Surfing technique

[gsseirik]

Thanks a lot of the positive feedback:-) I guess like Jaffa1949 points out I have a picture in my mind of what surfing should look like, from watching the pros surf in videos since I was 15 years old. I still get superstoked about just pumping and cruising down the line, so maby I must stop stressing and be concerned about how my surfstyle looks for surfers around where I live. And hope that a lot of things come naturally after catching more waves. But I find it so hard to make adjustments if I learned some bad habits from the start. I have been scrolling through this forum to find more on technique, and you guys have helped a loooot of people. So nice of you!! To teach is to touch a life forever;-)

[jaffa1949]

No wukkas

[jaffa1949]

One sequence where Jaffa didn't quite get it working. Embarrassed no! just paddled out and paid attention to Doing a fully committed fast and push the nose down pop up!

Mr Casual over confident and not matching speed with commitment to the wave. Note too high with nose , Shows the real reason why most pearling happens.

Already too slow with the Pop up, if I had been Standing I could have driven the board down the wave successfully.
The wave has begun to lift the tail uncontrollably as I didn't match speed

Struggling hard to get my act together

erg gurgle!

[gsseirik]

haha! I usually do that kind of trick everytime theres a lot of people around in the water. Such a nice wave!! And it looks absolutely wonderful to surf in boardshorts:-) When I see footage of other places in the world I always wonder about how the wipeouts feels like compared to here. With sharp reefs, strong currents and other stuff. At the pointbreaks here we almost only have shores of round rocks, except for the beachbreaks. And usually when the waves break theres so much water coming in, that you almost never hit the bottom. But I still get very scared of wiping out on big days, especially if theres bigger sets lurking ahead.

[jaffa1949]

Same Day another sequence, no hat this time, both sequences are over about 5 seconds and show the difference in commitment and Pop up speed and how it effects the whole ride, also the slightly more power in this wave helped me pay more attention.

At the top with more speed and finalising my Pop up release and pushing down the face

fully opening out my bottom turn with power to go to the top!

speed for a committed top turn,
prepare to repeat!

[gsseirik]

Its the thing you do advancing from pic 2 to 3 I need to practice on. Would giving my 7'0 minimal another go help me? Looks amazing! So cool!

[jaffa1949]

To do the deed you need the speed, everything you do should add speed coming out of the move and leading to the next move, once we bog then reliance begins on leaning turn which just bog rails and anywhere else.
The tonnage for Jaffa at work is 200lb at 5'10" not quite bowling ball.
I can still do short but I have to have full attention and a short sharp paddle burst. If my knees don't unfold I'm done!

Long for me means more time more waves and less critical entries to the wave, once I'm up all good!

[oldmansurfer]

Its the thing you do advancing from pic 2 to 3 I need to practice on. Would giving my 7'0 minimal another go help me? Looks amazing! So cool!

That is just what I was going to say. The best way to stay turning is to not stop in the first place. What you want to do is to go from one turn to the next keeping your speed up by always turning back to the power of the wave. A good bottom turn is essential. Work at getting speed on your first bottom turn. The other thing is the speed turn but you need fast waves or a long wall to practice that on. However if you are stuck in a rut on a wave no matter how nice and you want to break out the drop down and turn will always assist you. In that particular wave you might have been able to initiate a speed turn just by doing an ankle turn or trim turn where you just use our ankles to angle the board up the wave and then quickly turn back down (being careful to not be taken out by the lip). There is so much to learn in surfing but from the looks of it you are doing well. Don't try to compare yourself to the pros, most surfers will never be as good as the pros. It's possible you might but there is a long road ahead and so much to learn before that.

[gsseirik]

"However if you are stuck in a rut on a wave no matter how nice and you want to break out the drop down and turn will always assist you." But this rely on beeing high in the wave in the first place? Or do you mean more like the same move you would perform to do a little jump on your bare feet in the living room?

[jaffa1949]

What OMSCalls an ankle turn I call a woggle or a shimmy, you are running a slightly higher line but nothaving enough to initiate a full turn , I quickly weight unweighted side to side flexing through the ankles, it breaks the inner rail grip and fin traction enough for the board to move slideways and to a lowertrim on the wave and picks up a little speed, often then enough to push a bigger turn. Watch a few pros set up with a shimmy prior to a larger turn.
Watch old Videosoftware Phil Edwards or Miki Dora, their woggles generated great speed.

[gsseirik]

Will do! Thanks:-) Im gonna bring the 7'0 minimal with me for every session, and see how it goes:-)

[oldmansurfer]

"However if you are stuck in a rut on a wave no matter how nice and you want to break out the drop down and turn will always assist you." But this rely on beeing high in the wave in the first place? Or do you mean more like the same move you would perform to do a little jump on your bare feet in the living room?

If you are high on a wave you just need to turn down and gravity will create speed or even just pick a high line and the wave will speed you up.
I use that technique at the bottom of a wave when I am stalled or going too slow for a good turn so from that spot you could drop down and use the extra force to bounce back up the wave. However it looks like there is enough wall to just do an ankle turn up and quickly back down to generate some speed.

[gsseirik]

What does "bog" mean? Thats a new word to me;-) Trying to go through all of your pointers, and kind of simulate the motions in my livingroom while I wait for the next opportunity to surf again. Have you guys done a lot of surfing-mimic on flat ground?

[waikikikichan]

Have you guys done a lot of surfing-mimic on flat ground?

Any vehicle riding ( board, bicycle, etc. ) not in a straight line, where you get leaned over, can't really be mimic on a flat surface in the living room. It will be hard to imitate the rise and fall of the board , compression to extension of the body , resist and relax of working in tune with the wave.
If there's no waves or a way to get to them, get a Carve board. It is the best tool to mimic surfing and the body movements associated with surfing.

[gsseirik]

Would be great to buy a carverboard. The snow went away today, and was replaced with 5 degrees celcius and rain. We only have daylight from about 08:30 until 16:30. Stuck with watching surfmovies i guess;-)

[waikikikichan]

Okay if you can’t go outside, then get a regular skate board, take of the wheels/trucks/bolts, put it down on a piece of carpet, and practice turning 180 front side and backside. Do it smoothly, don’t swing violently. Pick up, twist, counter weight the front, put down under control. Then move on to 360’s.

[gsseirik]

Nice! Thanks! I have a skateboard-blank at home:-)

[jaffa1949]

What does "bog" mean? Thats a new word to me;-) Trying to go through all of your pointers, and kind of simulate the motions in my livingroom while I wait for the next opportunity to surf again. Have you guys done a lot of surfing-mimic on flat ground?

Ah a good Aussie surf phrase lesson going all the way to Norway.
Bog as in surfing is to put enough pressure wrongly on the side the board so the rail swamped by the waves face and wipe out happen. This is a common occurrence by learner surfers trying to do a leaning turn when to far up the board.
Bog is aso the name for a stamp! When your car wheels dig themselves into sand or mud= the car is bogged.

Also a slang name for an outback Australian outdoor toilet!.

Since I'm now living in Austria, Norway is in my sights for a surf attack. Will let you know when that is going to happen

[gsseirik]

haha! What a great phrase:-) In september we usually start to get swells, and the watertemperature is still "high" so a 4/3mm wetsuit is enough. But if you don't mind wearing a 6mm fullsuit with 8mm boots then its usually much more consistant in the wintermonths.

[IanCaio]

The sequence looks very nice! Engaged the rails quickly, kept up with the wave well! I think the only thing I'd (try) to do differently is going mid face and tucking in for the barrel, but it's easier said than done! You were on the pocket the whole time so I think you'd be able to pull it off
That wave looks so good!

Be careful with people like that guy on the 5th picture not holding their boards on the duck dive!! I know he was right under the lip, but it looks like he gave up holding the board before he even got drilled.. People should make a better effort at keeping their boards under controll