Surfing Waves

Well this guy seems to ignore the turn you have to make to get to the top of the wave but I guess if the wave is breaking fast just takeoff sideways then make a quick turn not all the ways to the bottom to get back up. However you do it that first turn sets it all up. http://www.mysurf.tv/categories/exclusive/360-unlocked-the-importance-of-speed-in-your-surfing My method of learning has been to learn to go fast first never mind trying to stay with the pocket just go fast then learn to turn just up and down and if you get fast enough then a harder turn off the top that slows you down a little or a cutback. After you get the fast part down then learn to slow down for tube riding and style. I am getting to that point now this time around so I will be learning to slow down and time things better. He also doesn't mention the forward hop or unweighting to get to the top or around the section in front of you. If you hop forward and up at the same time it can help to get you past a fast section in the wave and ends up with you going the fastest. You have to learn to read the wave and adjust what you do to the wave.

From what I can see, the reason why he doesn't have speed is because his back hand is dead and cocked forward by his chest. The back hand is the power, the front hand is the steering. Martin Potter has a very aggressive back hand pump/swing. But look at every good surfer and how they use their back hand to spread out on the bottom and then cross body at the top. ( unless you Donavan Frankenreiter and both arms are down by your hips - soul arching ).

Just wrote an article about it , how to surf faster , may be it helps ? good luck !

http://surfedukators.com/learn-to-surf-faster/

OscarNL that is a great instructional video for begginers at the bottom of that page. Awesome about taking off and the common mistakes people make. I have never heard or seen anything so well explained about surfing before. I think lots of people here will benefit from it. The step by step breakdown of what goes into speed is pretty great too. Thanks for the post.

https://surfing-waves.com/surfing-speed.htm
Our article, put together with contributions from the forum.

In my opinion for maximum speed you need to work the board back down the face during your speed pumps and add forward hops into the turns to move a few more feet ahead so lean down the line during all turns. I used to be able to generate so much speed long ago. Getting some of that back these days too. I guess for me mostly where I do speed turns you can't stay in the top one third of the wave because it's too steep. I guess for beginners all of that is great advice.

I would also say that when you hit the top of the wave doing a speed turn you shift your weight from your back foot to your front foot to get the board back down the face as quickly as possible. Gaining speed is about being speedy and the less time you spend turning the faster you will go so you want to jump to the top of the wave and push the board back down the wave quickly. It's gravity and falling down the face that speeds the board up the most but also a bit from turning and using the inward motion of the wave to generate down the line speed. I guess the waves are shaped different where they are reccomending using the top third of the wave since that would be difficult on the waves I ride mostly but you want to turn back up as soon as possible and not go out into the flats like a full bottom turn. Bottom turns gain speed using both gravity and altering the force from the wave moving toward the beach and changing it to another direction but they aren't quick.

Thanks @oldmansurfer ..Yes these surfsimply videos are all very well explained ...i sometimes watch some of them again to get the basics right again

Generating speed in surfing is making sure you'll be pulling the highest airs, the most powerful carves and snaps. Trimming is a technique, and mastering the art of speed will allow you to explore a wave to the fullest. Speed lines are imaginary routes drawn on the face of the wave. They're always changing as the roller peels across the line-up, and surfers have to adapt its constant mutation.

I forgot to mention the position on the wave. On a steep wave there is what I call a power pocket where the maximum forward momentum can be had. This is high on the wave just below the lip. It may be difficult for a surfer to get there on smaller waves but perhaps this is one functional reason I see for nose riding because on a small wave it puts the board right in that pocket. Other than that I am sure if you tube ride 6 foot plus waves a lot then you probably experienced it where you are high on the wave in a tube and the tip of your board is pointed down the wave at an angle but your board is moving sideways really fast. I first experienced this paipo boarding and made incredible tube rides by being really high up in really huge tubes. The first time I experienced it surfing I was so excited I talked to other surfers about it and they knew exactly what I was talking about. If you watch pro surfing you always hear the commentators talk about the surfers getting really high on certain tubular waves to make it out. That is the power pocket which speeds you up to maximum speed . The closer you can get to it the faster you will go. So generally if you hold position on a wave without turning then the higher you are the faster you will go (if there is a steep wall). You can't do much turns in a tube due to the limited space so the best you can do while in the tube is small speed turns although I did figure out how to do a big backside speed turn in a tube. So most of your speed in a tube comes from positioning on the wave and perhaps what you have generated prior to getting tubed.