Surfing Waves

Today I was cleaning and waxing my board and was wondering why is my wetsuit and butt so dirty. I realized this is not from the wetsuit and is from the reef shoe so it is my foot placement. I'm one of the weird ones that wear a shoe. Usually only really old man in my break will do such thing.

I also realized the photo I took is very distorted due to it being a wide angle lens.

I'm regular foot and I predominantly surf right hand breaks. Noticed my rear foot is not on the center of the board. Is this a problem and should I try and move my rear foot closer to the center and towards the tail of the board? I don't know how easy it would be to change it now as I've been unknowingly surfing like this for years. I probably need to keep looking at my rear feet after popping up.

Having your foot over to the right edge on right hand waves will help you go down the line but makes turning a lot harder - you can’t weight the left rail at all if all of your weight is on the right. On the other hand, you weight the right rail into the face of the wave and it will hold the line and be stable (might be a bit slower?). Watch the guys at Pipeline or Teahupoo and they often have their feet well towards the inside of the stringer.

Your foot doesn’t necessarily need to be more towards the tail, weighting the tail slows the board down and isn’t needed unless you are turning. So your back foot may be in the right ‘neutral’ (down the line) position, it then needs to go back when you are turning (and maybe forward when you want some more speed)

Do you think that your back foot is normally at the front of that black mark, and it then slides back to the back (to around where the leaf is above the board), or is your back foot landing in a lot of different positions all the time? When you slide your back foot back, do you move your front foot as well?

And how long is that board?

BaNZ wrote:I probably need to keep looking at my rear feet after popping up.

You're joking, right ?

A recent episode on surfline produced a tip that I didn’t see anywhere else: ride the diagonal. Namely, if your rear foot is weighting one rail, let your other foot weight the other rail more.

BaNZ wrote:Noticed my rear foot is not on the center of the board. Is this a problem and should I try and move my rear foot closer to the center and towards the tail of the board?.

Watch Tyler Warren riding a 10 foot board in small surf. He steps all over the deck to engage both rails and the fin. Dynamic not static. I surf like you and am working to get better at this!

dtc wrote:Do you think that your back foot is normally at the front of that black mark, and it then slides back to the back (to around where the leaf is above the board), or is your back foot landing in a lot of different positions all the time? When you slide your back foot back, do you move your front foot as well?

And how long is that board?

I think my back foot is normally further in front than where the leaf is. I hop/shuffle back when I need to turn and lift the nose out the water.


Honestly I really have no clue because I don't really pay attention to where my feet is. I always thought it was bang in the middle where the stringer is.



It is a 9'0 board.

waikikikichan wrote:

BaNZ wrote:I probably need to keep looking at my rear feet after popping up.

You're joking, right ?

haha yesterday I tried to see where my rear foot. I couldn't see it because the water is splashing over it. Plus it really puts me off balance. I'm usually very aware of where my front foot is because sometimes it is at the 12o clock position rather than the 10 or 11.

In my mind I thought my foot placement is always right.

BaNZ wrote: I'm usually very aware of where my front foot is because sometimes it is at the 12o clock position rather than the 10 or 11.

Hmmm, if you’re a Regular footed surfer and your front foot is at the 10 or 11 o’clock position............, I think your back foot problem might be the least of your worries.

Here’s a good practice for your current foot problem dilemma. Walk up a flight of stairs, try to see where you foot lands, at the front or back. What part of your foot touches, the ball or the heel ? What angle is your toes compared to your ankle ? Are your arms swinging with your legs movements or against it ?

THEN next time forget about what I just told you to do and simply WALK UP THE STAIRS.

Understand ?

waikikikichan wrote:

BaNZ wrote: I'm usually very aware of where my front foot is because sometimes it is at the 12o clock position rather than the 10 or 11.

Hmmm, if you’re a Regular footed surfer and your front foot is at the 10 or 11 o’clock position............, I think your back foot problem might be the least of your worries.

Here’s a good practice for your current foot problem dilemma. Walk up a flight of stairs, try to see where you foot lands, at the front or back. What part of your foot touches, the ball or the heel ? What angle is your toes compared to your ankle ? Are your arms swing with you legs movement or against ?

THEN next time forget about what I just told you to do and simply walk up the stairs.

Understand ?

With regards to the feet position. I got my rotations wrong, I was not using the nose as 12 o lock. I was thinking about where my body is facing. If we use the nose of the board as 12, then my feet is sometimes at the 3 position rather than 1 or 2. When that happens, I find it much harder to turn the board.

When I walk up the stairs, I tip toe all the way so only the ball contact the stairs. My heel doesn't touch the stairs. If I surf too much on the second day, the ball on my right feet hurts so I have to wear comfy shoes and socks. Normally I wear sandals every day.

So you are worried about how your board is dirty due to your foot placement? Unless you keep falling off or are having problems surfing that is not a problem. Remember, if it's working don't fix it...

BaNZ wrote:

waikikikichan wrote:Here’s a good practice for your current foot problem dilemma. Walk up a flight of stairs, try to see where you foot lands, at the front or back. What part of your foot touches, the ball or the heel ? What angle is your toes compared to your ankle ? Are your arms swing with you legs movement or against ?

THEN next time forget about what I just told you to do and simply walk up the stairs.

Understand ?

When I walk up the stairs, I tip toe all the way so only the ball contact the stairs. My heel doesn't touch the stairs. If I surf too much on the second day, the ball on my right feet hurts so I have to wear comfy shoes and socks. Normally I wear sandals every day.

You really do not get the meaning of pseudo practice. It's meant for you to stop looking at your feet and just surf. For you to Look up and out, naturally. You are trying to analyze too much. You are at the point of PARALYSIS by ANALYSIS.

Let your eyes lead the body. Listen to wave. Work with it not against it.

waikikikichan wrote:
You really do not get the meaning of pseudo practice. It's meant for you to stop looking at your feet and just surf. For you to Look up and out, naturally. You are trying to analyze too much. You are at the point of PARALYSIS by ANALYSIS.

Let your eyes lead the body. Listen to wave. Work with it not against it.

You know what, yesterday I was looking at my home security camera and there was me walking down the driveway. My walk is super awkward and strange. There is something wrong and I just don't know what it is. This reminded me of an instance where I was walking around Taipei and passed by a temple where there are many palm readers, fortune tellers outside where most of them are just scammers. This woman came up to me and go, do you have pain or injuries on your foot? I did because I got a toe injury and I was still in pain after a few years. I thought she was the real deal and gave her money, now I think I'm just an idiot because I walk funny and she picked up on that.

Yesterday afternoon I became very self conscious of my walking posture. I took my dog out for a long walk to figure out what is wrong. I couldn't, I don't know why. Perhaps it was the injuries or my bad posture of slouching in front of a PC for 20 years. It wasn't first the time that someone commented on my walking posture, but I never took them seriously. Just thought everyone is a little quirky in some ways.

This is kinda related to surfing because I admire those surfers who can cross step gracefully and just look so smooth and natural. Whereas I just look so bad when I'm on it. I guess I just need to accept and come to terms with it.