Surfing Waves

Hey Guys,

Finally bitten the bullet and booked in for an hour and half private lesson at 7am tomorrow at Currumbin, Up till now for the past 7 months I'm 100% self taught, but I thought it was about time to accelerate my learning and start ripping faster.

I can pop up (on my shorties) and ride waves straight in with *little* explosive bottom turns but they dont really get me anywhere, this lesson is more to build confidence in my own abilities and learn how to tackle my fears in steeper / bigger waves and get my angled take offs down so I can start pulling maneuvers

I paddled out at Broadbeach, QLD today, and while not exactly scared, I just really struggled getting into green face's, in fact I didn't catch anything and just got sent through the wash machine from bad wave selection and positioning

Wish me luck, Im taking my GoPro to get the whole lesson to refer back to!

How did you go? I have found the occassional lesson invaluable - often you only get one or 2 key tips but they make a big difference

Just got back mate, It went pretty well if im honest.

He told me i need to work on my paddle technique, I need to enter more vertical and just direct my paddles a little better as im losing some of the power in my stroke.

One other thing he said was I need to kick my legs more when paddling for waves, started doing so and it was alot easier I must say. He said for only 7 months surfing im doing really really well considering I taught myself and said I got the skills to get pop up / drop in.

EDIT: Why do you kick your legs when paddling for waves? I thought in the freestyle stroke it was just to get your more vertical and give you some lift at the back?

He taught me a bit about wave selection and telling where its going to break as well, so thats going to help me get in at an angle!

Defiantly boosted my confidence in bigger surf as they were barreling at currumbin, glad i bit the bullet and done it

this study (I cant link to the full paper)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20473821

found that kicking while paddling gives the surfer a 9.2% increase in paddling speed over paddling with arms alone.

However, this was over 25m/10seconds of paddling; so for a wave perhaps the effect is less or perhaps its more, as the kicking might overcome the initial inertia better than just paddling.

Its one of those things that some people do and some dont and both camps think they are right. If it works for you, go for it.

Paddling technique is worth the effort, if only to prevent you being one of those rotator cuff impaired old guys.

Thanks for the papper DTC, just doing a proposal for a possibly pretty big job and I'll have a read through it

I remember that he said to me now, that kicking the legs especially in green waves help to break through the lip easier?

I dont know the answer to that - my shortest board is over 7ft so I've never been one for kicking. I suppose I do the longboarder leg waggle at times (bent knees but leg kicking). However, I think thats for balance - kicking the opposite leg from the one paddling.

I guess in theory the kicking would break the lip. But, as I said, whatever works best for you, just do it.

I kick my legs to give me that extra bit of energy to push me into waves. However, in all honesty, i dont think kicking gives you much more paddle power. I think its more of a habit than anything.

One of my buddies, is the best surfer ive ever seen, he is insane. He never kicks his legs. I asked him why he doesnt kick, and in a typical surfer response he said "i dunno it just doesnt feel natural to me".

He can do every turn, gets shacked on a frequent basis, and can punt airs all without kicking his feet on the takeoff. So kicking its not all that important.

I watched a video on youtube where they were dissecting a pro's drop in manuever, and they seemed to think the kicking was not for speed, but that it did help change the boards positioning by lifting up the tail a bit and thus leveraging down the nose a little (because your feet are pushing water downwards as well as backwards), making it easier to enter a big green wave. It made sense when I thought about it. I'd share the clip but couldnt' find it after searching again.