Surfing Waves

I've been mucking around with pumping or tick tacking last few weeks. I'm on a 6,6 board that is 39l of volume. I'ts a simple question but i'm confused. Are you meant to get back over the tailpad in order to physically lift thefront part up and out of the water as a skateboarder would do. Or, are you meant to simply be rolling from heel to toe up and down with the wave (sort of turning into it and then down it slightly afterwards?)

Hope that makes sense!

Here's a good thread on the topic.

https://surfing-waves.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28421

If you are trying to tic tac like on a skateboard it won't help much to truly generate speed you need to go up and down the wave. What exactly you do depends on the size of the wave and how much speed is needed. One thing that generates speed is turns where you are using gravity to generate speed so at the bottom you are using the gravity of falling down the face and changing that force to down the line speed by turning then getting back to the top and using gravity again. However in order to not loose speed going back up hill you unweight. What this is when you bottom turn you drop down into a crouch which adds pressure to your board from your weight falling as you crouch (weighting or compressing) then turn while leaning forward and up the wave and release the compression by bringing the board up forward and up the wave (unweighting). Then keeping your center of gravity low leaning forward and down the wave you quickly turn back down the wave by pushing your front foot down and bringing the board back under you and repeat this if needed. You can also generate speed by just turning up and down the wave if you don't need much speed. Another way to generate speed is to get high up on the wave called picking a high line and trim along on that high line as long as needed (longboarders do this a lot). But keep in mind you need a wall to do these maneuvers on. If you are on a flat wave the only speed you can generate turning is straight up and straight back down the wave rather than a functional speed which takes you down the line. Another way to go faster is to find the sweet spot in your board where standing in that spot allows maximum forward speed and you can do this on a wall or riding straight to the beach on a gently sloping part of the wave. I often do this riding a wave in to the beach.

So I guess the answer to your question is that you don't do anything like a skateboard and lifting the nose out will usually cause the board to go slower (unless you are doing the Huntington hop where you quickly slam the nose back down) which only helps to keep you going in a slack section. Just rolling the heel to toe will make you do ankle turns up and down the wave which can help generate speed if you don't need much but I guess it is a starting point. To get maximum speed you need a fast wave and the entire process mentioned above. With skateboard you are leaning forward and keep bringing the skateboard under you to catch your fall then lean the other way. If you do this on a surfboard the friction of the water will be greater than the speed you generate so you need gravity to help so you need to go up and down the wave smoothly and quickly however you are leaning forward and bring the board under you to stop your falling at the bottom of the wave but the top turn is an off balance turn. You never stand straight up over your board at the top if you want to generate maximum speed. It is similar but different from skateboarding.

lachyd333 wrote:I've been mucking around with pumping or tick tacking last few weeks.

Aside the functional speed generation it's just fun to play around with movement on a surfboard, it's playing and learning. You do something and notice the effect of it. When moving up and down on the wave face you'll learn how to use gravity by weighing and un weighing your board, it's a great feeling. Yo can do it from every position on the board.

It's in the more advanced stages when you want to surf more vertical that you need to steer from the back of the board.

It’s both or just one, it depends. At times, you’re driving the tail, making quick jibs and jabs, displacing water off the rail. Other times your pumping the nose up and down to create little canyons for your board to fall into.
But both don’t matter if you not in tune to the wave and board. Look at the dance floor, you can easily pick out the naturals doing their groove. And you can also spot the uncoordinated ones who are just not with the beat. If you pump and heel in at the wrong time, you’ll make matters even worse. But the worse thing I see is people bouncing up and down their body while the board stays flat.
Forgot about tick tacklng for speed if you don’t have good TRIM. Because if you don’t understand TRIM, how can you break trim to pump and tick tack ?

Most skateboarding tricks start with a push on the board. This way, we obtain enough momentum to go over bumps, rails, or ramps. Having said this, are there tricks that do not need a push but keep you moving? Yes, a tic tac is one of them!

Michael this about how to generate speed on a surfboard, not a skateboard, some of the same principles apply but the boards have fins not trucks or wheels