Surfing Waves

Hi - was out in the fat boy flyer yesterday, was perfect conditions, only problem i was finding was that after i caught the wave i was running out of speed & unable to carry on along the wave which was really frustrating me.

My surf buddy was suggesting afterwards that i should try to grab the rail to initiate the turn as soon as i catch the wave, this is something i'll try later on today.

Does anyone else have any tips for what i could do to help myself, should i maybe be leaning forward a bit more when catching the wave perhaps? I know that everyone must go thru this frustrating point when learning / trying to improve.

Thanks

alimac2411 wrote:My surf buddy was suggesting afterwards that i should try to grab the rail to initiate the turn as soon as i catch the wave, this is something i'll try later on today.

Um.... (to your mate, not you)
You'll only need to grab your rail when you're already moving very fast. No need to whatsoever when moving slowly. It will just be a new way of bogging down and wiping out

Speed comes from travelling down the face, whether you actually move down the face or pump up and down along it.
So, yes, you can initiate the turn straight away and this'll keep you moving as long as the wave has enough power and/or you move up and down the face.
Or get on the wave earlier and travel down the face then bottom turn back up the face.

Or... if you're not at that stage yet, then a little more weight on the front foot may help, as will leaning/turning towards where you want to go.

And stay in the powerful pocket of the breaking wave, dont faff about in the white water or on a completely unbroken section.

Dont grab a rail

yeah i hadn't read anywhere really about grabbing the rail so early so thanks for confirming that for me!

I catch the wave, fly down the face, attempt to bottom turn but when i turn i think i may be doing what you suggest i shouldn't do, which is trying to go along an unbroken section, which has very little power.
I have difficulty in catching the wave & staying high on the wave too so i'm trying to nail the bottom turns at the moment. I think i must be getting too far ahead of the wave. Thanks a lot for the info!

From reading that, I would say that you probably need to start the turn earlier. Unless you're on a pretty steep wave, thats really clean, you'll find it breaking behind you (and that wont have the power to get you back up the face again).

You'll probably get more speed if you take off at an angle, so you're going down the face but also away from the breaking shoulder of the wave.

Thanks for the tip, much appreciated. I will hopefully improve on my next surf thanks to you.
Wanting to ask 1 more question regarding taking off at an angle, may sound like a silly question but i just need to get it sussed.
If i catch the wave earlier, and i manage to stay high on the wave, going frontside, how should my weight be distributed. Should i be putting more weight on the toeside rail so that's digging into the wave face, or should i be putting more weight on the heel side rail to power myself down the wave before turning back up again. Or should my weight just be evenly distributed?

You'd need to put your weight through the inside rail to go up the face, on the outside rail to go down. So unless the wave is moving fairly fast/steep, you'd be going up and down (inside outside) to maintain speed.
If the wave is steep enough to keep you going and you want to stay high, you'd put your weight through your toes to 'maintain' level.

cheers drowningbitbybit - true gentleman for answering my questions!
Todays surf forecast seems pretty poor up here but i'm going to go out anyway, and i'm going to try my hardest to practice using your tips! Tomorows forecast is really good though & hopefully i'll get better with practice! Thanks again for all your help.

There has been some good advise given. Make sure you get that bottom turn in quick if not you will be out infront of the wave and have nothing to push you. Once you have the line make sure you again don't out run the wave. This means you will need to do a cut back or stall the board out to keep you in the right location. Good luck and enjoy.

Old Guys Rule wrote:There has been some good advise given. Make sure you get that bottom turn in quick if not you will be out infront of the wave and have nothing to push you. Once you have the line make sure you again don't out run the wave. This means you will need to do a cut back or stall the board out to keep you in the right location. Good luck and enjoy.

Cheers for the info there - great advice and what you're saying is exactly what i'm doing wrong. I'm definitely not doing the bottom turn fast enough and am going too far ahead of the wave and have nothing to push me, then by the time the wave reaches me i'm not moving fast enough to be picked up by it.
So i need to work on a faster bottom turn, or even turning a bit faster when i initially stand up, higher up the wave. Well i now have what i believe will be the solution, just need to get myself sorted in the sea! I greatly appreciate the info - thanks!

some great advice given to me in this post - i've now cracked riding along the wave & keeping up my speed along it too! Things can only get better from now on - cheers guys, your tips were spot on!