"rail to rail": do you really change rail when getting speed? if you are doing the ~ motion on wave's face, I thought it was the SAME rail....

I am very confused as you see...

rotate your shoulders when you try and pump up and down the wave. its makes a world of difference and makes pumping much easier

honestly i had the same problemwhen i first started.

DO THIS:

i'm going to guess your regular footed. if so when you are going front-side move your right hand up and down like a snake. bring your back foot off the pad a bit and your body will follow by just crouching and standing with push on your front foot. everytime your arm comes down your front foot pushes down on the board along with your body weight. try it.
when i say move your arm like a snake i mean an up and down motion. I find it helps even more when you rotate it in a circle toward yourself and up and down.

same thign for goofy but with your left arm

hey im 4'7" and i am getting a shortboard for my bday! how tall should it be if im 4'7"?!?!?! plz respond thx

naniekso wrote:honestly i had the same problemwhen i first started.

DO THIS:

I find it helps even more when you rotate it in a circle toward yourself and up and down.

same thign for goofy but with your left arm

Your right! Works for me.

Could you guys help me with the motion of it because I'm not quite sure what exactly I'm supposed to be doing. When I need to turn up the face of the wave, do I put pressure on my rails and lean into the wave or do I apply pressure on my back foot and kind of pivot my board to the top of the wave? Thanks!