backfoot placement

[cheekobonavista]

i am wondering about my foot placement. i have a 6''2 thruster with a traction pad ending slightly past the middle of the back fin. when i surf i usually have my back foot at the very front of the traction pad, if it is even touching the pad at all.

when i look at photos of pros doing snappy turns their back foot is usually at the back of the traction pad and there back leg seems to be bend and extended far back on the board. are they moving their foot back specifically to turn or is their foot always that far back?

i want to make harder, snapper turns and this seems like a place to start. any advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

[offshore]

Maybe the board is too big for you?

I have a really rather big fish (for my size), and sometiems I almost want to nose ride it LOL!

[cheekobonavista]

ha, the board is only 3 inches longer than me so it shouldn't be. i scored a nose ride on my friends 5'6 fish last week... it can be done

[paul_surf808]

Yes, when you are riding a wave and try putting your foot directly above the fins (on the traction pad) it makes it 10x looser and easier to do snappier maneuvers. so yes you may want to be laying further back on your board when paddeling for a wave b/c this will aoutomatically put your foot on the right spot. Hope this helped!

[jaffa1949]

Foot placement for the sweet spots is like learning to play tennis or golf and looking for the sweet from which to hit the ball , try different things keep doing what works and discarding what doesn't, it's a natural process and the more you do it the easy it gets and the better you get.
If you ever get to watch a Pro trying to get a new move down, they just do it over and over and over until it becomes part of their natural repertoire.
Go out for a surf and just concentrate on improving one element for a while when you feel you've got it have a free surf and add the new thing to your full set of surfing

[cheekobonavista]

thanks for the replies guys