Surfing Waves

I've started catching normal green waves. At first I would just ride on my stomach to the beach. Today I stood up and rode for the first time.

It felt so different that I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. Before when trying I would always nose dive. Then I paddled more to "catch the wave instead of it catching you."

It feels like I'm falling; I'm near the top of the wave with it starting to break around me and I'm just sorta dropping and being pushed at the same time. As I near shore (I've only ridden straight so far, not back-/frontside) I slow down a little and then get a second push from the whitewater. I guess the original wave pushes me out and then slows as it gets to shallow water but turns fast again in the form of whitewater?

Just wondering if this sounds about right. I didn't ask other surfers out there for feedback (yet).

What you are doing is an important step in learning to ride unbroken waves, so in that sense it is "right." However, to effectively surf you need to go sideways so you can work the area between critical part of the wave (where it is breaking) and the shoulder - in other words, stay ahead of (or just at the edge of) the white water.

The reason you are slowing down and then being caught by the whitewater is that you are dropping straight out of the powerful part of the wave where water is moving the fastest (higher up, near the lip) and down into the flat of the wave where water is not moving very fast and there is no real power. Then you get an extra push when the white water catches you. You also are likely catching the wave a little too late if it is breaking into white water around you before you are up and standing.

As soon as you can catch green waves a decent percentage of the time, you will want to work on angling your takeoffs, going sideways on the wave and staying in the top part of the wave. Once you have that down consistently, you will want to work on cutbacks to stay in the powerful part of the wave. Watch the Surf Simply video on angling takeoffs if you have not done so already.

Of course, waves and conditions are different every day and this is not an immediate step. As you progress, you will find that some days you are angling sideways with ease and other days it will seem that the wave always closes out, you can't ever get ahead of the white water, or you just screw up and drop down to the flats and get bogged down. In addition to learning the physical skills necessary to surf, wave judgment and timing is an extremely important factor in properly catching and riding waves - it takes a long time to get that wired.

In short, sounds like you are taking the right steps, just keep working at it. Good luck.

yeah the takeoff is like falling down the wave and after a while it may become the thing you love the most about surfing a wave as it is for me. I have missed out on a part of surfing that is apparently common to a lot of surfers. That is riding whitewater. I just plain never did that. Actually I did that when I learned to bodysurf but not since then. If I caught whitewater then once I did I turned and got out onto the unbroken wave face or if I couldn't I cut out. There is so much that goes into surfing. But I think the above post describes it well, you are losing the force of gravity by surfing into the flat water in front of the wave then the whitewater comes along and pushes your board again. You can try to turn while you are laying down. I have never done this but heard it recommended for others. You just lean on the side you want to go and if you can get onto the unbroken wave then stand and ride it. If nothing else it gives you the feel of turning the board before you stand and do it. The idea is to start on an unbroken wave and try to stay on the unbroken face on the leading edge of the breaking wave. If you turn and go along the wave then you only run into a loss of power when you get too far in front of the break or turn into the flat part at the bottom and stay there.