Surfing Waves

I'm in Fayetteville, NC and get over to various spots on the coast about weekly- location depends usually on where other folks are headed.

About 10 years ago I got out maybe a total of 15 times on a borrowed funboard.

I just bought a 9'4" Gnaraloo Fatty which seems to be a much better choice for my 5'10" 195 pound build. After having it out 3 times, I'm at about an 80% success rate catching broken waves, and maybe at about a 25% success rate catching unbroken waves.

My issues are that I will bog down the tail and the wave will pass me by (maybe a paddling speed issue?), the wave lifts me and I pearl (probably not taking off with enough angle, in feel like I've worked out my positioning on the board although I may not be arching/standing in time).

I figure I'll spend most of my time lurking and reading existing threads, Thanks folks.

Welcome to the forum. Yeah surfing is not the easiest thing to learn but it's the most fun. You have to work on your paddling and popping up. You can practice popping up at home. There are lots of threads about those things (paddling, poping up and pearling) as well as instructions at the top of the page labeled Learn to Surf. If you run into problems feel free to ask or if you are proud of learning something feel free to share it with us. It's likely the problems you are having most people learning to surf also have. The best way to practice paddling is to paddle on a board but swimming may help if you can't paddle.

Welcome....watch out for sharks! Heard there was another incident recently.

kevo wrote:My issues are that I will bog down the tail and the wave will pass me by (maybe a paddling speed issue?), the wave lifts me and I pearl (probably not taking off with enough angle, in feel like I've worked out my positioning on the board although I may not be arching/standing in time).

For a wave to catch you, its energy will 'push' on the tail of your board and then push the board forward. If your tail is bogged in the water, then the wave cant push hard enough against that resistance to get the board moving, and the wave will pass under you. If it catches you but your board isn't moving fast enough forward (ie you aren't paddling fast enough) then the tail will move faster than the nose and you will perl (perling usually isn't the nose diving as such, its the tail being lifted).

I know you say you are working on your position on the board, but the no 1 beginner mistake tends to be that you are too far back on the board - trying to lift the nose to 'avoid' perling. However, this digs the tail in and means the board goes slower, which has the complete opposite effect to the one you thought would be the result.

Make sure when you lay on your board in flat water that the nose of the board is about 1 inch above the water. This often means you need to be a lot further forward than you think is reasonable or that feels comfortable. Remember its not the nose that is the problem with perling, so ignore it (well, obviously you can be too far forward, but that is usually not an issue)

Second issue is your board not moving fast enough when the wave catches you (flipping up the tail). This is partly positioning against the wave (making sure you are in the right place) and partly paddling speed. Paddling is paddling with power, not flailing your arms fast - so concentrate on strong deep pulls. Also, with a big board, it can take some time to get moving, so maybe start paddling a little bit earlier. Positioning for the wave is a bit of trial and error - I start somewhere that seems about right, then move forward if the wave is passing underneath me despite me paddling 'properly' (often this means the wave hasn't broken enough/curved enough to transfer the energy to your board) or further back if I'm getting the lip on my head. Within 2-3 waves you should be about right.

Then, if you pop up too early, then the wave will pass under you (not enough power has transferred to your board before you pop up so the board cannot support you going forward). Of course, if you pop up too late then you are already down the wave. Getting the timing right is pretty much a matter of experience, but as soon as you feel the board is definitely moving on its own, pop up and do it quickly. Often this will occur later than you expect - you may already be paddling down the face of the wave (particularly on steep/low tide waves).

Anyway, very common problems, hope the above might help. I personally find it useful to try and understand why things happen - think about how the waves energy is being transferred to your board and how that makes the board behave.

Thanks for the advice, folks. I learn a little bit more each day.

The thing I'm realizing about surfing is the huge number of variables involved. Board moving, water moving, position on the wave, shape of the wave, paddling speed, angle of paddling... it's all got to come together in that moment- pretty awesome to watch folks who can do it over and over again.

Yeah it still amazes me that we can actually surf with all the variables involved.

Yeah....but there are days where it just seems like all you have to do is paddle a few firm strokes and you're up and away on a wave that seems to co-operate with what you're trying to do....kick out, paddle back and have it happen just the same again and again....makes the days where you find yourself just beyond where you are supposed to be over and over again more bearable....

dtc wrote:I personally find it useful to try and understand why things happen - think about how the waves energy is being transferred to your board and how that makes the board behave.

Some days catching the wave and popping up are so surprisingly easy versus other days when it just doesn't work. Often afterwards i'm thinking about what went wrong but it is hard for me to find the answer. Also the adrenaline rush doesn't help the understanding process. Then reading away on this forum, sometimes in old threads, the answer is there.

I had this problem with my old board a 6'6" hybrid with a wide and thick tail, sometimes I was on my feet without thinking but other times I missed the magic popup-moment and stayed on my belly while I was shot forward. I read an old thread about white-water takeoffs and how the white water rocks the board into an unstable state for popup. Now I'm reading about energy being transferred from the wave to the tail of the board, it's all starting to make sense.

Great stuff guys!

Tudeo wrote:

dtc wrote:I had this problem with my old board a 6'6" hybrid with a wide and thick tail, sometimes I was on my feet without thinking but other times I missed the magic popup-moment and stayed on my belly while I was shot forward.

As an aside, wide tail boards have an interesting take off. The wave can catch the tail really easily, meaning they are great boards for catching waves. But, as the wave has a lot to push against, the transfer of energy from the wave to the board happens fast. So there is a 'slingshot' effect - the wave catches and the board accelerates quickly - meaning you have to have your pop up working fast or you are down the wave before you know it.

Surfing, always full of trade offs! Easier to catch the wave (good) but requires pop up speed (not 'bad' but mean less room for error).

dtc wrote:So there is a 'slingshot' effect - the wave catches and the board accelerates quickly

Exactely, it was like a slingshot! Even when I made the popup the acceleration (from about shoulderhigh) was so big I couldn't get the rail in on the backhand. Had some spectaculair wipeouts though

Actually that board is way overvolumed for me now, I lost about 10kg since I bought it. Still I love this board, a Firewire Dominator in FST, and want to try it out as a quad when the waves are knee or waist high.

Funny thing, my Addvance 6'6" has bigger volume, 48l against 45l for the Dom, but the tail is not as wide and thinner. It goes very well in overhead and it catches waves easy but is due the forward volume very hard to duckdive in powerful waves. Trade offs indeed!

But today I missed some waves with it cos I've been watching the pro's in J-Bay too much.. I tried to paddle in the relaxed way the pro's catch them, based on their great timing. The problem was not the relaxed paddling, that went very well, it was more the timing that was lacking..

I think cos I did not commit enough and developed enough speed needed for the shape of the wave. So instead of the wave pushing me forward halfway up the face the wave lifted my tail all the way up the crest and created instability so I stayed down instead of popping up. On the flats I popped up but was then already too deep in the white water to make it. But I'm not sure this analysis is good, please correct me if i'm wrong.

Tudeo wrote:I think cos I did not commit enough and developed enough speed needed for the shape of the wave. So instead of the wave pushing me forward halfway up the face the wave lifted my tail all the way up the crest and created instability so I stayed down instead of popping up. On the flats I popped up but was then already too deep in the white water to make it. But I'm not sure this analysis is good, please correct me if i'm wrong.

Sometimes if the tail gets a bit caught in the crest, you can pop up and literally stand at the top of the wave and you have to actually lean forward to tilt the board down the wave - sort of like a skateboarder does at the top of a ramp. It can be fun - its more common on a longboard, but can be required on shorter boards.

But, yes, trying to be too relaxed (or too lazy or too tired or too confident!) will often create problems. Part of it is that your positioning and everything you do is all built around muscle memory which operates on your normal paddling speed/effort. Change that down and you are I the wrong place or something else goes a bit off kilter. Not to say you cant adjust, but the first few times you are in the wrong place and not sure what to do.

Steeper waves (low tide beachies in particular) have a lot of water rushing up the face quite quickly (water movement in waves is circular, from base to crest ie following the curl of the wave or, in fact, creating the curl of the wave), so your paddling has to not only bring you up to the speed of the wave but do so overcoming the water pushing you up the wave. Steeper jacking up waves are harder to catch as a rule, you often need to take a few extra strokes while heading down the wave face so it will catch you properly. Fat high tide waves just cruise along and give you a nice gentle push (if they even break, of course)

I almost bought an Addvance a few years go and the Dom seems like a good board. I now have a McCoy Nugget, which probably has the fattest tail around (and the Dom has a lot of 'nugget genetics' - they are similar in concept); once you are prepped for the slingshot effect it its ok, but I'm still not convinced a fat tail is the best solution in bigger waves, as you say; but its great in smaller waist to head high waves or weak summer waves. As an unfit injured old person, who to be honest is never really in surf of significant size, its a great board. I got it second hand to try it out, pretty cheap, and will keep it I think.

What size is ur McCoy? I think the McCoy has an interesting bottom contour with that transition from concave to V, a pivot point i heard somebody call it. The Dom only has a very shallow single concave.

Being a later in live beginner I bought the Dom for getting back into surfing after some years mostly out of the water due injuries, but I was not good informed at that time. Later I learned the Addvance is better suited for that purpose. So I took it out for a test, and was sold immediately

I'm also a bit older surfer 52 (6ft,74kg), my main goal is to get my fitness up to surf more frequently. Maybe, just maybe I can still improve enough to use some smaller volume boards. But then again in my experience it's a struggle to keep surf-fit. The counter of 2015 is on only 23 surfs until today