General surf technique advice needed.

[Johnny B]

Hey ho folks,

me again, I just thought since I'm going away and hopefully will be surfing most days for a good while I thought I'd ask about a couple of things before I go and just reinforce my bad habits.

Right, well I haven't been progressing that much lately and I KNOW i'm doing stuff wrong. I'm self taught and surf alone so have never had anyone say "hawaay man! Yer surfin' ya board oop-seed-doon!".

I have no problem catching waves, which is a start, but I reckon I ride my board like a longboard. Fish are meant to be reet fast down the line but I don't find this at all and I'm pretty sure it's not my board to blame.

Usually I'll face my nose a little towards where I'm wanting to surf and have no problem paddling in. My pop-up is a pretty sketchy but fast enough I think. From here is where things go wrong. If the wave's fairly small I kinda turn before and during popping up and then ride in front of the break but pretty slowly. If the waves is bigger I'll drop into the wave more straight on and the bottom turn, but I seem to lose loads of speed when turning and end up being caught by the break and pootling along in white water.

What am I doing wrong?

...johnny (the forum pest) b...

[Otter]

Try to pay more attention to what the wave is doing, as opposed to what you want to do. If the wave rolls out from under you, your turn is to radical and should be curtailed a bit, try going a little more straight toward shore. On your bottom turn, a bit less turn will help you maintain a higher speed, making it easier to stay in the green zone. Hope this helps.

[boco rio]

You probably need a lesson from a certified instructor. They can pinpoint your technical faults better than people on this forum.

[Johnny B]

Thanks for the advice Otter, I reckon yer right. Although I should be surfing rights better due to surfing regular I seem to get better rides off lefts at the mo. This, I reckon, is perhaps because I do not (and cannot) turn so sharp on lefts. I can carve better on lefts too...hmm .

[justloafing]

I think you analyzed pretty well there in the post above this one.

[surferdude_scarborough]

dont just surf rights because its easier. you need to learn to go frontside and backside to surf well or you will miss loads of awesome waves. imagine being good enough on rights to surf pipe but cant coz its a left. (nobody point out backdoor it will really ruin my point.)

[Otter]

You probably need a lesson from a certified instructor. They can pinpoint your technical faults better than people on this forum.

40 years experience qualify me as a "certified" instructor?

[kamikaze272727]

I think after two decades of anything you know longer need any certification.

[Snoodle]

Sup Johnny!

Is your fish a twin or a quad fin? Or the strange thruster fish? ... I have a twin fin fish that I have been surfing a lot lately and it took a lot of getting used to. I don't know if you've learned on this board or if you learned (like many do, myself included) on a thruster fin setup first. I felt exactly like you for a long time.

IF it's a twin, then you have to turn it like a twin fin fish, not like any other kind of board. Remember that with two fins, the rail has to act in place of a middle fin, sort of. So turn off your front foot (weight more centered then back) more for a bottom turn, to maintain speed better. If you put too much weight on your back foot to turn most fish will turn super quick but you'll end up losing too much speed and then it's too tricky to get it back. So stay low for your bottom turn, I like to drop my back knee down and get low and into it for the bottom turn... and just one big smooth pump as you come up and around. You've got to think smooooooooth all the time with a twin fin or it just doesn't go. Turns have to link and flow more than with other boards that I've ridden. Obviously the goal is always to make things link and flow but with a twin fin fish I find you HAVE to... or else they just don't work right. That's crazy that you have more luck on your backhand... I found it super hard at first (and still, on flatter waves) to get speed out of my backhand on this board...

Stay low and keep it smoooooooth!