Surfing Waves

so ive been longboarding for a good 7 weeks now
i can catch basically any wave i paddle forut
with what small swells we have here at south shore oahu hahaha

but i want to progress even further. i can catch the wave at the peak and ride down it
but i always just go straight down and no bottom turn until after the wave breaks.
by the the time the wave breaks into white water im all the way down the curve of the wave
and then the white water catches up to me and i cant do anything else ]=
are there any tips to riding more along the wave than down it?
i ride a 9 0 longboard and plan on getting a 6 4 short board soon
any help would be appreciated thank you!

A few things will help you get going down the wave.

Take off at a bit of an angle into the wave. This is going to be pretty hard at first. If you take off at too much of an angle you'll either miss the wave or get rolled. Keep working at it, you'll get the feel of how much is right for different waves.

Turn before you pop up. Catch the wave, then turn the board onto the wave riding your belly. When you're lined up on the wave you can pop up and be riding. Eventually you want to get to the point where make this turn as you're taking off, popping up with your weight on one side of the board to make the turn.

Eventually you want to just take off at a bit of an angle, pop up and bottom turn (on most waves). But until you can do that, belly riding onto the green wave will let you have a lot more fun and ride better waves.

Also, I can almost guarantee that that 6'4" is going to be too short for you. If you aren't riding green waves on a longboard you really shouldn't be getting something that's three feet shorter.

Good luck, go get you some waves.

Edit 10/07/19 0624UTC: Grammar.

hahah thank you for your advice! [=

but yeah i can ride around 3 foot hawaiian waves
although i just cant seem to get that riding along the wave part \=
but i will definitely try these tips out [=

thank youu!!