those little instruction pictures in surf mags

[taralynn]

Hey all!

I read a great article recently by Clifton Evers about researching surfing through the body and how the body reacts to different wave conditions and motions whilst surfing. And that the more you surf the more intuitive this becomes.... which got me thinking....
to all of you who buy surf mags - the instruction section, with the little pictures of people frozen in different positions - does anybody find these helpful? Has anyone tried new moves because of these pics?
I'd be esp interested to hear from any surf instructors or long time surfers...

Cheers,
Tara

[garbarrage]

Sorry noone has answered, not a bad question for your first. They definitely help with the little things. You are not going to be able to study a photo sequence of a guy doing a great snap and know how to do it but you may notice where he has his hands or feet at a certain stage that you feel you normally lose speed or power and you can concentrate on that the next time out. It's important not to try to remember too much to work on in one session. Pick something small and work on that.

[ABSurfer78]

Yes, sometimes it does help. You may see something like another angle of attack on the lip, or something like that.

[Melisagrom]

I agree- I was having trouble dropping in on steeper waves, when I saw an instructional sequence on different ways to balance on a wave- it was only when I saw the picture that I realised how extreme you have to lean forwards to make the drop. just little things like that make a huge difference, helped me a lot..

[Supafly]

^^ links please, I am having trouble with these steeper take-offs. I would also love to read the article OP talked about if you can remember the name of the article?

[surf patrol]

No worries. It was in this instructional by Surfing Life magazine in Australia: there's an online version here: http://www.surfinglife.com.au/howtosurfyourbest/ , tips on balancing the takeoff are pages 38-41, there was a series of pictures of Laurie Towner at Hawaii, really demonstrated the extent that you have to fall forward.. Just realised the online sample version doesn't show those particular pages, so...
here's some similar pics, hoping the links work:
link 1
link 2

sorry the links are so messy I don't know how to do them properly
the tips were to heavily weight the front foot, make sure the front foot was the first on the board and to lean forward into the drop, not away from it, staying low and close to the board. gives momentum and lets the nose rail rocker cut sideways through the face of the wave. not much but really helped me with my surfing- loving the bigger days now, so much more confident with the drop! hope it helps

[zandvoortsurfertje]

Hey Melisagrom

This information you gave was very very usefull
Thank you very much

Zandvoortsurfertje