Surfing Waves

I've been riding a 9'0" longboard for over 2 years now and am now attempting to learn to learn to ride a new 6'0". While some of the skills transition over, the actual take-off feels completely different and has been part of a rough transition. The main problem seems to be the margin of error when timing the move to your plant your feet. On a shortboard it seems like it's about 1 second and one extra pump between missing the wave and face planting on the board. On a longboard you can glide along the face for 3 seconds or so before planting.

Of course it's also unstable, doesn't glide unless you're about to take off, and sometimes slides around uncontrollably when paddling on it.

Has anybody else successfully (or unsuccessfully) made the jump who could offer any advice? It really does feel like starting over, where I would leave the break tired and having caught zero waves on the day. I'm not discouraged. I know with practice I will get it. But if there's anything that can speed up the process, I'm all ears!

well 9'0 to 6'0 is a pretty hefty jump 3ft diff is pretty large. The best advise i can offer is to get a bigger shortboard to make the transition easier. If that is not an option then just battle on but you can expect a real frustrating experience for a while. A longboard is a different animal to a shortboard.

I am considering switching to a short-board.. I have a 7'6 Minimal and I tried my friend's 6'10 fish this morning and I LOVED it. The pop-up is much easier (back leg hooked up from the side version!) than my attempts at the regular pop-up on my Minimal, which are pretty bad to watch I would say as I find it fairly difficult to place my front foot up by my hands- I have only been surfing three months but I'm not finding it any easier!
I found it much easier to angle the short-board on the wave from the take-off and I loved the speed too. Is it just me or is a Minimal much harder to ride in steep waves for a beginner? I seem to get thrown off it really easily if the big waves are anyway close to breaking and if I angle my Minimal the same as I did with the shortboard this morning then I wasn't even catching the waves!- the Minimal seems to only like to be paddled into a wave at the slightest of angles or it doesn't go with the wave!
Is this normal? I was told in the surf shop that the Minimal was the way to go for a beginner and that shortboards are only for the experienced? Or is it just because they thought I wouldn't be that strong being a girl and wouldn't get anywhere with a shortboard?!?

Im right there with ya. I bought a few boards (used) last year. Started with a 9'4 performance board (Im 5'6 - 140 lbs), then took of the +2 fins and went with a short cut away fin. That helps with getting used to a looser board.

Then swapped (just for a day) with my buddy for his 7'6. Took a few days to get used to it but not bad at all. Went out and bought a Perfection 6'6 fish. Im still struggling with that. Getting up a few times then all goes to hell and thats that for the day.

So I figured Id try my friends 6'2. I had no clue they stood up on those things??? Got no where except to the sandy bottom. Tried for about an hour but just could not get my feet anywhere near the board before I crashed. Yeah dreams of doing those cool turns are nice, can I get there? Yea, just keep going out, getting tossed like a salad and trying again.

Id keep the long board and trade the 6'0 in for a 6'4 or 6'6 fish (More use on smaller days). Take your time and remember we aren't going to be surfing like Slater no time soon. Just have fun!

First, how about you height and weight.

But yeah, you need a transition board, you don't go down 3 feet at a time, I think the next size you would get would be a 7'6" egg and then a 6'6" shortie and then a 6'0. Baby steps. It might require more boards in between

themathteacher wrote:First, how about you height and weight.

But yeah, you need a transition board, you don't go down 3 feet at a time, I think the next size you would get would be a 7'6" egg and then a 6'6" shortie and then a 6'0. Baby steps. It might require more boards in between

Good point. I'm 5'10", about 160 lbs.

I considered transitioning down but my thought process was that I didn't want to waste time learning how to surf on a funboard or an egg if my ultimate goal is to ride a short thruster. If I could spend the next, say, 3 months working out on a 7'6" egg, or a 6'1" thruster, which one would get me closer to where I want to be?

The issue seems to me to be one of rocker, width, and thickness, not board length. Correct me if I'm wrong here. A thruster is just a completely different beast from a noserider or egg, so a short egg is really not at all close to a long thruster.

NorthMyrtleB wrote:Im right there with ya. I bought a few boards (used) last year. Started with a 9'4 performance board (Im 5'6 - 140 lbs), then took of the +2 fins and went with a short cut away fin. That helps with getting used to a looser board.

Then swapped (just for a day) with my buddy for his 7'6. Took a few days to get used to it but not bad at all. Went out and bought a Perfection 6'6 fish. Im still struggling with that. Getting up a few times then all goes to hell and thats that for the day.

So I figured Id try my friends 6'2. I had no clue they stood up on those things??? Got no where except to the sandy bottom. Tried for about an hour but just could not get my feet anywhere near the board before I crashed. Yeah dreams of doing those cool turns are nice, can I get there? Yea, just keep going out, getting tossed like a salad and trying again.

Id keep the long board and trade the 6'0 in for a 6'4 or 6'6 fish (More use on smaller days). Take your time and remember we aren't going to be surfing like Slater no time soon. Just have fun!

Yep. That's what I'm going through. I feel out of control so I instinctively get my knees on the board. A fish is an interesting idea. Again, not sure if that will help with the rocker of a thruster. I'm determined to keep at it. My duckdive needs work too.

Lomax wrote:It really does feel like starting over, where I would leave the break tired and having caught zero waves on the day.

Lomax wrote: I didn't want to waste time learning

Anyone else spot the flaw in the logic...?

if you're going to go short just go for a shortboard shape with a fuller nose and tail and plenty of volume. this will still aid the transition to a shorter board in the future but also make it easier to learn how to ride a shortboard properly, you may even find you don't want to surf that small anyway.

drowningbitbybit wrote:

Lomax wrote:It really does feel like starting over, where I would leave the break tired and having caught zero waves on the day.

Lomax wrote: I didn't want to waste time learning

Anyone else spot the flaw in the logic...?

haha yep . its a big jump to make it will take u alot of hard work but your get it in the end. just rember to have fun thats all that counts

6ft is a small shortboard. Get yourself a nice 6ft 6 rounded pin not too much rocker and a bit of extra width. Not only will this help with the learning curve but it will be a nice board for when the surf gets up in size a bit so it won't be a wasted board.
Sounds like you've bitten off more than you can chew for now.

KS

BlondieChick wrote:I am considering switching to a short-board.. I have a 7'6 Minimal and I tried my friend's 6'10 fish this morning and I LOVED it. The pop-up is much easier (back leg hooked up from the side version!) than my attempts at the regular pop-up on my Minimal, which are pretty bad to watch I would say as I find it fairly difficult to place my front foot up by my hands- I have only been surfing three months but I'm not finding it any easier!
I found it much easier to angle the short-board on the wave from the take-off and I loved the speed too. Is it just me or is a Minimal much harder to ride in steep waves for a beginner? I seem to get thrown off it really easily if the big waves are anyway close to breaking and if I angle my Minimal the same as I did with the shortboard this morning then I wasn't even catching the waves!- the Minimal seems to only like to be paddled into a wave at the slightest of angles or it doesn't go with the wave!
Is this normal? I was told in the surf shop that the Minimal was the way to go for a beginner and that shortboards are only for the experienced? Or is it just because they thought I wouldn't be that strong being a girl and wouldn't get anywhere with a shortboard?!?

Naturally a preformance shortboard will preform better in steeper punchier waves than a minimal will as they arnt really geared up for that. That said it is possible to surf a minimal in steep surf its just sooo much simpler on a shortboard with a nice amount of rocker.

What the surf shop told you is generally correct. If you find you are surfing the mal just fine and feel like its holding you back / you are ready - then go for something shorter and more preformance orientated. Just to throw a spanner in the works i know several people who really were not doing well on longboards/mini mals after a few goes out they tried a 6'0 potato chip shortboard and got on fine not experiencing any of the normal frustrations one expects - Casein point everyone is different

kitesurfer wrote:6ft is a small shortboard. Get yourself a nice 6ft 6 rounded pin not too much rocker and a bit of extra width. Not only will this help with the learning curve but it will be a nice board for when the surf gets up in size a bit so it won't be a wasted board.
Sounds like you've bitten off more than you can chew for now.

KS

agree to this, pin tails hold a line a lot better making standing a lot easier but can still be maneuvered easily

drowningbitbybit wrote:

Lomax wrote:It really does feel like starting over, where I would leave the break tired and having caught zero waves on the day.

Lomax wrote: I didn't want to waste time learning

Anyone else spot the flaw in the logic...?

Heh...I see what you're saying. But it's not wasted time. Each session I'm better at catching, paddle faster, positioned better, and closer to getting my feet on the stick. Like learning to surf on your own (which I did). You go out, don't catch session after session, observe, try again until you're on your feet, muscle memory kicks in and it becomes easy to get on a wave.

So I'm not discouraged, and I might have been better off getting a more transitional board, I'll admit. I wanted to go with a used board and that was the only one available in the shape that I wanted.

Are there any other pitfalls or nuances to the shortboard that I can be warned about? Here are a couple of general questions:

How do I protect the nose? How do I keep from getting dragged backwards when duckdiving? On the take-off, should I try to take the same shallow angle on a peeling wave as I do on a longboard, or should I try to go down the face and turn? How do I keep the board from sliding around when I'm paddling? Is it just an issue of technique?

protect the nose from what?

for duckdiving, learn to do it properly, takes time and practice to perfect but makes hell of a difference when you can to it properly

as for the angle or no angle it depends on how fast the waves breaking, how steep it is etc

technique for the last one, its more you shouldn't be moving you're body, just your arms and shoulders really so the board shouldnt slide out, if you mean when paddling over a wave then thats just a case of taking a second to hold the board still and carry on when its passed?

drowningbitbybit wrote:

Lomax wrote:It really does feel like starting over, where I would leave the break tired and having caught zero waves on the day.

Lomax wrote: I didn't want to waste time learning

Anyone else spot the flaw in the logic...?

your goals are all wrong mate... it shouldn't be your goal to learn to ride a particular type of board. your goal should be learning to ride the wave better. you should be learning to do everything you can on a board until the its the board that's holding you back... not your skill level.

try something like a 7' funboard. ride the hell out of it. when you are trying for snaps and find there's just too much board to swing around. then think about something smaller like maybe a 6'8. and repeat the process. then occasionally for giggles take out the longboard again and see if you can do some of the stuff you do on shortboards on the longboard.

garbarrage wrote:

drowningbitbybit wrote:

Lomax wrote:It really does feel like starting over, where I would leave the break tired and having caught zero waves on the day.

Lomax wrote: I didn't want to waste time learning

Anyone else spot the flaw in the logic...?

your goals are all wrong mate... it shouldn't be your goal to learn to ride a particular type of board. your goal should be learning to ride the wave better. you should be learning to do everything you can on a board until the its the board that's holding you back... not your skill level.

try something like a 7' funboard. ride the hell out of it. when you are trying for snaps and find there's just too much board to swing around. then think about something smaller like maybe a 6'8. and repeat the process. then occasionally for giggles take out the longboard again and see if you can do some of the stuff you do on shortboards on the longboard.

Good points. The goal is always to ride waves better. The question is, is it better to ease into it or jump right in? I'm not interested in riding a shortboard so I can be a "ripper". I'm interested because I hate being limited by what's out there and what I can do. I certainly feel like, if I can learn to ride the waves better on a shortboard, I will have the entire range of moves and wave types available to me, and can fill in the gaps at will. Like your example about snaps. If I know that a 7' funboard won't let me do it, why am I riding a 7' funboard?

My point was never that it was too hard or that I was getting discouraged. In that case, I can see why intermediate boards would help. Just that I wanted to see if there's anything that can speed up the process (besides getting 3 or 4 new boards ). I don't want to seem like I'm ignoring advice because I think it's been great and I appreciate all of it. I'm just having a tough time understanding why getting a bunch of inbetween boards is better than just going full bore and learning as much as I can on a board that can do it all.

Sillysausage wrote:protect the nose from what?

Dings mostly. I've already chipped it and had to suncure the thing. As much as these things bang around, especially on a reef break, the nose just seems super vulnerable to dings.

Lomax wrote: I'm just having a tough time understanding why getting a bunch of inbetween boards is better than just going full bore and learning as much as I can on a board that can do it all.

Q. How do you learn how to surf better?
A. By catching waves, and riding them.

Q. How do you not improve in the slightest?
A. By bobbing about in the water not catching any waves.

Q. How many tricks can a board do?
A. None. The surfer does them.

drowningbitbybit wrote:Q. How do you not improve in the slightest?
A. By bobbing about in the water not catching any waves.

I want to learn how to be an awesome racecar driver. Should I first:

A: Practice racing a Honda Accord around a racetrack, or
B: Learn how to drive a racecar?