Surfing Waves

I surf on 2-3 feet waves. I've been forcing myself to popup closer to the lip. But quite often I end up falling off and I see the nose of the board dips as the wave breaks on top of me. I see the other shortboarders popup fine when the angle is steep and it breaks on top of them. Is it harder for longboard to popup too close to the lip due to the length of the board? Or I just need to keep practicing and I will get the hang of it?

I had periling issues when I first started but I rarely have that issue now. The nose doesn't dip unless I'm too close too the lip. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. If I see the nose starts to dip I try and pop up quickly, sometimes I get it right and sometimes I loses my balance.

If you are riding a long board u need to angle your board in steeper waves and you need to pop up FAST.

If you are on a shortboard, If im not mistaken, I believe you need to place your feet over your fins with a little pressure aswell to take the steeper drop (from what i read)

I would start by weighting the front foot to get some drive, then switch your balance to your back foot and compress into the drop when you hit the face.

Correct my if im wrong pros!

Not sure if this is you're problem, but a lot of people lose confidence when the waves get steeper. As a consequence when the wave starts to lift them they stop paddling as hard as they should. This will definitely cause the problems you're describing. Next time it's steep try and remember to paddle hard when the wave starts to lift you

Having the same or similar problem: Wave face is 5 ft, when it reaches me, it's alraedy steep, still green but will break next 2 seconds. In such a case I'm doing a nosedive. The wave just lifts the tail and the nose goes diving. Paddling in an angle does not help me in that situation, the wave would turn the board too much sideways. Maybe jump onto the board a second before the wave is here?? (My board is 9'2)

Dieter_ wrote:Having the same or similar problem: Wave face is 5 ft, when it reaches me, it's alraedy steep, still green but will break next 2 seconds. In such a case I'm doing a nosedive. The wave just lifts the tail and the nose goes diving. Paddling in an angle does not help me in that situation, the wave would turn the board too much sideways. Maybe jump onto the board a second before the wave is here?? (My board is 9'2)

Dieter Wie Gehts? If what you describe is happening to you, you are sitting to far inside ( close to shore) a little further out would solve this problem.
Paddle hard at a slight angle and give three extra strokes to ensure you are over the gravity line in the wave
This is the transition from white water techniques to catching green faced waves, catch the wave then stand up.
Standing should only occur when the wave has fully started the board moving.

jaffa1949 wrote:

Dieter_ wrote:Standing should only occur when the wave has fully started the board moving.

Why do I always seem to forget this when I haven't surfed for a while?

On topic: dropping into steep waves is possible on a longboard, but difficult (and fun). Pop-up as far back on the board as possible, and really try to dig your toes into a turn as soon as you do.

There are two reasons:

1) your take off is too slow, u pop up after the wave already hit you. If you notice good surfer, they stand up then the lip hits, they keep a little lower but since already on their feet they just ride it out. I do that around my buds all the time.

1) If it's not your take off, it's your paddling. The reason they can do so is they can do a burst of speed and drop in. You can't let the wave just fling you, you still have to paddle into it.

I'm doing the exact opposite. If it get's too steep I don't paddle as hard because I use the drop to give me the speed. I thought to myself if I paddle harder that means I'm going to be further inside where the wave breaks on me. I always thought that if the wave is small and weak then you need to paddle hard. If it is big then you don't have to paddle as hard. Guess I'm not entirely correct!

If the nose starts to dip, I'll popup as fast as I can. Most of the time it will bring it back out the water.

BaNZ wrote:I'm doing the exact opposite. If it get's too steep I don't paddle as hard because I use the drop to give me the speed. I thought to myself if I paddle harder that means I'm going to be further inside where the wave breaks on me. I always thought that if the wave is small and weak then you need to paddle hard. If it is big then you don't have to paddle as hard. Guess I'm not entirely correct!

If the nose starts to dip, I'll popup as fast as I can. Most of the time it will bring it back out the water.

Always paddle hard, always commit, If you are worried about being to far in for the hard paddle sit out further

EDIT: heres a video that helped me out , tried to embed but for some reason would not let me!



EDIT EDIT: One thing i have realised over the past few days with swell / period picking up here on the sunshine coast is you need to match the speed of the wave otherwise its throwing you over the lip or you just wont catch it, I took a nasty lip throw yesterday and took a 14 second hold down..when im back in hk ill get up the gopro footage

I used to pearl with my long board when I was free falling down a steep face and couldn't angle or put pressure on the tail. This didn't happen much but when it did it was a bummer because it was an awesome wave. However it is because I wasn't in the right place to take off. I should have been further out and got some speed up before I got to the top of the wave. Waves that are steeper often are standing up getting steeper which makes water go up the face of the wave more and that makes it more difficult to catch them. Sometimes a little over one way or another and it will be easier however sometimes you just need to paddle harder or to start before the wave reaches you then pick it up once the wave reaches you which means you have to be further outside. Sometimes I am not in the right position but I still go for it . I tend to line up in an area where I can catch the bigger waves and then some of the smaller ones too but if you want to have an easier time catching waves then you should pick one or the other. I have done a no paddle pop up and caught and rode a couple waves with my longboard but it wasn't a gnarly tube ride.

I just watched that video. Seems pretty good I guess. For me it was quite different because I was a body surfer and a paipo boarder and a knee boarder before I surfed so wave judgment wasn't a problem.....however where I surf now is a beach break that often has at least a couple different swells coming in because it is on the east side of the island and there is another island directly east so swell come form both north and south but not very often from east. It is also a sand bar and the sand bars change so sometimes I catch a wave that looks like it going to be fun but instead it never breaks. I can catch some of those waves that never break so that would be a really green wave . Anyway I still have trouble predicting waves. Some days I am so out of sync the best waves are always breaking somewhere else and some days it's like magic I paddle over somewhere and the waves come to me. Some days I catch a bunch of waves and some days just a couple. One of these days I will get it down hopefully....

I did a scissors kick no paddle take off with my fun gun Christmas day on a small "green wave". Don't know how I knew to do that, just did it and then thought about it after.