Surfing Waves

Hi everybody,

So I've been surfing for the past week and I've been having trouble pivoting my board when a wave comes. I've started to get sitting on the board down, but pivoting has been terrible. I wanted to see what you guys suggest.

By the way, I've been using a funboard (8 feet). I've tried to raise the nose of my board up and yank it but I always end up falling. I searched the forums here and someone said to just rotate your arms and legs on one side. What do you guys do?

How do you fail? Your wight should be on the back of the board, and the nose should be high in the air, the more verticle you can get it, the quicker you can turn it around.

you need to find the right spot on the board, where the nose will come out of the water but you wont be sliding backwards off the board... so you have a comfortable sitting position...
when the wave comes, just lean backwards a bit so the nose will point towards the sky in the most steep angle without sliding off.. and thats where you pivot it around...
the idea is to get most of the board out of the water to reduce the drag.. so the more of the board you get out of the water, the easier it will be to pivot...

Lean back, raise front of board out of the water and twist the hips. I've never done the rotating legs thing and the hip twist works just fine.

Thanks for all the replies. Wish I had read them before I went out this morning.

So I see what you guys are saying. Basically I should be leaning back to get the nose out of the air. What I've been doing is sliding back to get the nose up and I end up either falling backwards or falling to the side. I guess I should start off sitting on the board with the nose above the water and then when I lean back the nose will be up vertically. After that I do a hip rotation to get my board facing the shore.

There is an even easier way, sit on your board legs over the rails and be far enough back that the nose is out of the water but it doesn't have to be extreme and rotate the lower halve of your legs around and around in the water this will rotate you and the board, it's a little slower but it get you around take some time doing donuts in the water , extreme leaning whilst sitting = falling off.
paddling keep your feet together on the board and near the centre line, using your feet as counter balance doesn't work.

Adjust yournose position while you are lying on the board not sitting, get your nose only slightly out of the water. once you figure out the best point to get your paddling going make a scratch in the wax so you can consistently find that point. the most common beginners mistake is to be scared of pearling and missing the wave by being too far back.
BTW positioning of the board's nose is different for a green wave take off, from a white water straight to the beach take off.

A good learning video for that is this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVyatMUYwZw

Hey guys,

I went on dawn patrol today and I actually got a couple turns. It took forever because I kept trying to keep my balance. After an hour of sliding back on the board, I was able to maintain my balance when holding the nose up. Also, I decided to try just having the nose up and using one of my arms to rotate. I found this WAY faster than just using my legs to rotate.

I'm proud to say I was able to rotate successfully for 2 waves out of probably 30. Haha. But I think I'm going to continue working on it tomorrow and get down the turn. I thought I would never successfully turn in time to catch a wave. Thank you everybody for all of your suggestions!

Just to be sure - you have waxed the board? When you rock back and tilt your pelvis, the inside of the legs should be gripping the board.