Surfing Waves

I was going to ask this in audiobahn's thread about perling, but my problem is a little different. Lately I've been having a problem with my board's nose plowing just below the surface as I'm riding. It's happening when I put more weight to the front of the board to avoid a stall on a fairly small wave. I can usually ride a while like this before succumbing to the inevitable, but it's something I'd like to fix.

If anyone has advice or vids on what to do about this, I'm all ears.

Each board has a certain spot where if you stand there you get maximum speed. This will vary with the shape and speed of the wave but overall it sounds like you are too far forward. Probably you need to step back a little or lean back to shift more of your weight over your rear foot. It sounds like you travel on for a while in that position so maybe it is what you aren't doing that is causing the problem and that would be turning the board up to a higher position on the wave? It is often difficult for someone like me to figure out what you are doing. Some of the other members teach surfing and might have an idea what it is you are doing. Longboards aren't meant to be ridden from one position. You should be changing positions frequently go forward to go faster then back to turn so could that be the problem?

What oldmansurfer said. You can move toward the nose to accelerate but as you ride to the end you want to move back to the right spot where you can keep going while maintaining the nose out of the water. I found moving back is harder than moving back. But it actually feels like pushing the board forward than walking back.

I do think a lot of it is going to be knack and muscle memory more than any magic bullet. Getting a little more weight to the rear makes sense, but I'll sometimes stall out when I do this. I still shift position on the board quite clusmily (I think I'll leave that typo as the perfect example of what I'm talking about.)

Yes you can stall if you are too far back and run the nose under when you are too far forward

RobSF wrote: I still shift position on the board quite clusmily

Just reading the original post, I thought it might be your stepping, which you just confirmed. You just have to be smooth. Like teaching some one to drive , screech "Hey, easy on the brakes !" chirp, screech. You can't just jump on the peddle. Or if your a motorcyclist, you can't be just ON the throttle then chop OFF the throttle, that causes NOSE dive even on a motorcycle. You need to be smooth rolling on and off ( and walking back and forth ) . By the way, are both your toes pointed to the rail ?
( and stop looking down at the nose of your board )

Yeah, my toes are pointed to the rail, but I still pretty consistently look down instead of forward. Hard beginner habit for me to break.

I want to say this "downward log" problem may have started recently as I'm catching waves more consistently by being a little further forward as I get up, and I just need more practice getting the sweet spot. There are probably lots of reasons I'm catching more waves, including better paddling, having a better sense of when to pop up, etc. And "pressing hard on the accelerator" is probably getting me up more often, too, though with the downside of the nose skimming just under the surface.

Will be out again tomorrow, just working it again. An hour in the water equals about 20 hrs talking about it, as far as learning goes.

Front toes should be at 1- 2 o'clock for regular ( 10-11 o'clock for goofy ). It'll help you to be smoother ( and help you to go backside better )

Set your gaze on a far away land mark ( pier, lifeguard tower, building ) but still use your peripheral vision for other surfers in the way paddling out. If you keep you vision up, your nose diving problem should go away.

Also keep in mind that there is a limit to how much 'push' a small wave can give you. Higher volume boards get more push (why a SUP can ride the smaller waves), but there is still a limit. Once you hit that limit ie not enough power in the wave to push you, then you will either sink or you need to create your own energy (pumping or just weaving up and down the wave face). Or ride bigger waves I guess!

In any case - sometimes your board is going to stop carrying you, no matter what you do. You can maximise the ride by weight shifts, but it won't last forever

If you watch longboard videos on YouTube, timing is really important as far as when to go forward and when to go back to the tail.....hinges on where you are on the wave and what the wave is doing....speed counts as well as DTC said; to maintain speed you will need to learn when to move, which way to move (forward or back) and learn to feel how much as well as turns, weaves and pumps and sometimes stalls to stay with the power of the wave.

dtc wrote: you need to create your own energy (pumping or just weaving up and down the wave face).

As Big H reminded me, my examples of creating your own energy were a bit simplistic. Indeed, your first lesson should be that, when at the top of a wave, gun it down to the bottom (weight forward) and use the wave and gravity to create your acceleration; then turn early and maintain that speed. At lot of people will lean back a bit going down the wave because your body is going 'stay level, dont go head first downwards'. or you are worried about the nose sticking into the flat water; and then after the initial drop the tendency is to drift onto the flats at the bottom of the wave and lose speed before turning. Then people stay too low on the wave face, instead of high up where the power is.

Even on small waves, a good drop and bottom turn back up to the top 1/3 of the wave can give you enough energy to keep going for a long time. Work on that kind of stuff, then start on the fancy pumping and so forth.

RobSF wrote:Getting a little more weight to the rear makes sense, but I'll sometimes stall out when I do this. I still shift position on the board quite clusmily (I think I'll leave that typo as the perfect example of what I'm talking about.)

Something to play with...
If a small weight adjustment is all you need, try leaving your feet in the same spots and just lean forward or back and feel how the board responds. Sometimes a step is too much.

wiggle those hips

http://www.theinertia.com/surf/the-diy- ... our-speed/

Thanks, all.

After being out twice this weekend, I really have to admit my No. 1 problem is that I'm not riding green waves at all yet. There's only so much oomph the suds are going to give me. So if on top of that the nose of my board is going under, my already incredibly short, slow ride is going to come to a stop pretty quick.

Practiced popping up immediately yesterday instead of the clambering/groaning habit I've been doing for two years, and found that when I did that, I certainly saved a bunch of time for actual surfing.

The whole process is just very slow for a guy who starts at my age. Still having fun, which was the original point.