Going down the line from the start

[SoCalSurfing]

Hi,

Yesterday, on my 9 foot board, I angled my take off on a 2 foot wave as it was forming, to go right down the line, from the moment of popping up.

(My goal is to go down the line like John John 6 one day, shown in slide 6 here:
http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/oakley-pro-bali-day-one_98282/)

I have never really tried this before as I am a beginner and usually go perpendicular to the wave (like this emoticon ), then try a little turn as the wave dies out.

Anyways, what I noticed is a drastic loss of balance, almost like the board was just going to flip over on it's side.

So what am I doing wrong or not doing? Should I be all the way on the inside edge or use my hand to pull up the outer edge - all for a 2 foot wave?

All advice is appreciated.

Thank You.

[pico_train]

Hi SoCal.
Angle your board to the side you intend to go to but angling it so you pointing down the line and almost parallel to the face is probably too much. Say up to 20degrees in the direction you would like to go. That said, when the waves aren't particularly strong, don't have much shape or have too muvh water, it can be hard to get on the wave and it may just be better to go full on perpendicular and try for a bottom turn. The parallelish take off is doable but perhaps later on with more experience. Keep at it!

[SoCalSurfing]

yikes! 20 degrees doesn't seem like much. I can only imagine how much harder it is on a more powerful wave.

Perhaps shorter boards do this better?

[pandarturo]

No not really when it gets bigger same difference the only thing is it feels like you're doing down the face for a second. Kind of hard to explain without actually experiencing it yourself.

[dtc]

Pico has it right, you should be angling the board and its actually much easier to surf with the angle because you dont nose dive as much. 20 deg is good for fairly full waves, if steeper then you can go with a bit more (steeper waves you need to set your line across the wave almost straight away; a fuller or more slowly breaking wave ('rolling wave') you can go down the face and turn). On bigger waves you can go straight down and do a bottom turn, but on smaller waves the angle is useful because you dont have as much time or sometimes not even the speed to do the bottom turn.

After pop up you have to lean into the wave a bit to set the inside rail. This is counter intuitive - leaning against the angle (its like if you ski - you have to put weight on the uphill leg but your mind thinks the downhill leg is the right one). So if you are going on your forehand, then you need some weight on your toes (as an aside, this is one of the reasons why a lot of people struggle with backhand waves - putting weight on your heels and leaning backwards just seems wrong and is quite hard to do).

The last trick is to make sure you are looking where you are going just before you pop up, and not at the beach or the board. This puts your shoulders into the right position (and your shoulders carry a lot of weight and are the focus of your balance).

Also keep in mind that waves break by sucking water up the face and over (look for videos of 'going over the falls surfing' to see this in action!). So if you are leaning backwards a bit (not into the wave) or are letting your board drift up the face of the wave or catch the wave too late and the wave is already breaking, then you are going to be part of this water movement.

(this is why, in light of your desire to be JJF, in tube rides a lot of surfers hang onto their bottom rail. In tubes you are part of the breaking wave and it really wants to suck you up, so you need the extra force to ensure the rail is set - its also helpful for stability. I say this in theory as my tuberiding has always been totally inadvertant (ie the wave caught me) and extremely short lived (ie the wave then dumped me big time)

[SoCalSurfing]

dtc,
thanks, I'll try leaning back into the wave see where that takes me, will probably get sucked up into the water flow a few times but I figure if I stay under 4 ft. waves I'll live.

btw - "in light of your desire to be JJF":
let's clarify, to be able to surf like him, not be him, haha, but I am sure being him is not a bad life either!

[pandarturo]

Yeah John John is pretty sick I think I might pick up a stick from himbefore I leave paradise.

[dtc]

There is a great photo Jaffa put up recently that I just cant find, of himself in Indo, going down the line. It shows how the rail digs into the wave to hold the board and 1/2 the board is actually out of the water (jaffa??).

Anyway, its not a strong lean, its just putting weight on your toes (or heels) a bit. Then, for example, if you want to do a rail turn (carve) down the wave, you unweight your toes as you turn, which releases the front rail from the wave and transfer the weight to your heels and dig that rail in and complete the turn on that rail. Anyway, if you watch people on big waves - where the 'going over the falls' is very much a risk - you can see how they are leaning into the wave.

[jaffa1949]

There is a great photo Jaffa put up recently that I just cant find, of himself in Indo, going down the line. It shows how the rail digs into the wave to hold the board and 1/2 the board is actually out of the water (jaffa??).

Is this the one?

file.jpg (59.73 KiB) Viewed 7805 times

With just another one to pad my ego but really, see the rail holding

What do you see when you are setting a rail at Tland?

Choose your line

[dtc]

Thanks jaffa, that first one is the one I was thinking of. Shows how boards dont plane along the wave with the bottom 'flat' to the wave, and why you need to set the rail. And worth another look anyway, great photo (hope its on you wall somewhere, or maybe a coffee cup or something)

The second one looks like fun. Well, perhaps fun when you get to the end, at the time perhaps a bit out of control?

[jaffa1949]

I remember the second one well as I was starting to set for an oncoming section by heading towards a bottom turn, I'm sort of beginning a fade as well to get the drive to get in the high section again, I'll see if I can find the next art of the sequence, it might show what I was planning.
It is worth noting that none of the turns are extreme and it is only the top turns that are a little more than beginner turns, judging the amount of grunt to put to the turn is based on reading the wave and having speed is the secret to putting more drive in your turns!
Not the same sequence but same wave about 5 minutes later you can see the result

I've just stood up and eyeing off plan of attack the point here is the angled take off

Casual fade slightly and wait for instructions from wave command

Laying a mild bottom turn and beginning drive as section steepens head towards top turn

Been up and turned at top and setting up another bottom to top turn

final off the top

The waves were great at T land, planning to go next year!

[pandarturo]

There is a great photo Jaffa put up recently that I just cant find, of himself in Indo, going down the line. It shows how the rail digs into the wave to hold the board and 1/2 the board is actually out of the water (jaffa??).

Is this the one?

file.jpg

With just another one to pad my ego but really, see the rail holding

IMG_8837.jpg

What do you see when you are setting a rail at Tland?

IMG_7601.jpg

Choose your line

You lost your hat

[SoCalSurfing]

thanks for the pics! that is so clean - that what I want to do.

[jaffa1949]

You lost your hat

No sometimes I pull it on and off, if I stay nude nut as a man who was formerly a Ranga, I become a a sunburnt red head!
I have a different hat too but I didn't use that looks white a white army fatigue hat!
And there wasn't a nude nut sequence of shots so I had to use another set!

[pico_train]

Nice waves Jaffa!

[Harveyp]

Nice waves Jaffa!

[jaffa1949]

Thanks guys but the point behind this is to show angled take offs and how much rail is involved as a wave grip!
Another aspect for longboard surfer is to use the whole board both front o back and some either side of the stringer to hold the wave, you can turn from a number of positions and shift your result!
You can hit the top, make bottom turns fit into steep waves get barreled. The lines are a little different.
The young guys on longboards are not limited by length.

Whatever your length what you can do is only a mixture of your desire to do it and getting the skills to go there. WATERTIME!!!

[pandarturo]

Oh great jaffa please bless us with more of your knowledge.

[jaffa1949]

Oh great jaffa please bless us with more of your knowledge.

OOPS!

Gulp

SPLAAT!

SPERLAAASH!!!

RINSE CYCLE!

RINSE CYCLE

A pictorial sequence of knowledge gained!

[dtc]

Just trying to get fancy with a deep takeoff...

I like the SPERLAAASH one - you can just see Jaffa nosediving

How deep was it at this break?