Surfing Waves

Okay so ive just gotten back into surfing after 5 years. I’m a 16 year old girl. I’ve been going out on this fish that I have. Right now, I’m comfortable going frontside and backside, I can paddle and pop up well, but all I can do is surf down the line. I don’t know how to do any maneuvers except bottom turns. What’s my next step? Do I start to practice snaps? Or pumping? Or cut backs? What’s the next step/maneuver I learn to improve my surfing? And how do I do that maneuver?

If you can bottom turn and trim down the line, the next step is rail-to-rail pumping which will help you keep up with fast waves. Here's a video to get you started.

Most likely you can always work on your bottom turn on every wave. some people might call me an advanced or an intermediate surfer which is what I call myself LOL but I still work on my turns because I want to be better. This past weekend I was doing projection bottom turns and traveling 10 yards down the line with just the bottom turn. There are a variety of bottom turns that you can learn to do depending on what the wave is doing. Probably the most important one is the projection bottom turn where you are getting some distance down the line. The bottom turn sets up the next turn so you have to learn the right bottom turn to do the next turn along with learning to line up at the right spot to do that turn. The wave determines what you can do but you can alter it by lining up at different spots and altering your bottom turn. I think most people learn to do a simple top turn not a snap which is a more advanced maneuver or a cutback depending on your bottom turn and the wave. Your positioning in the lineup gets you to the place to do the maneuvers you want to do. Everything you do depends on you reading the wave and knowing what to do in that situation. Each maneuver sets up the next. When I was learning I remember thinking I should probably turn off the top here but before I do I am out of position to do that maneuver so I cutback. To work on pumping you need long fast waves. There are a variety of top turns to learn as well but the bottom turn gets you to the point of doing those turns.

So you’ve caught the wave backside and comfortably going down the line ........... then what ? Do you just keep on going ? What do you do when the wave curls back in or breaks in front. Just keep going down the line ?

Before Snaps, before Cutbacks, before Top Turns, you need to do simple Turn Ups and Turn Downs. Where you go from riding across the wave to going up and over or turning down to straighten out towards the beach. Then gradually you start to increased the power and angles.

have a look at this

https://surfsimply.com/tree-of-knowledge/

you seem to be toward the top of level 2 - have a look at all the skills in level 3. Obviously dont go for all of them at once, pick a few. Waikikichan's suggestions are in the 'generating speed' section; old man is looking at carving turns and decision making.

I'm happy for you. Be strong

I think the first turns are just the minimum to stay in the power pocket of the wave. So you learn to point the board more toward the beach to keep from running off the end of the wave and more down the line to keep the wave from running off without you. From reading your statement it sounded like you were doing this already but maybe not? From there you increase the amount of turn and power applied to the turn.