Difficulty drawing good lines

[lachyd333]

Howdy,

I have troubel drawing good lines on the wave so that I stay ahead of the white water. This isn't really a problem when the waves are over 4ft as they have enough power for me to go down and do a bottom turn and get into the stream of the wave. It also wan't an issue till i started surfing at Maroubra which is a beach break where the waves close out fast and you have to set a good line to get around the white water.

I often end up hitting the bottom of the wave and then doing a turn into the stream as is shown on this video at about 2:07.

Often this is enough to get me around the white water but I notice a lot of guys drawing nice medium-high lines. Do you guys literally sink the rail of your board in your intended direction to get it to set a nice rail as is suggested at the end of that video?

Cheers

[dtc]

Are you asking whether to take a high line really early after popping up? Sometimes I’m taking off already at an angle and then turn my board even more basically as soon as my feet touch the board. So I never go below the bottom 1/3 of the wave. But that doesn’t help go around a section or a close out - it wouldn’t help in the video you linked

What might be happening is that the good surfers pop up and do a few pumps and get extra speed and so can get around the section.

[oldmansurfer]

I often shove the inside rail of my board into the wave face when taking off but on most of those waves I can't choose a high line and end up dropping all the ways to the bottom due to the steepness of the wave. It helps to get me making a bottom turn as quickly as possible. I however am not a longboarder which is what the advice is being given to in that video.

[waikikikichan]

At 2:07, looks like he drives into a close out. Nothing no one could do. There’s not enough time to float the section.
At 2:17, the guy comes up out of the bottom turn and never “resets” his rail. He just goes up and out. That right there is the fine line where you can tell if the surfer is good or not and knows how to control his board.

I recommend on another post, but here again it could be applicable to do a “Race Car”. If you can sit on your butt, drag the inside hand, pull up the rail with the outside hand and scream down the line and bust through the white water, it is possible to make it standing up.

[oldmansurfer]

Waves are difficult to figure which waves are ride-able and which no one can ride. If you watch the pros surf, they can make some waves that if you took a freeze frame of the section in front of them you might think there is no way they can make that wave and yet they do. There are things that could have been done such as paddling harder to get into the wave earlier and turning sooner might get you past that section at 2:07 however it looks like a closeout for anyone other than a high level surfer. This means you can try but perhaps lining up in a different spot would be more likely to help

[RinkyDink]

I have troubel drawing good lines on the wave so that I stay ahead of the white water. This isn't really a problem when the waves are over 4ft as they have enough power for me to go down and do a bottom turn and get into the stream of the wave. It also wan't an issue till i started surfing at Maroubra which is a beach break where the waves close out fast and you have to set a good line to get around the white water.

I often end up hitting the bottom of the wave and then doing a turn into the stream as is shown on this video at about 2:07.

Often this is enough to get me around the white water but I notice a lot of guys drawing nice medium-high lines. Do you guys literally sink the rail of your board in your intended direction to get it to set a nice rail as is suggested at the end of that video?

I have the same problem you describe. It has also been the main area I’ve been focusing on in my surfing as of late. I’m still trying to get it all worked out for myself, but I have discovered some things that I hope will solve it for me. There are a ton of things involved with this problem for me: drawing a good line, making it around wave sections, stalling, accelerating, takeoff angles, riding stance, pumping, and wave reading (knowing your surf spot). I’m just going to focus on acceleration a little because I don’t have enough time for the other things and I don’t have it all worked out anyway.

I took off the other day on my 7’10” surfboard and found myself pretty much in the exact spot as the guy in your video at 3:03 on a similar sized wave. Unfortunately, I’ve been in this position countless times before where I’m stuck watching the pocket of the wave fly off without me (see 3:08 welcome to beginnermediate surfing). Anyway, these days when there’s no hope of me getting back in the pocket, I usually fiddle around on my board in the whitewash till I stall out. Lately I’ve been using the whitewash to maneuver my board like I’m on a Carver skateboard. I’m trying to develop my technique for pumping an gaining speed from it.

On that day, however, something different happened on my wave that I hadn’t experienced before. I discovered the acceleration that results from my board stance. Now I’ve been surfing for a while believing I understood acceleration, but I didn’t. I hadn’t actually experienced it until the other day. It felt similar to walking forward casually when suddenly your front foot lands on a banana peel. In such a scenario your front foot will, if you have forward momentum, shoot forward so fast that you end up going into the splits. So basically I discovered that . . . uh . . . well . . . wait for it . . . my surfboard could PEEL OUT. When it happened, I felt my board jolt forward with a huge increase in speed until the incline in the wave’s trough flattened out. I was elated to discover this. Here’s what I think happened.

The wave I was riding pitched over and the lip crashed down right next to my board. I saw there was no hope of getting back to the pocket so I went into Carver skateboard mode. I decided to make a bunch of quick trimming turns in the white wash. The wave still had a bit of an incline down there in the trough so when I went into my Carver skateboard stance, I unconsciously shifted my stance forward (both feet moved up simultaneously) and my back foot moved farther in front of my fins than I usually have it. I suspect that’s what I did. I don’t know exactly because I wasn’t looking down at my feet. All I knew at that moment was that my board suddenly jolted forward FAST. Wow, that was a revelation to me. I didn’t know my board could spurt forward like that and, to my surprise, keep on spurting forward. Of course I stalled out as I got deeper into the flats of the whitewash, but I had experienced true acceleration from changing my stance. I’ve been trying to move forward on my board to increase my speed since the first day I learned to stand and ride on a board. I suspect I haven’t gotten anywhere with that because of the clunky way (bringing my feet too close together) I’ve been trying to move forward.
Anyway, now that I’m more aware of how my stance influences my speed, I’ve taken my 9’6” longboard off the rack again. When it comes to footwork, I don’t think there’s a better way to work on it than with a longboard. In fact, I think my ignorance of adjusting my stance to gain speed is probably because I took a break from surfing on my longboard. Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas about the importance of your surfing stance. Here’s a good heat to watch to see how the pros generate speed to get around closed down wave sections.

Good luck.

[lachyd333]

Thanks for all the replies, particularly your long and insightful post Rinky! I will definitely give that a go.

I think the 2:07 bit was a bad example. What is happening to me is actually much more like what happens at 3:03. I should be taking that higher line but I just can't seem to do it. I angle my board to take off like they do in the video. However, they seem to be doing something extra in the video where the board really angles in the last two or three strokes. I assume this is when they are sinking their rail. The way their boards react is almost like they've got their hand in the water and its rotating of the point like a rudder. I'm not sure.

The waves are way too huge here in Sydney atm but I'll give the rail sink a go when I go out next.

Thanks for advice guys

[waikikikichan]

The way their boards react is almost like they've got their hand in the water and its rotating of the point like a rudder. I'm not sure.

You almost almost got it correct, but at least you're close. It's a little secret technique, most people don't teach.

[dtc]

The waves are way too huge here in Sydney atm but I'll give the rail sink a go when I go out next.

Thanks for advice guys

Friday and Saturday look smaller. Too small maybe, from overabundance to drought...

Its just one of the hard things about surfing, sometimes down the face and bottom turn is good/fine,other times its angle and turn ASAP and stay high. Each wave will be different. But if you follow the directions in the video (look where you want to go, twist your body a little bit that way and lean slightly on the rail in the direction you want to go), plus paddle harder or wider with one arm - the opposite to the direction you want to go - to direct yourself around during those last few strokes, you will get a good initial angle. Its not just one thing, its a combination of weighting (guided by your head) and paddling

If needed, after popping up, immediately twist your board around (oldman on here calls them 'toe turns' - you just use your toes and ankles rather than a full body turn)

[oldmansurfer]

Sometimes I turn the board right before popping up and shove the inside rail down as I popup. If it is really steep I do an ankle turn and shove the rail more into the wave face so the rail is facing to the beach and the top of the board is facing down the line with the nose pointing downward. It looks something like the the surfer on the right in the diagram from the above video

[Big H]

It is amazing how easy it is to surf and "draw good lines" on the right wave vs the wrong one. You'll know when you are out on a good day....you get up and it seems like you can choose to do anything, the big face of the wave is open for you and the foam ball is patiently tracking behind. Choosing the right break at the right time and positioning once there will open doors for you.

[saltydog]

Something clicked in the last several months and I started setting the inside rail during/at the pop up. And voila! I had some nice lines that I feel like I could hang 5... if I wasn't on a HP longboard and had the skills to walk to and from the nose. But at the same time, it also depends on the wave. When it's small and mushy or dumping all at once, you can't really do much.

[oldmansurfer]

. Here’s a good heat to watch to see how the pros generate speed to get around closed down wave sections.

Good luck.

If you want to see speed you need to watch any JBay contest or the one that is currently on at Uluwatu