Surfing Waves

Here is a surfing term I am not quite sure what it means so I am asking you to provide your definition and when it happens or happened to you. I think if I ever do slide out it has to do with turning the board before I get to the bottom and could also be called side slipping. It is not something that happens much unintentionally. Anyway what the heck is it?

My longboard is a thruster with 7 inch fins. Sometimes when I carve a bottom turn too sharply the fins let go and I side slip. I can usually recover by increasing pressure on the tail and leaning into the wave.

There is only one situation that I know of where I "slide out" which maybe occurs every three or four years. That situation is this, I am taking off on a steep fast wave and I fail to set the rail at the top of the wave and as I get to the bottom I know the lip is going to hit me unless I turn really quickly but due to the speed from the steep drop and the quickness of the turn attempt the rail fails to set and the board just goes sideways and I end up diving under the lip as it comes down on top of me.

Sliding out is when the tail of the board breaks free (unplanned) in a turn.

Long ago when I attempted to do hard cutbacks on my 8 foot board the board would pop out of the water and lay flat and I would finish the cutback with my butt and back in the water and the board flat until it came round under me than I stood back on it again. Would that be considered sliding out? It wasn't intentional. I think my back foot is now a couple inches further back now and I don't do that turn any more. Reading online stuff it seems as though it is some common thing especially in a bottom turn but I really haven't had that problem ever except in that one situation.

I’d differentiate between sliding and sliding out....for me the “out” part means you lost control/the board and the wave and was not intentional.

It happened to me only 1 time when taking off too angled, it was with an 8 footer with a lot of rocker and a medium thruster fin set. The fins simply couldn't hold and the tail started sliding out. It was quite shocking because I was in the middle of a crowded peak, I was afraid of hitting someone. But luckily I could set the rail in time and make the wave without problems.

can I be mean.... if you slide out taking off its because you didnt set the rail properly. I say that having watched many times JOBs 10 point ride at Pipe the other day, and marveling at the drop he took and made. If he can free fall 10ft down a face and not slide out then.... but of course we are not all JOB and being able to say what went wrong and being able to actually prevent it occuring,....

https://gfycat.com/EarlyCriminalDodo

Not the type of sliding out you're talking about, but the "Side Slip Boogie".

https://vimeo.com/44765637

dtc wrote:can I be mean.... if you slide out taking off its because you didnt set the rail properly.

That was the case indeed. It's a while back, I can't remember what went on exactly but I remember there was something going on. Maybe just last minute positional correction to the shoulder why I ended up too angled and too late, but still trying to takeoff.

I mentioned the fins because there was someone posting in the Firewire Submoon forum saying it needed long/deep fins to hold because of the rocker, but using medium sized fins this was the only time I had it happen.

waikikikichan wrote:Not the type of sliding out you're talking about, but the "Side Slip Boogie".

https://vimeo.com/44765637

Actually that's exactly what happened to me, well.. the principle of it then

waikikikichan wrote:Not the type of sliding out you're talking about, but the "Side Slip Boogie".

https://vimeo.com/44765637

Now I’m jealous! That’s some nice surfing. Nose riding an overhead (albeit crumbling) wave is a pretty impressive thing. At least from my non nose riding pleb viewpoint

I have also heard it from big wave surfers talking about a board that didn't handle bottom turns too well. I just wonder how much of a problem it is to most surfers and it seems like for most of you it's not something that happens much. Do beginners have this problem?

- “Beginners” have a problem sliding out because they try to turn while standing in the center of the board. The skeg ( fin ) becomes less effective. The big bulbous nose catches the waves face and over powers the rail and ejects it outwards.
- “Intermediates” have a problem sliding out because they try to force a square peg in a round hole. They know the What to do, but they haven’t mastered the When and Where on the wave to do it. They also haven’t learn patience or speed control.
- “Advanced” surfers sometimes slide out because they’re pushing the limits of physics. ( like J.O.B. and Herbie Fletcher ) They work with an imperfect / ever changing wave. When the slip happens, they just don’t get phased or freak out like beginners or intermediates do. They deal with it and keep going.