Surfing Waves

Arrrgghh.... I hate backside surfing. No, not really hate, it's just I am not as comfortable backside surfing. I feel like I don't have the vision while backside surfing and thus my timing is not as good versus frontside. I really have to slow everything down while going right (goofy) which means I am not attacking the wave and my enjoyment level is not the same as going left. In fact, while living in Hawaii my vanity license plate on my car said GONLFT. I now live outside of Santa Cruz, CA which is the land of the rights which sucks for me. Because of this I mostly surf the breaks in my area that offer a left, like beach breaks and another point that is a decent left when it's not blown out. Because of my favoritism towards going left I often surf crappier spots just to go left. I want to stop this and enjoy the many, many spots that are rights in the Santa Cruz area but damn, I hate going right. Any suggestions........ How many of you feel the same way? Am I doomed to forcing myself to go right until I actually want to?

I learned to go backside originally by making a bad takeoff/bottom turn and going the wrong direction. Because the beach closest to my house has a nice reef break that is a left (backside for me) I learned to surf backside there. Funny thing with me is after quitting surfing for 11 years I found backside easier, maybe because it was more scary so I went all out. But my backside bottom turn was always good from the first time (first time I did a backside bototm turn second time learning) and I would go from there to slamming into the lip something I still haven't gotten down entirely frontside. This happened because I had an all or nothing aproach to backside when I restarted. It probably had to do with not being able to visualize the wave well so I just went for broke and figured that was the best I could do. Now I am more comfortable and smoother and less radical going backside. I have had some awesome rides backside this time around because I sometimes surf at the same break where I learned to go backside and I have retained a little knowledge of the break. Backside is just like frontside only different

Like most people, I suspect, I'm also not great backside. I think its the whole leaning into the wave thing - on your toes that's fine because its easy to balance, on your heels you feel much less stable. Plus you can't see. Even taking the initial drop I find that backside I tend to go much straighter (down the wave) and so have to do a bigger bottom turn, which is fine at times but other times I end up too far in front of the wave (or nose dive my board on the flats...)

On tip is to turn your back foot so its pointing almost down the stringer (toes pointing to the nose). Your front foot moves a little bit, but not as much. This opens up your hips and shoulders and means you can actually see the wave. Its not quite as stable so I generally pop up 'normal', go down the wave, bottom turn then twist my foot. it does feel a bit different because you have to use only the toes on your back foot to manoeuvre (your heel will probably be in the air a bit).

ah, here is Nick Carroll talking about it - notice his comment about the front arm as well, which I haven't really thought about but makes sense

http://www.surfline.com/community/whokn ... fm?id=1117

Still, I have to admit that there are biggish waves I will happily surf frontside that I don't do backside. Like you, preferring front side just means I get better on my front side and worser on my backside as time goes by...should work on that!

Very true... front side I am all in but backside I need to have a nice entry, nothing too late or critical etc. I think I do turn my back foot somewhat parallel to the stringer which means you are kinda just surfing with the ball of your foot (back). I guess that is what gives me the not solid feel versus front side. My backside hacks are better than front side. I think this is because once you hit the lip you are actually surfing front side bringing the board back around. Hmmm. the more I think about my back foot the more I think being on the ball of the foot is a major reason I feel not so stable. If I am going backside and take off into a pig dog type entry I feel pretty solid. My back foot is pressing down along the whole outside edge of my foot very similar to when I go front side. Nonetheless, I love going left, right not so much. Especially as waves get bigger.

yep that's the deal you have to do it to improve. When I restarted my backside was better than my frontside but my frontside gradually improved while my backside riding stayed the same. After a few good days on backside waves and I am much better backside and now it seems to me to be more learning timing and how to do the basic turns just like frontside. The waves I ride backside are often a whole lot better than the average waves I ride frontside. I might get shacked backside before I do frontside. So I guess if you have good enough waves available frontside you might just stick to it but it sounds like that isn't the case. I think perhaps you have problems backside because you don't want to learn how to do it. I have reflexes from having surfed before that help me on the drops but with multiple fin wide long boards I needed to change some of them (I surf an 8 foot quad fungun). I did the only successful airdrop takeoff with the board flat to the bottom that I have ever done. No idea how that happened but I went completely airborne and managed to land it and make a bottom turn back onto the wave about an 8 foot face wave.

Wouldn't the obvious option be to just keep working on your backside at those breaks?? Sure you might not be as good as your frontside initially but you will end up a much better surfer and open up possibilities to enjoy other breaks that you wouldn't normally go to! (and eventually enjoy those as much).

I too am a lot better on my backside in many ways, especially after not really getting a decent frontside wave at my break for a couple of months. Over the Xmas break I was at a beach that basically only spat frontside waves at me and I had to deal with it. I watched myself on a video that my mate took and realised how much room for improvement there was! That helped me quite a bit actually.

My suggestion, even though you're probably better and more experienced than me, take on your weaknesses and try get someone to film you doing them so that you can see visually how you look and what you can work on

Yeah, Santa Cruz is definitely all rights. If you live in los Gatos, aren't there a lot of A-frames to be had north of santa cruz? Manresa isn't that far south and there are some lefts there I think.

If you are that uncomfortable surfing on your backhand, you could always learn how to surf switch-stance, so you would always be going frontside. Jeff Clark did it at Maverick's. Perhaps not the best place to learn how though. Try skateboarding regular-footed to see how it feels, and go from there.

Yes Manresa is one of my regular spots just because you can go left. No barrels and closes out at 4 foot. Davenport is my spot as long as I get on it early. Problem there is it feels "sharky" to me so I don't like to go too early. Waddell Creek in another that has lefts and sometimes kinda good. I have looked into your area - Lover's point or something I think is a left down there as well as Asilomar right? The day I went down there Asilomar was really big and looked like nasty currents everywhere. I never could find Lover's Point. I didn't go out that day at Asilomar as conditions were right at my max and I was solo plus knew nothing about the break. I am going to have to put the time in going right and stop the bitching - arrghh I hate going right.