Surfing Waves

Yo fellas!

I've been riding on a 10 foot giant soft top long board as a basic learning board for a while and am looking for some guidance.

How do I go about riding a wave not directly toward the beach with this monster? Basically, how do I go about turning on this enormous raft?

Your probably at a point where you need to get off the raft.

Its realy hard to paddle those things out back, easy to catch a wave but hard to catch a pitchy clean wave and a nightmare to turn them.

Whateevr you get next will be less floaty, so harder to paddle and harder to catch waves with. But it'll be solid so it wont flex, and lighter (and hopefully turn better) so it should help you with the bottom turns etc.


What you want to try is when catching a wave, angle slightly away from the breaking side, then get to your feet as you take off , look down the line (of th wave) and put some weight onto your back foot on the inside of the board, you want to keep the nose aligned to the wave as you turn it round the bottom of the wave, but not dig it into the bottom, and end up with the back/side of the board in the wave going along the face.

It'll be difficult with that board though.

When your board is that long you might want to angle it away a little bit from the breaking point.

How thick of a board would you recommend that I rent? Usually, living 70 miles from the nearest beach, I rent a board and I will get a 10ft soft top; however, I am wondering what thickness I should get for a longboard, since I will be trying out a new board this time?.

How big are you? How fit are you?

Very fit

5' 10" tall

145lbs

Sorry ladies, I'm not single and will never be again.

OK - then your not a 'big' guy , time to man up and get a proper surfboard.

Or at least rent a few.

Look at a 9'2" to 9'4" board, 22-23 wide , 2.5-3 inches thick

Go for something square tailed with a relativly classic and easy going shape, nothing too extreem. either glassed or a decent surftec type (rentals aer likely to be bic popouts or similar).

You'll find this will be less floaty but will paddle faster and be much stronger, and also way way more turnable and stable on the wave face.

Loving the help man! I will definitely take advantage of your suggestions.

Also, just to clarify, use your back foot to maneuver and carve the water slightly to turn, eh? (carve may not be the appropriate term for leaning but hopefully you know what I am forwarding)

Are there any other steps that take place during the turn that I left out?

In general front foot is the accelerator, back foto is the brake.

To turn you want some weigth backwards and on the rail you want to turn on, but theres more in your body shape/movement too, if you hold your arms forward/backward and point & look to where you want to go (and not at your feet) that'll help tons.

Sounds excellent. I will experiment for a while before I attempt anything too difficult, this weekend. Thanks for all the help bud.

Sorry ladies, I'm not single and will never be again. Wink

What about guys?

jk


no... but seriously

DoorM4n wrote:Sounds excellent. I will experiment for a while before I attempt anything too difficult, this weekend. Thanks for all the help bud.

Biggest trick is to slightly angle the board before you take off , i.e. dont go straigth at the beach.

You may pearl a bit doing this, or miss more waves.

The answer is paddle a bit harder (!!) and get to your feet smoothly and quickly, start getting to your feet when you think you may have caught the wave, not when you know.

If your late on getting to your feet it wont work.

Would you recommend me squatting down so my center of gravity is much closer to the board, as well?