Surfing Waves

Hey everyone and anyone.
I've been surfing just over a year and currently ride a DHD animal 6'6 I'm looking to get a new board at Xmas and am thinking either the dhd monster 6'4 or black diamond 6'2. I normally surf beach breaks in Sydney. I currently can pop up and go down the line however I am starting to try and get higher on the face and add in a couple of turns. Just wondering if anyone has any advise on which board would probably be better and also with fins I'm looking at either the 5 fin set of fcs2 performers or dhd own fins. Big difference in price tho and unsure the difference they would make if any to me.
Also any tips for when taking off which I should be doing to try and get higher on the wave to generate more speed would be great

Get a powerful bottom turn going before each drive to the top , top turn - wipeouts without good speed, use every turn , start by small one to add to your speed, let the wave show you the lines which generate speed, you cannot get speed by staying at the bottom of the wave

Stay with the board you have 5 fins are not going to,help you until you get your turns working. Probably not even then.

jaffa1949 wrote:Get a powerful bottom turn going before each drive to the top , top turn - wipeouts without good speed, use every turn , start by small one to add to your speed, let the wave show you the lines which generate speed, you cannot get speed by staying at the bottom of the wave

Stay with the board you have 5 fins are not going to,help you until you get your turns working. Probably not even then.

Thanks Jaffa appreciate the feed back. Hope I can get some more knowledge from you.
I've been told that surfing a quad would increase down the line speed which I thought would be helpful. I find the wave tends to overtake me.
When you say a powerful bottom turn how do you make it powerful? I'm trying to get to the top of the wave but when I wast h some of the other guys around me they don't seem to go as far into the trough as me. That's where I'm trying to figure out how to get up the wave a bit faster.

Your 6'6" animal is a really good board. I'd stick with it for a while until you master the bottom and top turn and the cutback, frontside and backside. When you can do those things the added performance of a shorter board will be all the more rewarding.

As for quads, I'd stay away with them for now. It's too easy just to point the board down the wave and fly, without really learning how to understand the wave. The general consensus is that they are hard to surf backside as well. Trust the thruster.

A happy medium would be a super twin setup, lots more pivot that way.

Davidt wrote:I've been told that surfing a quad would increase down the line speed which I thought would be helpful.

Turbos won't help if you can't even drive a normally aspirated car. You probably have less control. Quads should be used AFTER you can use the thrusters to it's full potential. There's people that can go off the lip with rubber fin fat boxed railed sponge boards, worry less about the arrow and work on the indian.

Davidt wrote:When you say a powerful bottom turn how do you make it powerful? I'm trying to get to the top of the wave but when I wast h some of the other guys around me they don't seem to go as far into the trough as me. That's where I'm trying to figure out how to get up the wave a bit faster.

YOU are trying to go somewhere. You need to work with the wave TOGETHER. If you RESIST the wave ( push off the ball of your feet, engage rail, etc. ) you fall UP the wave. if you RELAX, you go back DOWN. ( But don't make the mistake of bending over and just leaning on your bottom turns )

Question, what boards did you ride before the 6'2"-6'4" and were you able to turn of the top on previous boards ?

I'm currently riding a 6'6 dhd animal. Which I went out on today and after reading a few tips on here managed to get to the top of the wave and then down and link a few turns. The most progressive surf I've had. Also managed to pump the board through a bit of a flat to keep the ride going. I should also say the board I'm on was brought second hand and isn't it the best condition. That's another part of the reason I am getting a new board for Xmas.

previous to the 6'6" DHD, what size/type board were you riding ? Or did you learn on that 6'6" since you started ?

I had a lesson on a foam board but then it's been that

That's the problem, you never spent time on a bigger board to learn Trim. How can you break trim to rise and fall down the wave, if you haven't learned to trim.
On a bigger board, your forced to move your feet and body to engage the rail and tail, to move front and back to control pearling and planing to gain speed. All those skills transfer over to when your ready to ride a smaller board.

Sounds like you are surfing small ish waves. Go surfing on a bigger day. If you get into a good wave speed is no issue. If you are riding small waves stay away from the pin tails. They are slow and designed not to slip and slide in hollow waves.

Once you start padding angle your board slightly along the wave face in the direction you want to go. Try to stand up before the wave breaks. Once you do pick your line. Either drop to the bottom of the wave and turn at the bottom or stay high on the wave and pump up and down.

It's hard to know what to do when and sometimes you will fluke it and make the right decision. When you do. You will come out of the water with grin from ear to ear.

I like rounded square tails. They are fast and can turn well. Wider the tail usually faster. More narrow tail bit slower but you can really turn with lots of power. So depends what size waves you are riding?

If you got the standard plastic fins it restricts the pop you can generate off your bottom turn. It will seem lifeless when you bottom turn and you won't carry speed back up the face of the wave.

All this talk might seem confusing and slightly different for different individuals. But the best thing is experience. Keep going out and reflecting as you said up the thread. Then you will be sure and make your own mind up on what is or isn't working.

Chzur bo