Making progress, but need some advice.

[dtc]

I took the advice, paddled faster and once the board dipped, did my pop up and then instantaneously shifted my front foot higher up the board and my back foot off the traction pad moreso to the middle. Not only did I go faster, but longer as well and was able to turn and zig zag. Lots of fun.

....after 3 hours though I kepy pearling and losing my balance but I think i was just exhausted my paddle was weak and pop up slow.

I saw a few longboards take off sideways and surf down the side of the wave as it broke rather then straight to the beach, how could I do that?

Normally you should pop up in the middle and then move your feet back if required; your feet generally should land one on either side of where your hands are on the deck just before the pop up. So perhaps your feet are landing too early or not quite forward enough; but on the other hand if it works it works (but have a think about it as you dont want to have to move forward all the time)

yes, when you get tired you will start to perl for the reasons you identified. Time to go in, it wont get any better

As to surfing down the wave after pop up, there are two main ways

- angle your board so you are paddling in the direction the wave is breaking before the pop up (eg angle at 30 degrees from the beach). This is a bit harder than paddling straight because the wave doesnt have quite the power so you need to have better paddling/timing skills, but its not particularly hard. Angling also helps to avoid perling so is something to practice

- as soon as you pop up do a turn down the wave (a 'face turn' if you like). Obviously this only works if the wave is big enough to have a face a suitable size, but it doesnt have to be particularly big (waist high face is enough)

Normally its a combination of the above - you angle to start with, pop up and then adjust the angle a bit more with some slight 'toe turns' (ie not big movements, you are just nudging the board around)

The 'other way' is to ride down the face and then do a bottom turn. This is a bit harder but an essential skill, so again something to practice

Sounds like things are progressing well.

[Zealex]

Thanks for the reply - Have taken your notes into consideration.

I find turning my head and looking at the wave positions my body for sideways take off..still a work in progress but otherwise catching waves rather well.

I don't mean to be impatient, but I found a 7'6 torq funboard on craigslist that I might be able to get a good deal on (like 200ish). I want to eventually step down to a smaller board to increase my learning curve cause my wavestorm seems a little easy. Maybe im overconfident but figured id ask, that and the wavestorm barely fits in my car lol.

[dtc]

Thanks for the reply - Have taken your notes into consideration.

I find turning my head and looking at the wave positions my body for sideways take off..still a work in progress but otherwise catching waves rather well.

I don't mean to be impatient, but I found a 7'6 torq funboard on craigslist that I might be able to get a good deal on (like 200ish). I want to eventually step down to a smaller board to increase my learning curve cause my wavestorm seems a little easy. Maybe im overconfident but figured id ask, that and the wavestorm barely fits in my car lol.

yep, the general rule is 'look to where you want to go'. Where you look your weighting will follow and your board will turn

A 7ft6 funboard is a reasonable choice. The way I see it is that if you buy it and struggle, put it away and keep with your other board and then come back to the funboard. Its a good choice as a second board, if you arent quite there yet with skill level then you will be at some stage, so there is no downside to buying it.

I have never surfed a wavestorm, but I find a lot of foam/soft boards are quite hard to surf because they have terrible bottom concaves and rails and basically arent that stable once you are up on the wave and hard to turn. So you may well find a 7ft6 board is no harder to surf than the wavestorm.

[Zealex]

That was my logic as well....Just hope I don't really struggle with it but I feel I learned very quickly on the wavestorm soooo..

THat and my wavestorm is very slippery and doesn't hold wax well, I once slipped off standing up..I swear it's the lack of wax! Haha

I'm looking at a 7'6 torq, asking price is 400 and been lisited for a few weeks.. but I think realistically if I can talk it down to 200 it would be a decent deal and AFAIK that's a decent price for a used one anyways, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[dtc]

Board prices are a bit like car prices - as soon as you walk out of the shop, the value drops by 25%. So even a barely used board shouldn't go for more than 75% of the new price (whatever that is in your neck of the woods). Then they continue to depreciate pretty quickly until they get to around 40% of new price and then they stabilise there for a few years (since a 3 year old board in good condition is not really that much different to a 6 year old board in good condition) and then its totally up to the condition of the board. The benefit of this is that you can buy a second hand board and use it for 3 months and, if you decide you don't like it, probably re sell it for pretty much the same price.

[Zealex]

Board prices are a bit like car prices - as soon as you walk out of the shop, the value drops by 25%. So even a barely used board shouldn't go for more than 75% of the new price (whatever that is in your neck of the woods). Then they continue to depreciate pretty quickly until they get to around 40% of new price and then they stabilise there for a few years (since a 3 year old board in good condition is not really that much different to a 6 year old board in good condition) and then its totally up to the condition of the board. The benefit of this is that you can buy a second hand board and use it for 3 months and, if you decide you don't like it, probably re sell it for pretty much the same price.

Thank you!

The 7'6 sold ... I know torq boards are generally decent for epoxy. Found a bic 7'3 but it's a bic but also idk if 7'3 would be too big a jump....

I can ride my wavestorm well but I'm not sure if it's showing its limitations or I need more practice...seems to go great straight but doesn't carve very well...I also don't want to downgrade to something too short and get stuck.

[jaffa1949]

I like the zeal but you are deluding yourself somewhat. You are only just beginning to ride the waves, well doesn't enter into it. The limitations you are experiencing are your skills not from the board!
If you are looking for another board consider 8ft.
Don't think shorter will make you better , it won't! Even if you get a real board expect to go a little. backward for a short time as you adjust, but then you will move on!

You really need to truthful to yourself in assessing how you are doing , brutal but true! We all went through it.

[dtc]

Yeah, dont go below 7ft6 unless its a really fat and wide board (like a Walden) in which case slightly shorter by a few inches perhaps is ok. But generally speaking, 7ft6 - 8ft is a good length, esp if you are looking at a 'funboard' type (like the Torq) rather than a bigger nosed mini mal type.

[Zealex]

What about an 8' bic? I heard bad things about bic but perhaps a 150 8'f bic on craigslist rn might be a step up from my foamie to help my learning?

Went surfing today and yesterday and man so many mistakes its like I forgot how to surf..Basically pearled and slipped off my board a few times, which I haven't done since I began learning. I tried moving up my board a little cause my big top is hanging off the edge but I felt like the weight was too far forward and my board just pearled....I could see the front of the board become submerged and knew I was done. Slipped a few times too, but perhaps thats because I was sort of pearling and the water from behind was rushing it on the board so it made it more slipper? didn't have much wax on since it never sticks.

Tried moving a few inches down, with my big toe off the board....much better results...road every wave I caught and didnt pearl once.

[oldmansurfer]

Don't worry about it Try to concentrate and adjust and let your failures fall off you like the water from the last wave. I know you want to learn quickly but it takes some time. Eventually it will all be done without a thought.

[waikikikichan]

Tried moving a few inches down, with my big toe off the board.

Could you explain your foot positioning / stance more clearly ? Are your feet standing along the center stringer of the board ? Or are they astride the the stringer running parallel to it ? I'm not sure how a big toe can be off the board, unless you're in a massive duck stance.

[Zealex]

Tried moving a few inches down, with my big toe off the board.

Could you explain your foot positioning / stance more clearly ? Are your feet standing along the center stringer of the board ? Or are they astride the the stringer running parallel to it ? I'm not sure how a big toe can be off the board, unless you're in a massive duck stance.

Oh i meant when layind down I moved up a few inches and its been throwing me off.