Surfing Waves

To surf steeper waves it's usually recommended to get a shorter board with more rocker. Or .............

Or you can use a longboard, get in early, position on the board and wave correctly and rely on your surfing skills, and not blame it on the board.

Surfer Zack Meyers taking the steep drop at Pipe.

This was my problem last weekend. I took my longboard out to a new spot full of shortboard. I was the only one in LB in the lineup. It isn't a easy spot because the wave has a sudden increase in height when it moves up the sandbank. It becomes too steep and I can't catch it early as it doesn't form until it hits the shallow part. I caught only 2 wave within 45 minutes. It was really dangerous and fast so I decided it is enough and I'm risking myself and others.

What I need is to train my body and my mind. Or probably bring a smaller board like a 7'6 next time.

BaNZ wrote:This was my problem last weekend. I took my longboard out to a new spot full of shortboard. I was the only one in LB in the lineup.

That's asking for trouble times two. Only longboard surrounded by short boarders ( or dive bombing on top of them ) and showing up at a spot you've never surfed before. If there's only shortboarders, I don't paddle out. Just out of respect and safety. Also I try make sure my skills are better than the worst surfer I see out there. The pack normally picks on the weakest.

We have very good vibe here. Most people know each other and the shortboarders are mostly lifeguards that has been watching my back for the last two years. I'm fairly well known for being the only Chinese surfer in a very remote Caucasian village.

What happens next in your photo? Does that guy at the bottom survive?

Good eye there. Looks to be a water photographer's fin. So I guess he's okay. (unless he gets sucked into one of them caves, like Turtle says)

how long for a beginner to get good enough to catch waves like that on a longboard versus a shortboard?

Basically just because a certain type of board is supposed to be good for a certain type of wave it doesn't mean you can't use boards that are not supposed to be good for them. Just because the really advanced surfers can feel the difference between boards or maybe even you can feel the difference it doesn't mean you can't learn to use that board on that wave. Look at Jamie O'brien he uses a lot of different boards in different conditions. I don't think there would be much difference in time to learn to ride waves like that between a longboard and a shortboard unless you have to learn to ride a longboard before you ride a shortboard in which case it will be more time to ride those kind of waves. I think there are people who are just going to have problems on those kind of waves whatever they do and others who won't

I catch steep waves on a longboard with lots of hard work and calculation, it's harder than a normal wave but not impossible, check every second or two how the wave is rising, angle your board towards the less steep face and paddle liek your life depended on it or you'll pearl, stay crouched when taking the drop with your weight on the tail then get the hell outta there before the lip smashes you
It took me an hour and a half to catch 3 waves this way that were 5-8 ft, and I'm a beginner, someone who's been surfing longer than me could probably get a better wave count.

I got the only decent full on standup tube ride since I restarted surfing on a longboard. On that wave (6 foot Hawaiian double overhead) I took two insanely steep drops. The first one on takeoff and I ankle turned at the top of the wave and stepped on the tail the board still went straight down till the wave curved at the bottom then the nose pushed itself out. At the bottom of the wave it was really choppy and I was standing on the tail and the board hit some chops and popped up and down radically resulting in me overturning the board and going straight back up the face to the lip. I snapped the board back down but it briefly hung there in the lip just to give me more adrenalin from looking down this hairy steep drop for a second or two before it let me back down the face. Made the second drop no problem and the wave was walled up like it was going to tube out so I just pulled up onto the wall and let it happen. The lip was landing about where my feet were but outside of that so if you were on the shore you would only see my board and maybe my feet at times. The tube got smaller on the end and was going to closeout and the lip was pitching over but there was a notch in the lip and somehow I snuck out right through that notch as the wave collapsed. I got my present board with the hopes of getting more waves like that but so far no luck (smaller quicker tubes but nothing like that)

Oh, if you were wondering, yes he made it. Most of the time, you can find Zack teaching tourist how to surf in Waikiki, where he rips in small waves too.

waikikikichan wrote:To surf steeper waves it's usually recommended to get a shorter board with more rocker. Or ............. you can use a longboard, get in early, position on the board and wave correctly and rely on your surfing skills, and not blame it on the board.

Sure with the right surfing skills u can make these waves with less than optimal suited boards for the occasion, but for the lower end intermediate surfers in search for steeper and bigger waves the optimal setup can mean all the difference between the wave or the wipeout of ur life.

Tudeo wrote:for the lower end intermediate surfers in search for steeper and bigger waves the optimal setup can mean all the difference between the wave or the wipeout of ur life.

I try to teach people to get their skills up , so then they can ride ANY board. The marketing hype wants you to believe you need this or that cool wizz-bang flavor of the month. Guys like Zack can ride a 12 foot tanker, do airs on a 9 ft. longboard, Twin fin fish, short board, boogie board, and bodysurf all on the same day if need be. They understand riding the wave. Duke Kahanmoku said "Ride the wave, Not the board".

Can we lose or break our skills like we snap a board or reef a fin ? Can you buy or trade on Craigslist the ability to read waves and roll from rail to rail ? I want those very same Lower End-Intermediates to look within themselves for the answers.......... not only just look into their wallets.

waikikikichan wrote:I try to teach people to get their skills up , so then they can ride ANY board. The marketing hype wants you to believe you need this or that cool wizz-bang flavor of the month.

Sure, if you want to make a statement against the over the top marketing and commerce around surfing, I'm with you.

But I think there is an optimal board for every surfer in every surfing session depending on the skill, the waves and other relevant conditions, and I do believe you can build your personal quiver so it suits your surfing needs and environment. In my opinion the quest is for those optimal boards, and I do believe the marketing tricks and stories are not helping us surfers but mainly the companies behind it.

20 or 30 years or so ago everyone would have ridden a 7ft6 or more on a wave like that. Admittedly board design has come long way and now allows shorter boards to ride those waves, but it wasn't always 'grab the 6ft'. People managed to surf just fine

It is always about gaining and enhancing skills, the boards might change as skills improve, but nothing can give you skills you don't have.
Wanna ride Pipe or another steep wave , you need the skills, the board just enhances how you use your skills.
If you have the skills you also know what board fits you in the situation and you have the confidence to back yourself.

waikikikichan wrote:Or you can use a longboard, get in early, position on the board and wave correctly and rely on your surfing skills, and not blame it on the board.

I can understand how this works backside. I've made drops like that, though of course not on waves like that
Backside, it comes naturally to me. You angle the board as you pop up, you grab the rail, stay low , and somehow it works. You don't pearl.

But how would you make that kind of drop frontside???? I

If you push the inside rail of a longboard into the wave or ankle turn at the top of a vertical steep wave then as you go down the nose of the board contacts the curving part of the wave at the bottom but only half the nose goes under water since the board has the inside rail into the wave and curvature of the nose pushes itself back out of the water

icetime wrote:I catch steep waves on a longboard with lots of hard work and calculation, it's harder than a normal wave but not impossible, check every second or two how the wave is rising, angle your board towards the less steep face and paddle liek your life depended on it or you'll pearl, stay crouched when taking the drop with your weight on the tail then get the hell outta there before the lip smashes you
It took me an hour and a half to catch 3 waves this way that were 5-8 ft, and I'm a beginner, someone who's been surfing longer than me could probably get a better wave count.

If you can do all that, you are not a beginner. Nice job!

oldmansurfer wrote:If you push the inside rail of a longboard into the wave or ankle turn at the top of a vertical steep wave then as you go down the nose of the board contacts the curving part of the wave at the bottom but only half the nose goes under water since the board has the inside rail into the wave and curvature of the nose pushes itself back out of the water

Good stuff! There's a lot to be said in favor of riding "rail to rail" on bigger waves. (on all waves, actually) I have always ridden them more "front to back" with carving turns...and I wipe out alot!