Surfing Waves

Waves are good, im stuck at work and got the cold. So instead of surfing im combining surfing theory with my job;-) In many sports like archery, skeet-shooting, soccer etc. it is important to be aware of eye-dominance. How does it influence surfing? I am right dominant, and usually look over my right shoulder when I paddle for a wave, but sometimes also over my left shoulder depending on if its a left- or right-handed wave. Is it better to surf regular when right-eye-dominant or vice versa? Is it easier to surf right- or left-handed waves when right-dominant?

The dominant eye processes the visual input more fully, and and the nerve signals are going a bit faster from that eye to the brain. And you can compare the dominant eye to a driver of a car, and the non-dominant to the passenger. Both will get feedback from the traffic situations, but the driver controls the vehichle. Also the dominant eye looks more straight to an object, thus the non-dominant will be in parralax.

I don't have a particular thesis about this subject, but are interested in opinions, and how you think it influences your surfing. Have a nice weekend, and hope you get a lot of waves;-)

Interesting , consider the number of synapses the information has go through before a motor response is initiated.
Factor in muscle memory responses, the upper cervical spinal nervous system has less synaptic links and so can generate proprioreceptives more quickly. I imagine a high responsiveness from evolution for survival.

The cue would most likely be in the periferral fields! Just speculating from response times in martial arts retraining reflexes!
Good one!

Thanks for the interesting input Jaffa:-) Isn't martial arts more of an ambidextrous activity? Like if you are gonna try skeet-shooting with both eyes open, and are right-handed but left-eyed, you will most likely miss because of the missalignment, unless you are aware of it and compensate for it. And can that correlate to some segments of surfing?

I think where I may get into trouble with eye dominance is surfing backside because I am regular foot and right eye dominant so I don't see the wave as well when mostly my left eye is looking at it like when I am backside. In my old age I notice this where as a youngster I didn't. Not sure why, maybe my eyesight was better (it was) maybe I was more flexible back then (I was) maybe there wasn't such a strong eye dominance back then (not sure).

I also feel more confident surfing rights and facing the wall, especially if its big. Although I mostly get to surf lefts. Eyedominance is developed in the very first stages of life, and the visual perception system is plastic up to 8-12 years of age.

I was very ambidextrous as a kid could swing a baseball bat both ways shoot a basketball both ways, I switched stance surfing, I could beat most people playing pool left handed (and the rest of them right handed). I surf a lot more lefts than rights lately which makes me entirely unclear how well I do on rights because there haven't been enough waves for me to get a clue. I surfed for a long time and then quit for 12 years and restarted. What I found was that I was better backside for a while. It took me three years surfing 26 hours a year to get to where I felt my frontside bottom turn was better so confidence backside is not an issue for me. Back then I was surfing mostly frontside but lately the sandbar where I surf hasn't been too good so I am going to the reef breaks and surfing lefts. But back then when I was relearning to surf backside I would just go for it. I didn't observe the wave and figure out what I wanted to do it was maximum bottom turn to maximum top turn because I lacked skill to do anything in between. So I would just jam it up to the top of a wave backside without seeing what it was doing. Around 3 out of four attempts at backside top turns I would be successful and on the fourth one I would get launched off my board by the lip smacking it so hard. If I didn't get one of those launches people watching probably assumed I could surf much better than I could. It's been only recently that I started to do turns like that on purpose because I am looking at the wave and intending to hit the lip. Weird yeah but that is how I was.

gsseirik wrote:Thanks for the interesting input Jaffa:-) Isn't martial arts more of an ambidextrous activity? Like if you are gonna try skeet-shooting with both eyes open, and are right-handed but left-eyed, you will most likely miss because of the missalignment, unless you are aware of it and compensate for it. And can that correlate to some segments of surfing?

Oh yes martial arts if well trained evolves ambidexterity, but part of the deep training is perception at the peripheral level , even further reading opponents body posture and being instinctively proactive, same as good surfing. If you have think about your next move, it is already too late.

Part of my training both Chiropractically and in martial arts was a paper I wrote on micro neural perception of external stimuli below the normal range of perception. Mostly below conscious thought, the instinct and hunch system in human survival!
The how the ......... did I do that ! Idea.

That paper sounds very interesting;-) I have never tried martial arts, and don't know how intense the fight or flight-mechanism gets in that activity, compared to surfing in scary waves.

Did you surf in the same area in both your periods of surfing OMS?

gsseirik wrote:Did you surf in the same area in both your periods of surfing OMS?

Sort of. I grew up just a couple blocks from where i now live. I surfed those breaks quite a bit but put in even more hours surfing at a break about 4 miles from there that had better waves on average. Probably still does but now the crowd is at the break 4 miles away and before it was at this break. Speaking of which lately the surf has been fantastic on the reef to the left. Driving to work I saw surfers standing on the beach checking out the break before the sun comes up and I am at work.........

I drive past a flat fjord suitable for windsurfing on my way to work. Glad to hear that you get good surf on the reef, it sounds amazing.

I forgot to mention that I live a mile from the beach that I surf at and as a kid I would walk there nearly every day during the summer.