Still in poo stance?

[waikikikichan]

could have I extended the ride?

No, as Jaffa said there's nothing left for the wave to offer. But .....

1) You could have gone straight instead of bottom turning, thus riding the whitewater towards the beach. But going straight is no fun.
2) You also could have turn back down after turning upwards, you can't just continue going up. Again you are trying too hard to bottom turn. sometimes it just a slight rise up the face and a swerve back to the foam.

You ended up next to another surfer paddling back out. He was sort of in a channel between two waves you can see in the video. You ended up in that channel too,( after bunny hopping a little bump ) thus no wave energy there. You have to "come back" to the waves power before that happens. You should have turn back on or right after that little bump.

[pmcaero]

I think that's the best ride I've seen in your posts and on your blog..

Thanks. I wish I had gotten footage of some of the better rides I had this weekend, to get feedback on how to progress even further.
I have been trying to improve my frontside take-off, once I am set up for the ride, everything else flows so much better.

[pmcaero]

You ended up in that channel too,( after bunny hopping a little bump ) thus no wave energy there.

Yesterday was pretty disorganized, but at a beach break these channels should not be shifting too much, right? I don't know if how much sand shifts but since it's not at the mouth of a river, there are no sand bars.
So presumably someone with experience would be able to anticipate the flatter area.

[Big H]

You ended up in that channel too,( after bunny hopping a little bump ) thus no wave energy there.

Yesterday was pretty disorganized, but at a beach break these channels should not be shifting too much, right? I don't know if how much sand shifts but since it's not at the mouth of a river, there are no sand bars.
So presumably someone with experience would be able to anticipate the flatter area.

Your standard 5-10min wave review/survey before going in should show you where the channels, shoulders, soft & flat spots are and where you should go/want to be. If you don't do that you should start, then fine tune it once you get out in the water and see the shape of the wave etc up close and personal.

[waikikikichan]

So presumably someone with experience would be able to anticipate the flatter area.

review/survey before going in should show you where the channels, shoulders, soft & flat spots are and where you should go/want to be.

Experience, Knowledge and Anticipation. Again learn the WAVE. Learn how to use your rail ( not only your fin ). Be Pro-active not Re-active. In other words, turn before you need to. By the time your eyes tell your brain " hey, i think the wave is slowing down here on the shoulder, I think we need to turn", it will be too late.

If every time you bottom turn, you fly off the top, turn up less OR immediately turn back down. Just make your action up and right after turn down. Without looking, with out feeling. Just like trying to get someones attention, swinging your hands back and forth. Swing up swing down.
Don't even need to look, just think and do.

[pmcaero]

. Learn how to use your rail ( not only your fin ).

Are you referring to actions like setting the rail during the ride on the face, by pushing slightly with your toes / heel or slightly leaning?
Or more radical maneuvers?

[waikikikichan]

. Learn how to use your rail ( not only your fin ).

Are you referring to actions like setting the rail during the ride on the face, by pushing slightly with your toes / heel or slightly leaning?
Or more radical maneuvers?

All the time, for Every little movement, you need to utilize the rails of your surfboard. Even in aerials, way up in the air the rails aren't engage, but without rail control, the surfer couldn't get up high or stick the landing. Radical maneuvers like Hard gouging cut backs uses the rail BUT also the simple act of gliding along the wave uses the rail.

[yumyumyellow]

I had some good rides today, front and backside, But didn't get them on camera. I got this one though, can you please volunteer more feedback, it has been most helpful so far. For instance, could have I extended the ride?

You are thinking too analytically. Surfing is about the feel. You can't just have a checklist of things "to do" if you don't understand the why and the when. Like Chan said, just focus on getting onto the face consistently, and trimming. Then you'll learn how to gain speed, burn off speed when you need to, and extend your rides.

[pmcaero]

I think the poo stance is impacting the way I feel the board, it's stable but unwieldy for turns. So that's a real action item.

[oldmansurfer]

Crouching down helps you balance by lowering your center of gravity which requires then less force to shift it. To understand this take something like a heavy hammer and hold it straight up by the very base of the handle. Then try rotating the hammer down to horizontal and back up vertical. Then try grabbing closer to the head of the hammer and do the same thing. then grab next to the head and do the same thing. As the center of gravity gets closer to the pivot point it gets easier to turn. Surfing is about changing your center of gravity. I probably stand up taller than most people during much of the time I am surfing but I do that because it's relaxing and I don't need to lower my center of gravity at that moment. But I do crouch down when I turn. In turning crouching increases the downward force on the board. If you crouch down when you stop the inertia of your downward movement continues to the board and from a crouching position if you stand up it increases the pressure on your board. Both of these actions can add to the power of a turn. In addition coming out of a crouch unweights you and moves your center of gravity in the direction you are leaning which makes for quick motion along the axis your center of gravity is moving. As a youth I regularly did activities that helped me to control my center of gravity among them boulder hopping and downhill trail running. Now I am too old for that so I do my old man exercises

[oldmansurfer]

I think perhaps the big problem with lowering your center of gravity is that besides making you more stable and easier for you to change your center of gravity, the amount that you can change it gets less too. The ability to alter your center of gravity is why I started surfing when I was probably the best bodyboarder on the island. If you lay down your center of gravity is really low and it is really hard for anything to knock you off your board. But you can only change your center of gravity a little bit by doing a pushup or leaning one way or the other. If you kneel then you can move your torso around a bit more and can lower your center of gravity and stability by laying your chest on your knees. If you stand up the you can move your center of gravity a lot, way more than any of the other postures. So the problem that staying crouched presents is that it limits your ability to change your center of gravity and if you are an old man like me then arthritis or decreased flexibility affects how much and how easily you can change your center of gravity especially in a crouched position. Many of the pro surfers stay for the majority of their ride crouched however in a stance more balanced rather than the poo stance. In the poo stance you are leaning over and not centered along the middle of the board. So maybe to get a more balanced stance you can practice trying to get your hips under your chest more, shoulders more back and arms out front and back. So stand like you do on the board then just bring your hips forward and get used to standing in that position.

[pmcaero]

So maybe to get a more balanced stance you can practice trying to get your hips under your chest more, shoulders more back and arms out front and back. So stand like you do on the board then just bring your hips forward and get used to standing in that position.

I think it's possible my pop-up sets me up for the poo stance. i know the correct position and I practice that on the surf skateboard as well as balance board, etc.

But in one pop-up video I watched they recommended that your back foot touches the board first.
I saw a video of someone dropping down a huge wave in the Waimea stance and their front foot touched first. So maybe that's my issue.
I will practice some pop-up with the back foot touching first as soon as I get in the water and see if that helps with the stance.

[oldmansurfer]

Whatever I can stand in the poo stance and then change it without moving my feet

[oldmansurfer]

Here is an idea. Change your popup stance so that your back foot is perpendicular to the stringer and your front foot is angled just slightly off alignment with the stringer. Then you can't poo stance. A long time ago that was my big wave stance.

[dtc]

I dont think which foot lands first is relevant to your issue. Your problem is you are hinging at the hips, both forwards (away from your butt) and sort of backwards (away from the nose of the board). I dont know if its your hips or your back shoulder or your arms or back knee that is causing it, but its not which foot lands first. All of this happens after you stand up.

Opening up your stance, as oldman says, makes it much harder to poo stance.

Wkk's latest blog entry looked at this http://alohaki.jugem.jp/

[BoMan]

I love the video gif files used to show us your surfing. It's a simple way to showcase exactly what you want us to see. Way to go!

If anyone else wants to try it, here's a link to the free conversion site. Sorry....but I like tech almost as much as surfing. http://ezgif.com/video-to-gif

[oldmansurfer]

Long ago when I was young and in shape, I had a problem taking backside drops on huge waves. My legs were weak and they would collapse as I tried to jam a backside bottom turn on 15 foot plus (Hawaiian) waves. I worked at strengthening my legs but also tried various stances and came up with this back foot perpendicular to the stringer and front foot slightly off parallel to the stringer. This seemed to help immediately and I practiced popping up on the floor on a cardboard cutout of my surfboard. Later i heard from other surfers that they used the same stance for big waves. I haven't gotten to the point of needing a change since I restarted surfing (or rode any 15 foot Hawaiian or bigger waves) but I am not exactly sure what I do with foot placement as I seem to just do stuff instinctively but that stance is a very solid one.

[waikikikichan]

I will practice some pop-up with the back foot touching first as soon as I get in the water and see if that helps with the stance.

Do NOT do that. Clear space so your Front foot can plant first, then slide up or place the Back foot second. If you put your Back foot first, as the board propels forward, it might make you wheelie out and flip over. You need to get the momentum going forward to make the drop. Putting your back foot first might also make you stomp the tail, causing you to loose that needed momentum.

[pmcaero]

It's a simple way to showcase exactly what you want us to see. Way to go!

I download the videos from the webcam and then play them in Windows media player. The videos cover 10 minutes and a pretty big area, and all I need are a few seconds and the region that has me in it. I found this free screen capture tool that works great to make animated gifs from screen captures with a custom area.
https://screentogif.codeplex.com/
Then I upload the gifs to imgur.

[pmcaero]

If you put your Back foot first, as the board propels forward, it might make you wheelie out and flip over. You need to get the momentum going forward to make the drop.

Didn't t think of that. Makes sense. Thanks!