Surfing Waves

Heel side Toe side pressure. Bend your knees more. Core Muscles. Swing your arms back and forth. Get a Carve board. Blah Blah ........ To Pump for Speed, Watch Ryan Burch and Learn how smooth ( and fast ) it can be.

Starts from the 7:45 right after his snap back.
8:07 you can see from a different angle, him falling up the wave and resisting down.

Yeah he is smooth and does nothing more speed wise than staying with the wave. I am sure he could work up much more speed on a wave if he needed to. Those are what I would call speed turns. Plus there were a few prior to that here and there and one of the surfers was doing a bunch of them in the tube but you couldn't see his upper body due to him being tubed. Speed turns need to be smooth. An erratic turn generates more friction and loss of speed.

Is that really pumping though?
As I understand it if you raise your arm fast you unload the board and it goes up on the wave because it simply weighs less for an instant. Then you have more potential energy to trade for speed.

Well he is only half way pumping because the wave isn't that fast but the guy in the tube earlier in the film was pumping pretty well. He is unweighting up the wave then gliding along using the power higher up to give him speed and gradually dropping down because the wave didn't require anything more than that. To get maximum speed you need to get back down fast and back up fast and try to keep your center of gravity between the beach and down the line from the board. so this video isn't about maximum speed it is graceful speed as needed. You can raise your arms all you want but it is a coordinated effort requiring the entire body to get maximum speed. So if you stand there and flap your arms like a bird it won't work too well. Think of it like a standing long jump it requires arm movement, leaning, and jumping but then turning back down the wave smoothly and quickly requiring coordinated arm and body movements similar to going up the wave. Your arms don't initiate the movement they just assist. Try standing then throwing your arms forward and see how far forward you go (you won't budge other than maybe falling over). Then try hands on your hips and jump forward so you can't use your arms then try jumping forward using your arms and you will see what I mean (do this on a nice padded soft ground).

pmcaero wrote:Is that really pumping though?
As I understand it if you raise your arm fast you unload the board and it goes up on the wave because it simply weighs less for an instant. Then you have more potential energy to trade for speed.

Swinging your arms, un-weights yes, but it doesn't not have the same effect as the legs resisting and relaxing in tune with the energy rolling up the face. But it's not so much as what you do e.g. Swing you Arms, bend your knees, etc. it's more When and Where you do it. But notice how "quiet" his upper body and composure is ? Not doing the Hip Jive Watusi arms flailing all around the place. But if it works for you, then that's all good.

It's kinda like when you pure a golf ball....the feeling tells you when you get it right. I get the feeling just watching this guy.

waikikikichan wrote:

pmcaero wrote:Is that really pumping though?
As I understand it if you raise your arm fast you unload the board and it goes up on the wave because it simply weighs less for an instant. Then you have more potential energy to trade for speed.

Swinging your arms, un-weights yes, but it doesn't not have the same effect as the legs resisting and relaxing in tune with the energy rolling up the face. But it's not so much as what you do e.g. Swing you Arms, bend your knees, etc. it's more When and Where you do it. But notice how "quiet" his upper body and composure is ? Not doing the Hip Jive Watusi arms flailing all around the place. But if it works for you, then that's all good.

not much face to work with here on the US East Coast lately

Pumping for speed on smaller waves it is all lower body motion. Your upper body stays relatively at the same height but you ankle turn and lift your legs up and ankle turn and drop your legs back down. It becomes more similar to skateboarding except you are pumping vertically whereas skateboarding it is generally on flat ground and going side to side..

If you are saying there are no walls on the waves then there is no speed pumping. Speed pumping is what you do on a fast wave not a crumbly slow wave.

I really like Chan's analogy with pumping on a swing set. Going backwards and UP, you un-weight by leaning forward and pulling the legs underneath. Going forward and DOWN, you add weight by leaning back, extending the legs and pulling on the chains. The pump adds energy for the next climb especially if you do at the bottom of the swing's arc. Timing is as important as the weight.

On a surfboard you can add energy at the top of the wave and the bottom.
* Going up, you un-weight by looking at the lip, swinging your arms upward and relaxing the tension in your legs,
* At the top, knees are bent, look to the landing spot and rotate your arms toward the shore.
* Going down and while turning, add weight by pushing your legs against the wave. As with the swing, timing is important.
* At the bottom, you can pump again. Land with knees bent, look to the lip and rotate your arms away from shore. As you make the turn, add weight by pushing your legs against the wave. Once again, it's as much about timing as the weight.

pumping on surfboard is similar to this, stand by a cement wall say maybe three feet high, Facing the wall and about 3 feet away from it jump to your right and to the top of the wall then jump to the right and back down the wall and keep doing this. You will find that if you stop at the top it takes more energy to do this but if you keep your center of gravity to the right and sort of stable between up and down then it will go faster. So only jump to the top with your legs and leave your upper body lower so that you are ready to go immediately back down again. Really you can't train for surfing by riding a swing but perhaps it requires a similar complex set of movements all coordinated to make it work and the more of your body that you use the higher or faster you go.

oldmansurfer wrote: Really you can't train for surfing by riding a swing but perhaps it requires a similar complex set of movements all coordinated to make it work and the more of your body that you use the higher or faster you go.

Not sitting on a swing, but STANDING on a swings' seat, can help you with core muscles, form and timing.

Imagine this as a big frontside pump off the bottom turn up the face. That would be a giant wave.

pmcaero wrote:As I understand it if you raise your arm fast you unload the board and it goes up on the wave

One of my favorite surfers, current WSL commentator and 1989 World champion utilizes a lot of arm "swinging" during his pump. But it's a total package of his whole body, timing and being on the right part of the wave.
Check out this part of Wave Warriors 3.

Check out the all out speed he creates at :38 and :48. His insane speed run at 1:31.

oldmansurfer wrote:Pumping for speed on smaller waves it is all lower body motion. Your upper body stays relatively at the same height but you ankle turn and lift your legs up and ankle turn and drop your legs back down. It becomes more similar to skateboarding except you are pumping vertically whereas skateboarding it is generally on flat ground and going side to side..

we've had some really weird days with 2-3 ft waves breaking and then right away reforming...I had to do a lot of pumping like that just to get short rides.

Pottz is interesting with a one armed speed pump. I don't think any of the current WSL surfers do a one armed speed pump except Bethany Hamilton. Hey but Pottz is still a great surfer even in his old age. Standing or whatever I am certain swinging is different from speed turns in surfing but great picture of a swinger going for it. I can tell you one thing and that is ... if you are going for it on a swing like that make sure the swing is in good condition.

pmcaero wrote:I had to do a lot of pumping like that just to get short rides.

The front footed lifting thing you've described doing is not so much "Pumping" as it is Hopping. Like the Huntington Hop people use to make flat sections. The skatey tacking, that OMS eluded to, is more displacing the water off the rails left at first and THEN right rail ( or vice-versa ). Hopping will have the water displace off the center outwards left and right at the same time. How does the water displace when you do a lot of pumping ?

pmcaero wrote:
we've had some really weird days with 2-3 ft waves breaking and then right away reforming...I had to do a lot of pumping like that just to get short rides.

Last weekend on Saturday I had some waist to knee high fast little waves and did a bunch of speed turns on them and not much else. I traveled much further sideways than toward the shore

waikikikichan wrote:

pmcaero wrote:As I understand it if you raise your arm fast you unload the board and it goes up on the wave

One of my favorite surfers, current WSL commentator and 1989 World champion utilizes a lot of arm "swinging" during his pump. But it's a total package of his whole body, timing and being on the right part of the wave.
Check out this part of Wave Warriors 3.

Check out the all out speed he creates at :38 and :48. His insane speed run at 1:31.

Love that board shape and style.

Big H wrote:It's kinda like when you pure a golf ball....the feeling tells you when you get it right. I get the feeling just watching this guy.

Or the opposite when you get it all wrong, you top that swing and worm burner the ball, then all your fingers feel tingly and numb. Not a good feeling at all.

waikikikichan wrote:

pmcaero wrote:I had to do a lot of pumping like that just to get short rides.

The front footed lifting thing you've described doing is not so much "Pumping" as it is Hopping. Like the Huntington Hop people use to make flat sections. The skatey tacking, that OMS eluded to, is more displacing the water off the rails left at first and THEN right rail ( or vice-versa ). Hopping will have the water displace off the center outwards left and right at the same time. How does the water displace when you do a lot of pumping ?

Actually I was referring to speed turns similar to the surfer in the video but on small waves all on the same rail. The smaller the waves the less your upper body changes position and it is your lower body that moves along with the board up and down the wave. When you skateboard tic tacs to generate speed you lean forward so that you are falling forward and tac to either side of where you are falling. On small waves speed turns are quite similar in that you are leaning forward and falling but move the board back and forth in the direction you are falling but instead of going side to side you go up and down because going side to side doesn't overcome the friction of the board on the water and doesn't generate speed as far as I can tell. The Huntington hop thing I have not learned to do but it seems to be like a small air where you aim the board up unweight and weight on the nose rapidly back down again. I guess I do something like that but not as well as the pros do but mostly in those situations I find the spot on the board that keeps me moving forward the best and this changes with the position of the board on the wave and the shape of the wave. I may do a hop type thing to get a board to move down a not very steep face when it's stuck at the top.