Surfing Waves

I started with 9" but I bought a 6"3 fish hybrid. I was able to catch waves but I can't ride on the unbroken part. It just feels so different! When I take off, it feels like I have to press down the front of the board hard. So my back and front foot are so far apart that it just feels unnatural and I'm stuck in that position.

I also don't get the glide feeling I get normally on a longboard. I'm not sure how to explain it but it feels like my fins are stuck onto the wave and I'm just getting pushed. It doesn't feel like I'm riding the wave more like I'm stuck to it and can't get out of it so I can't turn into the unbroken part of the wave.

It's really frustrating but I'm back to training on the white wash again. Because duck diving drains my stamina out too fast and I can only do that for about an hour. It's only my 4th or 5th time on the shorter board. I probably get like 1 good wave out of the 10 I catch. The rest are just like riding white wash...

I can attach some photos if it helps..

Don't worry, that's just what happens when you go down to a shortboard.

Of course you won't get the glide of a longboard... that is the major difference between a shortboard and a longboard. You have to work for your speed now.
And yes, sometimes you need to ferociously weight the front - a shortboard is like a pivot or a seesaw, you need to weight the front to go, and then shift the weight back again before you dig in a rail.

Like so many others before you, you might be thinking "why is this supposed to be more fun than a longboard?"
A whole different skill set and the board won't do the work for you anymore.

One thing about the foot placement - keep that back foot near the fins and use the front foot to drive from the centre of the board. If you move up too far (a bad habit of mine too), you'll get the initial drive but then just go in a straight line and not be able to generate any more speed

Exactly! I didn't find it fun. When I look at the others speeding through the green wave, I thought that was suppose to feel like a LB gliding through the waves. Saying that when I switch back to LB I feel it being slow and just unresponsive. It does help with my LB skills so I think I'll continue to switch between the two.

I'll try the foot placement thing you suggested. I think that's what I'm doing wrong. I come off the wave too quickly and just go in a straight line. But back foot is too far forward and isn't even on the pad sometimes. I don't have a pad on my LB so when I step on my pad it just feels so weird.

I know exactly what you mean! It's very difficult to adjust both physically and mentally to the differences between the two. The glide absence really disappointed me and in the end I decided to go for a little bit bigger board instead of a fish. A fun board, 7'2' with a wide nose gives a bit both. Almost a shortie but with the glide of a longboard. Goes like a rocket.

Make sure you use your Back foot arm as an accelerator. Throw it forward and use it as a pump so to speak. Moving the arm back and forth moves your weight from front to back as requires. Positioning yourself in the right section of the breaking wave is also tricky so work on that if it helps.

In any case, enjoy it and it does indeed help with the long boarding.

Cheers!

I think some problems people have with shorter boards is the type of wave they are riding. Not sure if that is your problem but shortboards are easier to ride on steeper walls. A small flat crumbly wave is difficult to ride well on a shortboard. Perhaps because I learned to surf on a shortboard I never got used to longboarding as a style of surfing. I restarted surfing on a longboard but I used it like a shortboard. It was far better than a shortboard for me to relearn on but I did the same things I did with a shortboard, like turns and speed pumps and off the lips so for me glide is like an undesired thing LOL as is nose riding

Yes the waves were 1-2 foot crumbly and mushy that day. But if it is 4+ feet and steep, I tend to face plant. Or it gets so steep that I'm scared to popup and end up body surfing the shortboard... lol!