Surfing Waves

Hi , can someone tell me the proper technique for taking drops ?

I Surf for about half a year and im not afraid of drops and commiting 100%. I just want to fall less and start the wave good . Any help ?

Btw im riding a 5'8 shortboard pretty thick and wide.

Thanks

I think it is the most difficult part of surfing to explain. It involves positioning yourself in the right place, paddling fast enough to catch the wave, popping up, negotiating the wave face plus or minus transitioning from face to bottom of the wave. Commiting to the wave is also important since it much more likely you will fall if you don't commit. While I can't exactly tell you what you have to do to take a drop perhaps if you tell us what is happeneing to you then we can give you useful hints.

Vent wrote:I Surf for about half a year and
im riding a 5'8 shortboard pretty thick and wide.

This could be your problem. How old and heavy are you and what are the other board dimensions? If you have take off problems and little experience you probably shouldn't be on such a small board (unless you're very small and light).

im 13 years old, 100 lbs and 154 cm . The board isnt the problem , it floats me well and the first session with this board I catched the wave and stood up. I dont have problems popping up, but i fall during the drop, most of the times backwards.

Yeah it sounds like commiting is the problem. You have to lean forward. I don't know if you skateboard on a half pipe but to take the drop there you also have to lean forward or you will fall backwards off the board. Then at the botrtom you need to transition from leaning forward to standing over the board more evenly and start to put more pressure on your back foot. It is a common problem with beginners. The easiest way is to start small and work your way up.

What do you mean by starting small ?
Btw,sometimes during the drop my nose hits the waters and i fall frontwards. Any tips?

Also, how commiting is the problem if im not afraid of the wave ? What do you mean by commit ?

It's a normal instinct to lean away from a ledge but to surf you need to lean forward. You fall back because you are leaning back. I mean start on smaller waves but if you aren't scared then lean forward and then you may get the other problem which is to pearl or bury the nose of your board in the water so you have to transition from leaning forward to leaning backward as you reach the bottom of the wave and begin to bottom turn. Also the tendency to pearl the board is often associated with not paddling hard enough to catch the wave so that you just fall over the drop. In that case a bigger board might help to get you into the wave sooner. It's a tricky thing to figure out exactly what the problem is but if you are just learning and don't get discouraged then it's just a matter of learning on your own and figuring out what works and what does't but having instruction or someone who can watch you and tell you what you are doing wrong would help.

Vent wrote:I dont have problems popping up, but i fall during the drop, most of the times backwards.

The pop and drop should be part of the same movement on a shortboard. If you're falling off the back, you're either weighting the board too much at the back and/or popping up too late as the board accelerates away without you.

Are you catching the wave when it's completely unbroken or are you using the whitewater to help you catch the wave?

Simple, paddle harder and stop using your front foot for the drop. A common beginner mistake is that you try to compensate for your lack of paddle ability by pushing on the nose of the board to catch a wave, like with your chin and, after you pop up, by leaning forward. The problem is that you are not going down the line, you are going straight down.

Work on paddling stronger and faster, and holding your head up high. The extra speed will help your board plan on the wave without doing the downhill slide

Also some beginners tend to pop up by pushing their upper body backwards to be over their feet; but the pop up should involve the upper body going straight up and the feet coming underneath. If you are doing the former, then you are heading up and backwards at the time your board is heading forward and downwards. So...you fall off the back.

that may not be your problem, as the others have mentioned. Its just something that is a common flaw so it could be you. The easy way to figure it out is to do a pop up on land. If you are falling/leaning backwards on land when you stand, then it will be much worse in the water.

In addition to the wealth of good advice above for me it was commitment....I know that you listed your level at 100%....it really has to be, banish negative thoughts from your mind, focus on success and actually, as you progress, focusing less on the get up and more on what you're going to do once you are up and on the wave because getting up is a given....

That and don't be too far inside; give yourself as much time as you can, the obvious pop up faster; practice a lot on land, and the last one, check back in 6months; 6months in if you are popping up normally and riding waves you're doing alright....just keep doing it and go on bigger and bigger waves, go progressively deeper, practice catching fractionally later until you can do it and realise when you are flirting with the line of being able to make/not make the wave BEFORE you paddle and progressively pushing that line to a later degree so that in a crowd maybe you can sneak one that everyone else lets go....no magic, just ALOT more time in the water than you have had so far......and taking a lot of hits.

Hi, Thanks for all the replies.

yes, I do catch completely unbroken waves.

I think you guys think I don't catch waves, but I catch 10-15 waves in a good 3 hour session,but I want to increase my wave count to 20-25 and have proper technique for harder/hollower waves.. another question I have,is how, do I do make bottom turn more sharp? when I try to do it sharper I dig the rail into the water and fall
off. Thanks everybody!

These are the videos that resonate the most with me....I don't know what your specific issue is...for most people the more they practice/surf, the smoother their mechanics become, the better their timing is and the faster the popup becomes with more control....all of these videos echo the above posts; maybe you're a visual learner like me....I need to see it to do it.








http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/surfl ... oke_41384/

thanks

Wow that guy in the last video has a great popup. I guess your popup should be getting faster till the arthritis and back/shoulder/hip/elbow/wrist problems slow it down. I don't know what I do but on steep waves I do it much faster be it more room or more adrenalin or whatever.