Surfing Waves

I think I've improved a lot since I last posted the videos but when I compare myself to others, I still surfed in a weird stance. Still jumping off and causing a hazard to everyone. But in my defence there were less than a handful of surfers that day and half of them are my friends.

I kept telling myself to put my feet down, stop flailing my arms, stop looking behind me or at the board. Got rid of the web gloves, it was cold!

I grabbed the rails thinking that the lip is going to come crashing down on me. I leaned into the wave too much and I lost the speed.


Couldn't get past the next bit so I tried moving back and either I jumped or lost my balance.


My hand placement isn't so weird and when it is frontside and I think I surf much better.


Look like an idiot not doing anything


Practicing for barrel.... lol


Not sure why my rail cut into the water and I fell off there


Small fun waves


Frontside surfing is always better!


Always fall off when I lean during backside surf


10C water went into wetsuit...


Wave got smaller and smaller


Finally made it

It's always nice to see your own progress
Is that a point break? It opens some good lefts and the swell hits well defined (or maybe it was just a good day). Looks like a good break for learning.

About the rail cutting into the water, I think you lost some speed and tried to turn with your rail instead of with your fins. Maybe if you walked back to the tail you would be able to turn there. Not sure though, specially since I never surfed a longboard. Still wanna try, it does look very fun!

This is probably the best day of the year, 95% of the time is flat. Forecast was 1-2 feet and 7 seconds swell. But it felt bigger, more like 3-4 feet. It is a beach break but there is 2-3 spots where it breaks consistently.

You're right, I kept looping the video and found out that I keep trying to turn with the rail. When I do backside surfing, my position is too forward on the board so I struggle to turn. I need to walk back a bit more or adjust my popup position.

It's really great that you have someone to videotape you surfing. I would say it looks like you are ready for some more challenging waves (but not at a crowded break)

I bought my other half a super expensive long lens, more than all my boards added together. I think she finally found out the reason why I bought the lens

The previous 2 weeks I surfed in a super crowded break. Easily with the other 20-30 surfers. It forces me to try harder and not to jump off the board. Plus I really need to concentrate and be aware of the other surfers around me. Admittedly I was terrible at going around them. I've got videos of me being very wobbly going around them. But I still made it without hitting anyone.

I'm thinking there might be a few reason why I jump off. Mainly cos I'm lazy, it uses more energy to try and stop the board then to jump off. 1/2 the time I attempt to do some manouever and fall off so I would jump away from the board to avoid getting hit by it. Also mainly I know no one is next to me and I won't be hurting anyone. But 2 of my board dings came from me jumping off the board and then it hitting the rocks... I still haven't learnt my lesson.

Nice waves man! Your pop up looks sweet!

You can not just LEAN. You have to also pivot from the tail/fins. You tend to take a step up on your back side to move your weight forward to gain speed. But when you turn, you need to move back over the fins. On your front side you knees and feet are more loose, so you adjust better the angle of the wave compared to your backside riding. Practice trying to kick out backside. ( that will also help your frontside cutbacks )

Well done on putting up some videos - can be a depressing experience for the ego!

One thing I noticed is that your front foot is often really off centre - back side and front side, its much closer to the rail that is nearest the wave. I'm actually not sure what the consequence of that is - I suspect it will make doing turns away from the wave much harder, because your weight is leaning into the wave, but it might help cruising along the wave. I think that is what happened in the first video, your foot landed close to the rail and automatically turned the board straight away, so you went up and over the back. And that one where its called 'wave got smaller', when the white water hit you, because your foot was close to the rail it just knocked the board out from under you. Maybe waikikichan or jaffa have some thoughts? Maybe it makes no difference.

Pop up looks good - it seemed to me you were too far back on the board when laying down but you caught the waves and popped up fine so I was wrong on that!

I know this was just a selection of rides, some of them you were standing too tall and then trying to turn - if you are cruising along the wave then standing tall is ok, but if you want to turn then you need (as waikikichan says) looser legs, bit more bent, weighting rather than just leaning.

The one called "Frontside surfing is always better" looked really good, the wave just died out.

You are a little hampered by the waves, they are pretty small/slow/weak, you aren't going to get a huge amount of speed. Obviously you can only surf what is there!

dtc wrote:One thing I noticed is that your front foot is often really off centre - back side and front side, its much closer to the rail that is nearest the wave. I'm actually not sure what the consequence of that is - I suspect it will make doing turns away from the wave much harder, because your weight is leaning into the wave

That "rail loading" technique is a great tool for advance surfers. But you're right, you can't be glue foot and keep it on that rail. The more major problem I see is that his front foot toes are turned in to the rail. It is at 3 o'clock when it should be at between 1 and 2 o'clock. 3 o'clock puts too much pressure on the front. At 1-2 o'clock it "gives" power to the back foot.

Hey Banz

Nice videos and good on you to put them up for some critique! At least you're catching a lot more waves here than you were in your last surf holiday!

Here's my 2c.. It doesnt ever look like your head rotates past about your shoulders when you look over to start a turn so you trunk never rotates properly to allow a full turn. I feel as though once you properly and fully twist your hips, torso and head round over your shoulder, then the board will follow and you will start doing proper turns up and down the wave face.
Because of this it looks like you are more passively at mercy of the wave and its pushing force. You seem to get a little ahead of it after your first turn / trim, run out of wave power because you're not able to turn back to the pocket of the wave and then have to wait for it to come push you forward again.

On that one where the nose / rail kind of dug in- it looked like a combination of not enough speed + standing too far forward on the board so the front rail caught under the water and then just dug in and went under the water.

My main bit of advise would be to fully look over your shoulder when start to turn and the rest fo the body and board usually follows automatically!
Hope that helps

ps i'm super jeolous you got these videos.. i've been nagging my other half for months to come and just get SOME footage of me to work from but it's like drawing blood from a stone

dtc wrote:One thing I noticed is that your front foot is often really off centre - back side and front side, its much closer to the rail that is nearest the wave. I'm actually not sure what the consequence of that is - I suspect it will make doing turns away from the wave much harder, because your weight is leaning into the wave, but it might help cruising along the wave.

I was looking at pictures of pro surfers taking steep drops and noticed their feet are slightly off center toward the wave too. I am not sure what difference that makes too but I notice I do that sometimes also. On a steep wave it helps to keep the rail in the wave but the downside is??? not sure probably something. I guess the pro surfers move their feet back to center at some point but as I was just looking at photos of them taking the drop I couldn't tell.

Honestly, this type of small, slow and mellow wave is perfect for me. I don't think psychologically I can handle anything bigger at the moment. Anything bigger, I think would put fear into me and I won't perform as well.

My feet is always glued to the board. Funny enough when I surf a 7"6 board, I seem to turn better. Because after popping up, my back foot is on the tail/fin. Which gives me sharper turns.

About the front foot being off centre. This is a technique(bad habit) that I started developing when I learn to surf along the wave. If I don't have it off centre, then the board doesn't turn immediately because I don't have the skills to turn it. I have my front foot closer to the rail allows me to lean into the wave. In the past I take off and have my foot dead centre, then step closer to the rail to lean. Now I just popup with my feet closer to the rail. I guess I have been practicing this bad habit for far too long. Will be hard to adjust.

Once again, thank you all for the tips and advices! I'm so grateful that I signed up on this forum and everyone is so helpful and nice.

I need to write a checklist for my next weekend in SW UK. Swell is going to be good.
1. Keep feet at 1-2 o'clock position.
2. Put back foot closer to tail/fin. (loose knee and feet)
3. Try and centre my front foot
4. Rotate my body, shoulder and head more. Which I really struggle, I think it is to do with my front feet being at 3 o clock to the board. I'm testing this in my room at the moment. With 3 oclock foot, I loses my balance when I rotate my head past my shoulder. With 1 oclock feet, I'm able to turn my body and head past my shoulder. Amazing what a big difference it makes.

Problem is that I'm going to have so much fun in my next trip and all my checklist goes out the window.

I'll wait for uncle jaffa tips to add more to my checklist

benjl wrote:ps i'm super jeolous you got these videos.. i've been nagging my other half for months to come and just get SOME footage of me to work from but it's like drawing blood from a stone

haha, I'm glad my other half likes photography. But I think she is now hating it. It isn't fun sitting there for hours waiting for me to catch a wave. Buy your other half a good SLR with long lens and hope she enjoys photography.

If you ever come to surf in UK, Portugal, Taiwan or San diego. Drop me a msg. I'll make sure I come surf with you and take some footage!

One slight variation - back foot over the fins when you want to turn, not all the time. Indeed, you can probably walk back and forth 1 to 2 feet during a ride depending on what you want to do

Oddly, when you get a slightly bigger/more powerful wave, this stuff is actually easier. The speed really helps. To a point of course.

Well done again on your willingness to learn. It's not easy to put yourself out there

To clarify: Front foot at 1 o'clock ( or between 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock, but NOT 12 o'clock or 3 o'clock ). Back foot around the 3 o'clock mark.





Rail Loading is fine. But once you turn in or out, you must move the foot to the center or other rail. If you're a glue foot, it might be better to stay in the center. Imagine a motorcyclist/ Moto GP rider that hangs off his bike to the left side all the time, he wouldn't be able to go right when he needs to.

Great doll!

Was reading your blog again, it's very useful and well written. Even an entry on feet positioning

http://alohaki.jugem.jp/?eid=459

That is quite a useful little blog with the foot stance etc. I thought the advice at the bottom of the page regarding whether I 'Wana date a hot Phillippine Women Online' was probably the best though