Surfing Waves

hello everyone
this is my first post on this site so i hope i can get the answers i need
i am 17 and i live in New Zealand
the area i surf tends to have pretty ugly waves (dont roll much and overlap most the time)
ive been surfing for about a year now, learning on a longer board
ive recently purchased my first board a 6"0 fish, i already know i shouldnt have started on a fish, just me being stupid
anyways the problem that im having is that by the time i get up my board has sunk and the wave just rolls over me
im practicing on my stance and getting up quicker because i think that may help
im also running shitty fins that came with the board, just crappy fin plastic ones
im thinking i may need to get new ones in order to keep my speed up or something like that anyways
i would love to hear what you guys have to say as i am getting annoyed watching everyone else surfing their shortboards happily whilst im sitting there falling of or sinking,
help would be much appreciated
thanks

The board is sinking because its not moving fast enough

Think of a barefoot water skier - tiny 'skis' but moving fast and can stay on top of the water. Strap a big wakeboard on and you can slow right down and still stay up. You learnt on the big board and now trying to move to barefoot ...

With a 6ft board, you need to be moving fast. Which basically means along the face of the unbroken wave and you may also need to pump to develop speed (google that if you aren't sure about pumping - with a 6ft fish on those kind of waves, you will need to learn this skill ASAP)

If you are trying to surf white water on a 6ft fish then, unfortunately, you probably will really really struggle.

The fins probably wont make a huge difference, unless you have soft floppy fins. If you just have the basic cheap M3 or M5 shapes, you wont get huge extra speed from a more expensive set. Get them if you want (it will be an improvement), but its not the fins that will solve your problem. Its your speed.

You need to go faster than you are going.....fins aren't going to get that done, how you ride the wave will....you can ride a wave properly on a foamie and keep speed, or poorly on a log and sink...ride poorly on a shorter board and you will really sink in a hurry....shortboards are less forgiving in all kinds of ways....this is one....

Figure out how to go down the line.....then figure out how to ride with sweeping turns up and down....then figure out how to pump going down the line....each one will build on the last and will keep you up and surfing longer.....bigger waves will as well but only for a brief moment if you can't turn or angle then go down the line....

You do need to popup sooner but are you just going straight in? If so you need a bigger board to do that. Shortboards need more speed so you have to go down the line. If you work at it the skills will come eventually but if not quick enough for you then maybe go back to a bigger board and work at learning to popup and go down the line. Also maybe you are too far back on the board? Each board has a sweet spot a spot where the board has maximum glide so you get the maximum speed from a slow wave. I used to find that spot to keep going on a wave to hookup with the inside break and hopefully more wall to ride.

Khysa wrote:im also running shitty fins that came with the board, just crappy fin plastic ones
im thinking i may need to get new ones in order to keep my speed up

It's not the fins that's making you slow...

where abouts in NZ do you surf?

benjl wrote:where abouts in NZ do you surf?

i live in CHCH and surf out at sumner or taylors mistake

Khysa wrote:recently purchased my first board a 6"0 fish, i already know i shouldnt have started on a fish, just me being stupid

We all make mistakes. Nothing stupid about that. We learn by making mistakes. What's stupid or foolish, is continuing to work with the mistake.

How was your riding on the open face with your longer board ? How was your paddle and pop up on the longer board ?

you should read this post in surfing lessons for all - "paddle, pop up -- and wave goes by without me?" The OP had the same problems as you, and in the end he found what he needed.

I finally was able to veiw the video in the wave passed me by video and it seems to me that Khysa is saying something different. Khysa is popping up in front of the wave but sinking I think. In the video for the wave passed me by the video shows the popup was too soon and the surfer was putting too much pressure on the back foot. I have a 6'2" board and initially the first wave or two that I caught I was too slow to popup and by the time I did the wave had broken and I was in the flats infront of the wave where I had no power and sank. I guess I imagine that is what Khysa is describing. is it???

yea that is excactly what is happening to me! so you are saying if i pop up abit later and less weight on my back foot i should be alright? my longboarding pop ups were fine and i was able to catch every wave i paddled into and my riding across the face of the wave was good to, thanks for all the help everyone

Sounds like you need work on timing, speed of pop up (actual technique). Angling would give you more time to popup before you're slingshotted down the face but as much as anything you just need a few hundred reps in the water making little adjustments to positioning, paddle timing, degree of angling, position on the board, body weighting on popup, the feel for when you should pop up....that feel will only be confirmed by dozens of failed attempts and hundreds of increasingly successful attempts. Good luck and enjoy the journey!

Khysa wrote:yea that is excactly what is happening to me! so you are saying if i pop up abit later and less weight on my back foot i should be alright? my longboarding pop ups were fine and i was able to catch every wave i paddled into and my riding across the face of the wave was good to, thanks for all the help everyone

No you need to popup faster and maybe with more weight on your front foot and go along the wave to stay where the power is.

To expand on that a bit more a board with more floatation and a larger planning surface allows you to stay afloat on a slow moving wave. With enough flotation like a SUP board you don't even need to be moving to stand up on it. A shorter board won't float you as well so you have to rely on the planning surface and speed to keep you afloat. If you popup in the flat area at the bottom of the wave it doesn't allow you much options. On a bigger wave you will still be going quite fast but on the waves typical of a beginner you will be barely moving. Your only option is to try to get back onto the power source of the wave which is the wall or you can try to optimize your planning surface by finding the sweet spot leaning forward or maybe even stepping forward to get the board moving with the least amount of drag. If you lean or step too far forward you will pearl or the nose will go under but just back of what it takes to do that is the sweet spot. This may or may not work since you are moving slowly on a small wave so the thing to do is to avoid this situation by popping up sooner and going sideways along the wave. If you popup before you drop down the wave then you can use the momentum from falling down the face to go sideways by making a turn at the bottom. In addition as you learn to turn at the bottom you can learn to use the weight of your body falling to get more force into the turn and more speed sideways down the wave. However at first you want to just turn before you get into the flat water at the bottom. Once you are in the flat water the speed from falling rapidly diminishes. So learn to popup faster and to turn the board before you get to the bottom. It might be easier to practice on a bigger board but at some point if you want to ride a smaller board you are going to have to learn to do it on a smaller board and it won't be easy.

Not all fishy boards are created equal. Without knowing the width and thickness its a little harder to diagnose your problems. Some fish are super wide and can float/plane through sections like a longboard by keeping your weight forward on the wide thick part of the board. Other fish can be super foiled with hard knifey rails. These boards need waves with oush and also need to be constantly worked for speed. Most boards 6' and under are going to need significant user input to even stay with the wave let alone any turns. If this is beyond your skill level then so is the board.