Surfing Waves

Hey Guys,

About a couple of months I started surfing again after many many years doing other activities. I got a funboard 7'10" and have been having a lot of fun since.

I have been able to drop some overhead waves here in socal, but I am still having a hard time figuring out what to do after the drop.

I tend to drop the wave all the way to the bottom and then kind of loose control trying to go up the wall again. I am not sure about how to position my feet and move my weight on the board so I can drop and actually surf the wave wall.

I appreciate your advice.

Thanks

wow! that's kinda tough..well, a funboard usually doesnt perform as good as a shortboard..from my experience, i surfed better with the shortboard than when i had my funboard..and to tell u honestly, i surfed the face of the wave for the first time with my shortboard..i had so much trouble doing it wiht my funboard..so, i dont know, maybe u should have to practice more..goodluck!!

well if your turning back up the wave then youre doing better than most guys i see on funboards. next step is to turn back down the wave, then your surfing

The biggest issue I usually see is in the knees. Going down the drop, people tend to straight-leg it. You need to bend those knees, keep it flexible.

At the bottom of the drop, you should be half-bent and starting to push down, and leaning into your turn.

Hmm. in trying to describe it it's tough.. try this. stand up (on solid ground, yes), get into your surf-stance, knees bent. Now, make as if you were going to turn and start walking to your right - so your looking to pick up your left leg and put it to your right, leaving your right foot planted.

Now do that without picking up your left foot. You should notice your head and hips started turning, your right foot pressed down and sort of rose up on the balls of your foot and your front foot lifted a bit.

For the bottom turn, you want all of that, EXCEPT your front foot lifting up. You need to keep your weight even over the board - if you lean back too much, you'll stall.

You're going to sort of slide your left front foot over to the right instead, and pushing that momentum from your hips forward and your back foot backward.

Can you ride the line after you drop down the face of the wave on your take off?

Basically what I am asking is, Can you ride a wave for more than a couple seconds?

You said in your post that you have no problem dropping down the face of the wave (I assume you are talking about catching the wave and then standing up on your board)

Do I have this right? or am I miss reading you post?

Let me know, I might be able to help you figure out what is going on.

AS SOON as you drop into the wave, immediatley turn your board so its riding down the face (side) of the wave, dont wait or youll just end up in the flats. (obviously not the side thats already broken or breakin cause then youll just get a face full of water) and BAM your riding down the line up. I think the main probelm however is your board. A 7'10'' funboard would be very hard to turn, so thats probably why, ur finding yourself just merely riding down the face of the wave. You should probably move down to a shorter board cause its much easier to turn. So when you go to turn your back foot should be near where the fins are, and your front foot spaced evenly somewhere near the middle of the board. Get a nice low crouched position, cause u cant really stick a hard turn straight legged. So anyway, right after u make the drop, push your front rail as hard as you can with your front foot, and use your back foot to really get the back part of the board to turn. The back will be the hardest part to move, so really emphasize that "push", then the front will follow a bit easier. When i used to have a bigger board, and even now occaionally, if i needed to make the turn really fast cause it was really steep, ill reach down low and grab the outside of my rail to help pull and push the board up and to the side. Anyway thats probably super hard to understand, but i tried.

I'm at a similar level and have an 8' fun-board so hopefully I can help.

Firstly when you are paddling for the wave aim slightly in the direction the wave will break. This decreases the size of your bottom turn, which will maintain your speed and help get you surfing the wall.

When I turn I find because I've already started in the right direction, I only need to do a small turn. I do this by looking where I want to go and pointing my front arm in that direction as well. This will naturally move your weight in the right direction, which is kind of over your toes and back foot.

I also find if I keep my legs bent especially at the start it's heaps better.

Hope this helps.

dondiemand wrote:wow! that's kinda tough..well, a funboard usually doesnt perform as good as a shortboard..

im sorry, but watch the film log and then say that, it might be a longboard film, but if there guys to what they do on longboards im sure you can do it on a mini mal, alltho, it does depend on the board and the rider