a few beginner-intermediate questions

[zorba]

1) the shorter the board the closer you need to be to the peak, and the steeper the wave needs to be?
(I notice most short boarders seem to sit closer to the beach than me, they don´t even bother chasing the "longboard" type waves)
(and they seem to favour the steep gnarly waves that I tend to avoid)

1b) corrolory of 1, of sorts: if you´re on a longboard, the closer you are to the peak, and/or the steeper the wave, the harder it is to catch the wave without wiping out?
(i notice sometimes the tail of the board lifts up, pushing the nose down and I nosedive)

2) Today was an onshore breeze (10-15mph according to surf forecast), and it seemed harder to catch the same size of waves I was catching yesterday on a glassy day. Harder to catch waves with an onshore wind?, and the more onshore the harder it is?

[jaffa1949]

Good on Zorbs, you are working hard to learn and taking the hard calls we are giving you well.

Wave catching, this applies, a longboard can catch a wave earlier (so further out) than a short board because of the paddle power . But it is not necessarily closer to the peak, shoulders are also easier for a long board to catch and the long board has glide to get though flatter sections and connect steeper section . Longboards can cruise through point to point surfing without driving by pumping turns, short boards have to worked through each turn to maintain drive and speed
A short board needs the power of a wave standing up to compensate for the lesser paddle power which is why they sit further towards shore or further inside closer to the peak and the curve and the shape of the board can facilitate this.

b, Good longboards can take off near and ride the peak and the steeper face( it is not the board it is the riders skill) , longboards are ridden at pipeline and all sorts of steep waves.

If your tail gets lifted in taking off you are paddling too slowly and not matching the speed of the wave at the least.

Glassy days with waves are premium days no surface chop or bumps to cut your paddling speed, in onshore wind the crest of the wave is crumbled down the face and the face is choppy and less readable. The wave is slightly lessened in breaking power.

Note too with a strong offshore wind with a full nosed board the nose of the board can be caught in a kite effect and you can be hung up in the lip and launched or just blown back over the wave.

Adaptable techniques and skill counter this. Learned skills

[dtc]

put simply, a longboard can catch waves over a greater 'range' ie from further out (not really breaking) to closer in (almost breaking). Thus if you arent quite in the 'right' position, you can still catch the wave. A shortboard has a much smaller range of wave catching ability - needs to be closer to breaking. Hence a longer board is much more forgiving (in this and many other waves) and, hence, better for learners.

As jaffa said, tail pushing up is not paddling fast enough when the wave comes. Well done for noticing its the tail thats being pushed up - 95% of people think its the nose 'nose diving' and so spend their time trying to get the nose further out of the water. Which is counterproductive (it slows the board down even more) and pointless (since its not the nose that is the problem). So you have some good board awareness going on.

[oldmansurfer]

There are parts of the wave that are more difficult to take off at. In general the further away from the peak the harder it is to take off (regardless of board type). But on some waves this is not true. Some waves are harder to take off at the peak. The nose diving thing I hear about here but when I was surfing a longboard I never had that problem. But from what I can tell it comes from inability to paddle hard enough or hesitation in paddling. It's easier to catch waves with a longboard so they take off on shoulders easier than shortboards however you can take off on shoulders with shortboards also it just takes more effort.
In general onshore winds don't hinder taking off and in fact offshore winds hinder taking off by increasing wind resistance as you paddle for the wave. What might be happening is with the onshore winds you are getting a windswell which is different from a ground swell (what you have in offshore winds). Wind makes the waves so offshore winds actually dampen the waves or decrease the force or slow them down. With onshore winds the waves are faster making them perhaps more difficult to catch.

[Big H]

This made me think of this series I saw online earlier this week.....this is sick!

[oldmansurfer]

You can see the nose pushes itself back out because the board is slicing sideways through the wave. If it were more flat on the water that would have been a deep pearling situation

[BoMan]

This made me think of this series I saw online earlier this week.....this is sick!

Stomping the tail and grabbing the rail on a vertical drop...I can only dream about having such skill.

[oldmansurfer]

Notice his front foot is way on the inside rail. He pushes the inside rail into the wave at the top. I am not sure that grabbing the rail is needed but maybe it's choppy so he needs the additional stability or maybe he needs to crank the rail to get the board to turn more but it is likely he could have done that drop by stepping on the inside rail and pushing the inside rail into the wave at the top. When you do that the nose of the board looks like it will pearl but it just pushes itself right back out again. He is not stomping on the tail, his weight is more forward on the board stomping is only useful when the board is flat to the water so without pushing the inside rail into the wave as he did.

[RinkyDink]

I am not sure that grabbing the rail is needed but maybe it's choppy so he needs the additional stability or maybe he needs to crank the rail to get the board to turn more but it is likely he could have done that drop by stepping on the inside rail and pushing the inside rail into the wave at the top.

I suspect that grabbing the rail probably was necessary in order to keep the board on rail. The water of the wave face is flowing up and it seems to me that you would need to hold the rail to keep the board heeling (sailing term) in the same way the ballast of a sailboat helps bring the boat to a heeling position. I wonder though, if he could have pulled that drop off if he had an extra one or two inches of thickness in his rails. Perhaps this is one way to see the limitations of board with too much volume in the rails.

[oldmansurfer]

I can tell you that no it isn't needed to keep the board on rail stepping on the inside rail does that well with a wider board but maybe he wanted to turn more than he could without grabbing rail or maybe the waves were choppy, it looks sort of choppy to me. In a vertical drop the board just goes down the face turned sideways if you shove the rail into the wave, then as you get to the curved portion of the wave the nose buries itself but pushes itself back out again. I have done this numerous times on a few different boards no grab rail involved just be quick and turn back up the wave. I am not sure about the too much volume in the rails thing, that could be but I have done this on my 9'6" longboard multiple times without grabbing the rail and even more with my 8 foot fungun which is 4 inches thick but has tapered rails so less volume in the rails. Maybe also he is trying to get tubed by doing the pigdog backside stance to slow down which involves grabbing a rail and dragging your but in the wave.

[oldmansurfer]

The nose of the board interacting with the curved part of the wave at the bottom also causes the board to start turning so by the time you reach the bottom the board is pointed down the line. What grabbing the rail does is to hold a tighter turn and a higher line so for really fast breaking waves that might help but it looks from the pictures that he could have likely stood up and made the drop without grabbing rail. In the Pro contests the commentators often make a big deal about not grabbing the rail on a steep drop but you know people caught these type of waves for years without grabbing the rail. It is just that for a contest situation grabbing the rail adds stability and perhaps keeps you from falling should your rail slide or you hit a chop. In the last picture is does seem like he is doing the pigdog stance and dragging his butt in the wave

[RinkyDink]

. . . but maybe it's choppy so he needs the additional stability or maybe he needs to crank the rail to get the board to turn more but it is likely he could have done that drop by stepping on the inside rail and pushing the inside rail into the wave at the top.

I think you're right that he probably needs the extra stability to keep his center of gravity over the board. He's got one hand in the wave and the other hanging onto the rail and that probably helps keep him balanced.

[oldmansurfer]

Here is a video of Jordy smith doing the pigdog butt dragging backside tube ride stance that looks like the longboarder is doing also http://www.radsurfclip.com/clip/jordy-smith-backside-tube-pigdog-to-standing-1422364307/