Surfing Waves

Hello fellow surfers, I've been coming and going in the forum for a while, but I'm still here!

I recently bought a second hand GoPro hero 1, to make some footage (mostly to try to spawn some mistakes on my surfing and fix them, see how my stance is, etc..). A friend told me it would be 2-3ft on a spot a little further away, so I got the camera ready, woke up really early and.. It was barely 2ft

Waves were a bit weak, but I always tell myself: A bad day of surfing is still a good day
Also, I think I'm in no right to blame the waves, someone told me Jesse Mendes was there, and I'm not sure if it's true but I did saw someone do a 360 air..

So, don't expect much from the footage, since I could only record the first few rides (and the last two) because at some point the lens got really foggy (need to put some paper towel inside the case next time), and to be honest I don't think I had one good ride today. Mostly I'd drop in, try to pump/cutback and then lose speed because the wave was getting chubby.

Critics are welcome, since that's the whole purpose of the filming



1st wave, I tried a f/s cutback, but the section was quite flat, so I dug the rail. 2nd just tried some pumping until I got to a flat section and kicked out. 3rd was me trying some b/s cutback. I managed to get back to the pocket but lost speed and couldn't stay in the wave. 4th closed out on me before I could do anything. 5th I wiped out trying to go up the face while it was breaking. 6th just dropping straight and belly riding to go out, get my bicycle to get home and start getting ready for work

I'm impressed by how easy you get into he waves, your positioning and timing must be good for that. Nice!

It is really hard to critique but given the size and lack of power everything seems to be going quite well.
Most of the end of the rides pretty much coincides with the loss of power in the wave. So not much to say there. See too if you can get some footage from the beach , it will really expose how you are working with the wave and show things like how much speed you geerate and it will really aid your own review.
About the camera fog makes even harder to review your surfing.
There are reusable silica gel packs that are available where you got your GoPro try them , tissue paper is not very effective.
Not bad first up!

The board mounted camera is great because it shows your footing and the wave behind you but I don't know how to interpret all that and can't really see anything to critique. The surf instructors here maybe can? From my own personal experience having a camera alters how I surf so it seemed to slow down the learning process if you do it every day you surf. Like Jaffa says it would be easier to see what you the wave is offering you if you get someone to film you so next time pack another person along with you on your bike and when they are done send them to Hawaii so they can film me Is there some particular aspect of your surfing that bothers you?

jaffa1949 wrote:About the camera fog makes even harder to review your surfing.
There are reusable silica gel packs that are available where you got your GoPro try them , tissue paper is not very effective.
Not bad first up!

I read that Rain-x, the stuff for keeping windshields clear, helps keep the fog away too. Seen it in auto parts stores.

Tudeo wrote:I'm impressed by how easy you get into he waves, your positioning and timing must be good for that. Nice!

Agree - the wave catching part is really good.

A minor point is that you might want to try to paddle with your hands a touch closer to the board rather than wide out, if you can - just puts less stress on the shoulders and allows you to use your lats (back muscles) to paddle rather than putting pressure though your shoulder. So when you reach forward, bend your elbows a bit more as you enter the water with your hands closer to the board, then pull straight back, elbow still bent (focus on pulling the elbow back rather than your hand). No big thing, it might (or might not!) prevent overuse injuries down the track.

A couple of times your hands as you popped up were wrapped around the rails. I find myself doing this as well... just keep in mind that (a) there is less surface area so your hands can slip more easily and (b) usually there is no wax on the rails, so see (a). Its usually no problem but now and then a hand will slip and you nose plant into the board (which then nose plants in empathy). Another minor thing to think about.

The surfing looked fine - and that is what counts, not how you get to that stage

Ian,
this video is very cool! It's great to see you in action because I remember your posts about surfboard repairs.
keep the stoke,
billie

Thanks for all the feedback guys, really appreciate it!

Tudeo wrote:I'm impressed by how easy you get into he waves, your positioning and timing must be good for that. Nice!

Thank you man! This board has a bit less rocker than my other one, so I think it might help. The waves on the closer spot are a bit chubby, so I guess necessity also helped me improve my wave positioning and timing

Jaffa1949 wrote:See too if you can get some footage from the beach , it will really expose how you are working with the wave and show things like how much speed you geerate and it will really aid your own review.

I'll try to get some footage from sand or even from inside the water, but from a friends perspective. To be honest I actually prefer those angles over the GoPro surf mount one, specially on bigger waves. The GoPro surf mount makes you lose a bit of scale notion. Also, you can't see much more than posture and leg/arms work from that angle. But since the photographers that usually stay in the spots I surf point the lens in whatever direction I'm not in, I decided to get this camera just have an idea .
About the fog, I'll try to buy those silica gel packs online, thanks for the tip!

oldmansurfer wrote:From my own personal experience having a camera alters how I surf

It is a bit annoying to have to click on the shot button every time you think a good wave is coming (since my memory card is small, I couldn't just record the whole session) but I made a rule to myself that I'd rather lose the shot than lose the wave! Actually, I did lose footage of one wave because I couldn't hit the button fast enough

oldmansurfer wrote:Is there some particular aspect of your surfing that bothers you?

I think small wave surfing. I don't know if I'm not generating enough speed, if I'm picking the wrong waves, but when I see a guy doing a 360 on a day like this one and I barely can do a cutback and keep trimming, I start to wonder up to which point it's the waves fault .
Also, maybe days when the wave is too fast. I don't think my pumping is sharp to quickly skip closing sections.

BigH wrote:I read that Rain-x, the stuff for keeping windshields clear, helps keep the fog away too.

I'll look if those are not harmful to use on the lens! I was thinking about something like that before I saw the paper towel trick and GoPro anti-fog packs on the internet.

dtc wrote:A minor point is that you might want to try to paddle with your hands a touch closer to the board rather than wide out, if you can

I've never noticed this wide arm paddling until I saw the footage! I did feel a bit of shoulder pain when I was in the first months of surfing (almost 2 years ago), but I was surfing A LOT, everyday and for as long as I could before exhausting, so maybe it was just the weak shoulders getting used to the stress. Nowadays I don't really feel much pain in the shoulders, sometimes a bit of a muscle soreness. I'll try to paddle with my arms closer to the board to see how it feels!

dtc wrote:A couple of times your hands as you popped up were wrapped around the rails

Indeed, I read about it before here, but I was already too used to pop up like this at the time I did
So far I have no nose plants on my history, but I know that popping up like this increases the chance of that unfortunate (and probably funny for whoever is around) mistake to happen
Good to know I'm not alone on that one!

billie_morini wrote:this video is very cool! It's great to see you in action because I remember your posts about surfboard repairs.
keep the stoke

Thank you Billie! Have I told you my aunt complained about people showing up at her door asking if someone worked with fixing boards after I fixed one of the boards in her garage front?
It's been a while I don't touch any resin, though my board is needing an doctor appointment!

The one thing I would say is if someone is doing better surfing than you and you wonder why, then make sure you take notice of where they are lining up and which waves they are taking because those are two important often overlooked factors in surfing.

For the Rain-X, they used on the housing, not the lens.

oldmansurfer wrote:make sure you take notice of where they are lining up and which waves they are taking

Indeed, two really important things. But the more experienced surfers know how to take every single bit of power a weak wave has to offer, so add that to they picking the better ones and you have a guy throwing 360s on a 1-2ft day

BigH wrote:For the Rain-X, they used on the housing, not the lens.

Sure, I meant the housing "lens", I thought it could damage the plastic! But if your friends used it and it was fine I think I'll try it. Today I used some toilet paper and it didn't work at all! Jaffa warned me

Well, I've some footage from today (I uploaded in slow motion so I could try to notice things to improve easier). It was around 2ft on the spot that has chubbier waves. There were many weak waves, and once in a while a stronger set would come. Most of the footage is foggy, but you can see more than I thought when I saw how much fog the lens had!
I didn't surf really good today (I need to work on my speed I guess, or at making the most of small waves), but I recorded 4 waves.
1st one I pumped and tried a small carve, but I think I leaned too far back and lost balance.
2nd one I did a quite sharp b/s cutback (it was this sharp by accident I guess ) but in the way back to the pocket I think I lost speed and the board dived.
3rd one, I pumped, then on a small carve I lost balance leaning too far back (again!), but for some reason I look so stupid falling on this wave, don't even know why I posted this one
4th wave, I pumped down the line, then did a slow cutback, but on the way back I dug my rail (maybe I should have pointed straight to the beach until I got some speed?).
5th wave wasn't promising much, small and chubby, but was the longest ride of the day.. It started small but reformed a bit in the inside and gave me a steeper section. I just trimmed down the line and tried a small foam climb in the end.



Of the things I could notice:
-I'm liking my pop up and the first small bottom turn (setting the inside rail quickly).
-I'm not liking my arms working, they seem to be just flailing around instead of driving the ride..
-I'm dugging the rail quite often in the cutback, maybe it's just because I don't have enough speed? What should I do in those moments? Maybe setting the board in the direction of the beach and seeing if I can get some speed?

Sometimes the other surfer is just a better surfer I think if you are going slower you can do an ankle turn cutback where you don't really lean into it but start the turn and continue it with a turn initiated by using your ankles like a trim turn. Alternatively you might try to do a really hard bottom turn and unweight maximum then turn the board with your ankles and set the rail while crouching down then jam the turn as hard as you possibly can pushing really hard on your back foot but also press on the front foot as you come out of the turn. Another option is try to cutback earlier. All of this requires timing and other than the ankle turn cutback are aggressive turns. Perhaps you are too hesitant?

On your backhand turns / cutbacks, you seem to lift your upper body up and push your hips forward so that you can look over your shoulder - this throws your weight back and digs in the back rail. I suspect it might be a front arm thing? Wkk is the guy for that.

dtc wrote:On your backhand turns / cutbacks, you seem to lift your upper body up and push your hips forward so that you can look over your shoulder - this throws your weight back and digs in the back rail. I suspect it might be a front arm thing? Wkk is the guy for that.

IanCaio wrote:-I'm not liking my arms working, they seem to be just flailing around instead of driving the ride..

Looks like he already alluded to that front arm problem. They're being used to keep from falling then being used for direction changing and drive. Usually the problem is it's a locked elbow to the body or a dead arm, but in his case it's too much movement. Which is better than no movement, since you can try to slow things down. Seems you're in golf terms what they call " grip it and rip it". You might be just Arrgh ! Arggh Swing front swing back. Slow it down and point with your front hand where you want to go. Make deliberate movements. On the beach or in the house, mind surf and use your hands like they were the board. Make it smooth like people doing Tai-chi in the park.

'The Tai chi surfer' sounds like a great title for a training manual

Thank you all again for the feedback!

oldmansurfer wrote:Another option is try to cutback earlier. All of this requires timing and other than the ankle turn cutback are aggressive turns. Perhaps you are too hesitant?

I usually just try to trim down the line and use cut backs when I feel I'm losing speed or getting to a flat section. But maybe sometimes I'm not reacting fast enough..

dtc wrote:On your backhand turns / cutbacks, you seem to lift your upper body up and push your hips forward so that you can look over your shoulder - this throws your weight back and digs in the back rail. I suspect it might be a front arm thing?

I guess pushing my hips forward could explain those two lame falls I had on 2 of the waves

waikikikichan wrote:Seems you're in golf terms what they call " grip it and rip it". You might be just Arrgh ! Arggh Swing front swing back. Slow it down and point with your front hand where you want to go. Make deliberate movements. On the beach or in the house, mind surf and use your hands like they were the board. Make it smooth like people doing Tai-chi in the park.

I'll work on my front arm, do the visualization exercise you suggested! I agree with you, I think once I'm up every decision seems like it has to be made so fast (before I lose speed) that I might be "overdoing" it. Thanks for the tip, I'll try to work on this at home until it feels natural and it's easier do in the surf!

There's a new swell, more solid one, coming friday and going all the way through the weekend. Let's see if I can work on something up to then!

Yeah instead of a maneuver once you run out of wave think of it as a maneuver to use right before you run out of wave. This has come up before here on this forum. Unless you are flying pretty fast along the wave the cutback after the wave loses power has to be a low power trimming cutback or what I call ankle turning cutback. I have been working on my cutbacks and slowly making progress but what I found helped the most is to initiate them before the wave is flat. Now I still end up in flat waves making cutbacks but generally have enough speed and power to make them anyway however in those cases instead of a functional maneuver they are often an end of the wave maneuver so i cut back into the weak whitewater and then cut out.. The other thing for me has been overcoming my learning from single fin surfing long ago. I used to just lay the board down and carve but now I have to set the rail with an ankle turn then add power or the board loses it's edge and pops out of the wave. Sometimes that makes for a spectacular cutback where I am sitting on the water as the board skates around me pivoting off my butt in the water but I don't think I can do that reliably so I am working on learning to do powerful cutbacks not quite there yet. But I know that lots of people say that a cutback frontside is just like a backside bottom turn but it isn't because when you bottom turn you have gravity adding to your weight pushing down on the board and when you cutback gravity is pulling you off the board so you need speed.

Brought the camera for the third time out, still didn't get some good footage with it!

It was probably 2ft out, not really strong. End of the afternoon, finally the summer is coming and I could surf with no wetsuit!



First wave, b/s right, I think I went too far up in the face and didn't manage to turn back down. When I was in the board I thought I was going to end up in a floater but I just got left behind by the wave. I see some guys doing some crazy sharp snaps on those waves and wonder how they do it. I mean, I feel a little stuck, maybe I should try to just turn my torso really hard and see if my board comes too?
Looking at the footage it seems like I should have maybe placed more pressure in the back foot. At least my arms seems to be fine at the beginning of the wave and not flailing around! But at the turn they didn't go as far forward as I think they should.

Second wave, totally misread it.. I went to the left f/s when the right seemed like it was forming better. Breaking section was a bit ahead of me, I tried to go past it, and I think I build some speed but I spotted a dude paddling out and just backfliped my way out of the wave!

Third wave, b/s right, I notice I'm going a little far from the pocket. So I try a cutback that for some reason got me completely out of speed. So I was in the pocket but the wave just passed me through. I'm not sure why I lost the speed when I was just getting in the steeper section. Looking at the video, maybe I was leaving too much weight on the back foot?

I am not sure but to keep speed you need to have your body in position to bring the board back under you after a turn. The next to last wave looks like a good wave but you fell? Do you recall why? I don't see what the problem is but your video has me thinking I should make use of my gopro by putting it on the nose. I guess if I break it off then I break it off maybe before that happens I can get some video off it.

looking at your quiver in your signature, none of those boards were appropriate for the mushy waves you were in. You can see that it takes you a lot of extra paddling down the face to get to the pop up, so you waste a lot of wave, and then it closes out on you.
you need a longer / floatier board for those conditions.