Surfing Waves

We had a City Wave open up in Tokyo a couple months ago. Not far from where I live and near the office, so I can go before work. Tried it out once and it was kind of fun and since then I've gone several times. It's nice to be able to get out of the house on a weekday in shorts and flip flops on a weekday and get on the train with all the other salary men in suits.

After trying it a couple times I've really continued with one goal in mind. I wanted to know how felt to really get the rail in the water for a turn. Something I finally achieved this morning after a few things clicked. It felt good. I've compared it to snowboarding before. It's got the steady constant wave and basically you just need to stand up. I was kind of surprised to feel how similar actually getting on the rail with this setup was to snowboarding. At least in my opinion. It turns out I have all the same weaknesses surfing as I do snowboarding. I look down at my feet too much. I don't move my upper body enough. I don't look where I want/need to go. I fixed these issues when snowboarding, but it didn't make it any easier to overcome them when surfing. I think it's gotten better, and these things should be in common with surfing in the ocean and in the wave pool.

I think I understand better what my body needs to do to get a board to turn, and just what that should feel like in the water. Riding up on the lip and back down. I'm under no illusions it's just like being on a real wave, but I hope some of it is transferable. If not, at least it's been enjoyable and a good start to the day.

There are a few quite good surfers that seem to go fairly often and I'm not quite sure why. Seems like they get in the ocean often. Going back and forth inside 7m (roughly) seems like it would get boring rather quickly. Has anyone else been on these artificial waves, and what did you think? Would you consider it useful to developing a certain set of skills for a surfer at a certain level?

I know there are at least a couple members who have tried standing waves (not me). I think if you are wanting to learn to surf you need to surf. That kind of thing would be like cross training like skateboarding is. It's not quite the same but similar and if you only do that you will likely get bad habits from it. So just my opinion but you aren't going to learn to surf doing standing waves.

CharlesTokyo wrote:Going back and forth inside 7m (roughly) seems like it would get boring rather quickly.

"It's not the size of the wand that matters, but the magic that's in it".

oldmansurfer wrote:I think if you are wanting to learn to surf you need to surf. That kind of thing would be like cross training like skateboarding is. It's not quite the same but similar and if you only do that you will likely get bad habits from it. So just my opinion but you aren't going to learn to surf doing standing waves.

I agree completely. I still get out to the ocean every weekend if I can. This is just a weekday activity. It’s not a replacement for real waves at all. Maybe in a month or two I’ll be able to comment if the cross training has helped me at all.

Picked up a 1800 yen surfboard to try out there. (About $16US). It’s a beater, but a lot more fun than the foam boards.

I have ridden standing waves but only on a paipo board (belly board) and only when I was a kid (around the time all the dinosaurs died)

In City Surf you can use your normal surf boards as water is deeper than on Flowrider. Flowrider boards do not have fins at all, so you like riding a skimboard but less size. I think i's pretty good to get basic turn technics, but the harder part is ocean reading and that takes time. And don't forget about paddling as well

waikikikichan wrote:

What a workout! He has amazing strength along with his skills.

This Saturday Jaffa and son head out for another river surf. The flat spell is over, it has rained! We take on a different wave this time in the district of Steyr, there will be a photo and video report.
It is a surf festival with competition, music BBQ, all the bells and whistles.

Have a photo or two from The Crown of the Traun 2018 competition.