Surfing Waves

Hi guys.
I have another question.
I am struggling on my bottom turn.
I usually surf a fast breaking beachbreak, chest to slightly OH high wave.
On small medium sized waves i have take off spot on. On the bigger waves i sometimes make it and sometimes dont but iam constantly struggling on the bottom turn.
I have a background of bodyboarding and on those kind of waves i didnt do bottom turns i went down on the wave face on the rail to ride the wave sideways.
Now that i am learning to surf i tend to do that to on these fast waves, sometimes i pull it and ride along the wave but most of the time i dont and end up going straight specially on my backsides.
The solution i have found on backsides is to grab a rail with my hand to do the bottom turn then once i am ste on the waves face i let go and ride as long as i am able.
Prevously i had a 6´5 board and i didnt struggle so much to turn,(but i struggled a lot to catch waves with it) as i do now with my current 7´hybrid funboard.

would you have any tips that you think they might help?

1) Is the hand thing on the backside a terrible thing to do or is it okay to do it until i learn bottom turns better?

2) Should i try and go down sticking the rail on the wave face like i did on the bodyboard not doing the bottom turn thing? That´s what most people surfing that break do, yet they are on shortboards.

3) I tend to turn with both feet like you would on a skateboard with no kicktail. Is it posible to ride a funboard like board like this or perform bottom turns like this on wider thicker longer boards?
Thanks guys and sorry for all the questioning.

1 - i assume the hand thing going backside is refering to pigdogging. Yes thats perfect fine in steep late takeoffs. Its actually handy for dropping into tubes as well. However it shouldnt always have to be used in most instances you should just be able to make the drop normally. PRACTISE!!

2 - you are talking about angled take offs right?? a lot of the time you can take off at an angle meaning you can keep high the trim and make a decent down at will. On later take offs you dont have the ability so you you must make a sharp bottom turn when youreach the bottom of the wave otherwise you lose momentum and wont beable to get into to position for trimming the wave. In very steep waves you often need to make correction whilst free almost freefalling otherwise you just end up getting eaten or going no where

To do a decent bottom turn just look to the top of the wave and your body should automatically adjust and send the board upwards. So to reitterate when you drop in and reach the bottom swing your body and leags whilst looking to the top and you should make a nice bottom turn - trickey to explain - again PRACTISE

3 - obviously turning a shortboard requires far less effort. to make a sharp bottom turn most your weight should be on the back leg. However this only comes with yep - PRACTISE

This should basically become instictive so you dont have to think about what you are doing. so ya PRACTISE

Great answer, helps me too.

Thanks for the advice you have answered some of the doubts i had.
I guessed it was all matter of practice.
It´s just that im kind of frustrated.
Thanks again.

It´s just that im kind of frustrated.

Happens to the best of us just ignor that and get the stoke going it all comes with experience and practise

Part of it is the 7ft hybrid you are using, it requires a bottom turn as it would probably be hard to dig in the rail. What can you do? Preety much nothing.

It's like when I surf my fish instead of the shortboard, I have to go down and do a power turn and try to make it past the whitewash, but with the fish I have more speed and most of the time make it. On my shortie, the same wave, I would just dig in and go accross the face, stall up the wave and then do a lip smack back down and repeat.

Digging your hand might help, but at the cost of slowing you down, so you might not connect to the next wave section.

So, bottom line, you are surfing the board the way it is meant to, if you want to surf different then go back to your shorty, or a slightly bigger shortie.

http://www.carveboardsports.com

Practise your turns over and over on dry land,
expensive but worth it!

Aloha wrote:http://www.carveboardsports.com

Practise your turns over and over on dry land,
expensive but worth it!

wow i saw the video it looks really similar to surfing, i might buy it

sick board

I have one and i can honestly say its probably one of my best buys ever it's so much fun. ive got a huge hill near my house so i just drop the tyre pressure down to about 15 psi and carve the s**t out of the bish. they rarely loose grip and with enough power through your turns you can almost drag you face on the ground lol.

practice, practice , practice surf as much as you can