Surfing Waves

Hi,

I'm hoping to pick up some tips on turning to go down the face of the wave. Ive been surfing around 10 months and for the last few sessions Ive been consistenly catching the waves green but just going straight towards the beach. I find somtimes I seem to out run the wave and I then slow down until the wave breaks behind me and I then speed up again continuing in a straight line. Just the other day I was out and I taught conditions were really nice for my ability, smallish 3ish foot waves with a fairly gentle slope so I was easily catching every wave and popping up quick and handy but still just going straight. I read on post about angling the board so was trying that but it that just didnt have much joy, when i tryed to turn using my feet after popping up I found I ended up with the rail going too deep and Id come off. I'm not sure what difference board makes at this stage..Ive been renting a 8ft cortez the last while and found it great so far, I have a 7'10 custom hybrid ordered which I hear will be easier to turn but I will still have to figure out how! so any help, advice and personal experiences are hugely appreciated!!

Thanks!

Dude, you are ready. 10 months of surfing and poping up everytime means you should be riding the face of the wave now. Are you regular or goofy footed. If you are goofy, find you a nice left handed break and as soon as you pop up start your turn. It wont take much to just angle the board along the face and then my man, you are surfing.... Everything starts happening from there!

If you found that when you tried to turn, your rail digs in and you fall off, this is usually because you are leaning over the side of the board with your weight too far forward. Make sure that when you try to turn that your back foot is right at the tail of the board, and also bend your knees while turning.

Look at any youtube vid of any pro, and you will see that when they are bottom turning they are crouching when the turn starts, right at the tail of the board, and they straighten their legs for more power as the board begins to turn.

it also depends on the steepness and power of the wave your surfing, if its a gentle sloping wave, try paddling at an angle to the beach. if the beach is at 12 o'clock paddle at about 2 o'clock for a right hand break or 10 o'clock for a left hand break.
keep your center of gravity low and dont lean too much, you'll be surprised how little you have to lean to get your board to go where you want, and make sure that you LOOK in the direction you want to go, because if you look straight at the beach thats where youll go.
your back foot doesnt necissarily need to be right at the back of the board, on an 8 ft board you may end up stalling out of the wave because you're too far back, but you should have your front foot in the center of the board.
hope that helps mate, let us know how it goes

DON"T DESPAIR! Catching your first ride across a green wave is one of the best things in surfing and like many things it is a real tipping point! For me and some others i know the first time i did it suddenly lots of things click and you will always then know how to do it. Yes of course you get better at it but after that first time i thought hey why wasn't i doing this sooner? I had read a lot about it but it wasn't really til that first one that it made sense.

For me by far the easiest way to learn was by cathching the shoulder of bigger waves. Say your out on another 2-3 foot nice clean day try to find a spot where a slightly bigger waves is breaking further out and to one side of you. You only want waves that are peaking far to one side of you and not really forming on the other side of you. By catching a wave like this it is peeling in one direction only and if you paddle angled away from it, it will give you a good shove in that direction. Don't worry if the wave is dying off and there is only 20m to ride, if you can learn to pop up on this and start heading down the line then simply repeat on other waves.

This video sums it up really well:


Great series of instructional shorts by them for learners. Or if you can get your hands on a copy, the 110% Surfing Techniques DVD is really good too.

I have seen the 110% Surfing Techniques DVD mentioned a few times. Does anyone happen to know who in Oz stocks it or a site online to order from?

http://www.thesurfnetwork.com/product?I ... 7b63e8d5d3 you can download it here for $14.99
OR
http://torrentdownloads.net/torrent/106 ... viD-SCARED for FREE

your choice; remember you wouldn't steal a car.... ....but, if you could you would probably download one

Thats great, thanks everyone for the advice and help,.vids are great, cheers for it all, also I reckon I could be leaning to far forward maybe because until recently I was aiming for this to get more out of the wave,..I'm going in the morning to try out my new board .. http://www.westbaysurfboards.co.uk/hybrid/ it arrived yesterday ..chuffed with it, forecast is showing small waves but hopfully there will be somthing and I can put all the tips and my sweet new board to good use!! thanks all!

BB-GLACK wrote:Hi,

I'm hoping to pick up some tips on turning to go down the face of the wave. Ive been surfing around 10 months and for the last few sessions Ive been consistenly catching the waves green but just going straight towards the beach. I find somtimes I seem to out run the wave and I then slow down until the wave breaks behind me and I then speed up again continuing in a straight line. Just the other day I was out and I taught conditions were really nice for my ability, smallish 3ish foot waves with a fairly gentle slope so I was easily catching every wave and popping up quick and handy but still just going straight. I read on post about angling the board so was trying that but it that just didnt have much joy, when i tryed to turn using my feet after popping up I found I ended up with the rail going too deep and Id come off. I'm not sure what difference board makes at this stage..Ive been renting a 8ft cortez the last while and found it great so far, I have a 7'10 custom hybrid ordered which I hear will be easier to turn but I will still have to figure out how! so any help, advice and personal experiences are hugely appreciated!!

Thanks!

I'll bite :

Position yourself so as you paddle for the wave it is breaking on your ankles.
Paddle 45 degrees off straight to the shore (it feels a bit funny at first).
Paddle, stand up and get used to adjusting ur position to stay on the board.
If needs be bodysurf the wave at extreme take off angles to get a feel for the motion of the board on the wave pre popup

Easy !

Thanks everyone for the help, I was out today and had a great day with some definite progress made, nice conditions, decent size clean waves 4-5ft, I was out on my new board which is definitly easier to turn, I caught a couple of nice left-handers by accident, I was trying to position myself for the right but it broke left, got one but I ended up goin over the back of the wave then the next one I got lovely and got a good ride along the face before it closed out..I got another few decent waves after that before my arms gave up!!.. I found the video very helpful, before i was just angling the board slightly and padlling and popping up as normal but today I found by using the tips in the video it felt like the board was on the the right road to going along the face by the time i popped up, I guess by using a bit more angle and leaning into the wave bit to avoid toppling, it all worked sweet..better conditions today helped a lot too!...great day anyway thanks a million for the help everyone, hoping I can get some rights the next day and nail it!!