Surfing Waves

Now that the small wave season is upon us, I'm working on one of Chan's lessons Don't try to turn a longboard by yourself.

http://alohaki.jugem.jp/?eid=726

So far I've had no success with this...."It takes a fine precision technique of pressuring the tail down with the back foot while also counter-pressuring the front of the board with the front foot." Everytime I pop the nose up like the picture I lose the wave.

Most lose the wave, as the nose doesn’t come back down and you get stuck at the top. Not so easy remedy is to spot your landing before the nose reaching it’s apex. Especially going backside, you really got to be one step ahead.

waikikikichan wrote:Not so easy remedy is to spot your landing before the nose reaching it’s apex.

Excellent point! I'll work on that along with putting more pressure on the front foot so I can react faster when feeling a stall. It's not an issue for me when the waves are bigger than 4 feet I guess because there's more power to push me along.

I'm always amazed how the surfers on your site do progressive maneuvers on tiny waves.

BoMan wrote:Now that the small wave season is upon us, I'm working on one of Chan's lessons Don't try to turn a longboard by yourself.

http://alohaki.jugem.jp/?eid=726

So far I've had no success with this...."It takes a fine precision technique of pressuring the tail down with the back foot while also counter-pressuring the front of the board with the front foot." Everytime I pop the nose up like the picture I lose the wave.

ChanClip (1).png

maybe get lower on the board? When I remember to do that (which is not often) I get better backside turn performance on small waves - by "performance" I mean the board doesn't stall, not anything radical

pmcaero wrote:Maybe get lower on the board? When I remember to do that (which is not often) I get better backside turn performance on small waves - by "performance" I mean the board doesn't stall, not anything radical.

I've never tried it in that situation. I crouch when I've found the sweet spot for trimming and want to cruise as fast as the wave will allow. It's also fun to get low for a head dip when the curl catches me from behind.

BoMan wrote:"It takes a fine precision technique of pressuring the tail down with the back foot while also counter-pressuring the front of the board with the front foot." http://alohaki.jugem.jp/

I'm working on this and still don't have the timing down. I love how folks on Chan's site do this on really small waves!

This is fun! After I'd read this post next time out the waves were small and I was on my 9'4 single fin, and I just started doing this.
1st time was a waist high left, my backhand, there was a crumbly section forming and I had enough speed to hop the nose up against it so it projected me down the line with extra speed.
Later I had a few stomach high rights, were I could do the same. It was actually very functional to get some extra speed to make the section.
The quick and high 'bottom' to avoid pearling, it was a quick and steep little reefwave, the moving up and down to maintain trim and speed, the tapping of the lip. It was such a fun session.
My timing for the sesh was just good, the tide was rising to high, almost too high already, and a se sideshore was making some chop, and there were long waits between sets. But the good thing was, the surf school crowds were just finished, I was the only longboarder surfing the outside.
You definitely don't need 'serious' waves to have fun!

Tudeo wrote:The quick and high 'bottom' to avoid pearling, it was a quick and steep little reefwave, the moving up and down to maintain trim and speed, the tapping of the lip...You definitely don't need 'serious' waves to have fun!

Your stoke jumps off the page. Well said!