Surfing Waves

Hey guys,

Finally got around to getting a GoPro to get some footage of my surfing so that I could see what some of my weaknesses were. Took it out for a spin at Linda Mar in Northern California on my 6'6 Firewire Addvance and got footage of 4 rides where I was able to take off. Just want some honest feedback on what I'm doing wrong / how to improve (i.e. stance, shoulder/hip/weight shifting, pop up).



In this wave I attempted a small bottom turn on what seems like maybe too weak a wave and then the wave started closing out and I caught a rail trying to top turn (if you could even call it that) the other way.







These next 3 it just seems I wasn't going fast enough to make the close out section. I've been angling my turns, but struggling to stay high on the wave at takeoff like so many better surfers can do..

Thanks guys!

It all looks pretty good. My only comments are

- are you looking straight ahead just before popping up (it's hard to tell). Think about looking down the line (where you want to go). On smaller waves this gives you a slightly earlier turn and you can stay higher (but you lose out on the fun big bottom turn!)

- you may need to learn to do a little pump just after popping up to get speed to get ahead of the section. So bottom turn to top of wave then small top turn down and back up (sort of an 'S'). Bit of knee bend and extension rather than full turn. But pumping is a skill to learn rather than a mistake to correct

Paddle and pop up look nice

enjoy wrote:I've been angling my turns, but struggling to stay high on the wave at takeoff like so many better surfers can do..

Close but no cigar

If anything It looks like you're trying too hard and turning the board up the wave to get high, but it's slowing you right down so that the wave passes underneath you or the closing out section catches you. You're not turning back into the direction of the wave and using the force of the face.

If you look at those better surfers, they're high up on the wave, but still pointing down it (or at the very least are weighted toward the front). Use the gravity of the wave, don't fight it!

dtc wrote:It all looks pretty good. My only comments are

- are you looking straight ahead just before popping up (it's hard to tell). Think about looking down the line (where you want to go). On smaller waves this gives you a slightly earlier turn and you can stay higher (but you lose out on the fun big bottom turn!)

- you may need to learn to do a little pump just after popping up to get speed to get ahead of the section. So bottom turn to top of wave then small top turn down and back up (sort of an 'S'). Bit of knee bend and extension rather than full turn. But pumping is a skill to learn rather than a mistake to correct

Paddle and pop up look nice

Thanks man.

Now that you mention it I think I am looking straight at the moment of pop up and then immediately turning to face a direction. I'll try looking while popping up next time.

I was trying to do what you were saying in the first videos but I guess the skill isn't there. I ended up making more exaggerated movements that made me lost speed on the bottom turn and catch a rail trying to come back down. hahaha just gotta keep practicing I guess

Does my stance look open enough?

drowningbitbybit wrote:

enjoy wrote:I've been angling my turns, but struggling to stay high on the wave at takeoff like so many better surfers can do..

Close but no cigar

If anything It looks like you're trying too hard and turning the board up the wave to get high, but it's slowing you right down so that the wave passes underneath you or the closing out section catches you. You're not turning back into the direction of the wave and using the force of the face.

If you look at those better surfers, they're high up on the wave, but still pointing down it (or at the very least are weighted toward the front). Use the gravity of the wave, don't fight it!

Yeah that's exactly right as I rewatch the first video. What you're saying is that maybe on a smaller wave like the one I was on I should be doing a more gradual bottom turn so that I can follow the flow of the wave facing slightly down and towards the beach (trimming?)

In terms of the last 3 videos, any tips on how to beat the close out? Is it just better positioning relative towards the peak and pumping? I feel like a lot of waves I take off on end up being similar to this one making it hard for me to practice other basic techniques.

Thanks!

You need to not be soo tied to "Theories". Don't feel you need to ride higher. The wave is alive and ever changing. You need to also. You wanting to stay high early, doesn't allow a bottom turn which launches you out onto the face.

You are "Reaching" with your back hand and trying to brace against/off the waves face. You are "holding a wall/railing". That makes you stiff.
On the last video, it almost seemed you tried to paddle the wave. That is a very bad beginner habit, thinking it will help speed you up. but actually it breaks the body line and cuts your leg drive.

Make sure that your leash mold/joint is facing outwards by your ankle bone. In the last video it was facing inwards. Happens, not a biggie.

A beach break closeout is what it is. Are others are making it to the open face ? I would use the closeout to re-direct your energy to do a top-turn or mini floater re-entry.

You need to work on your bottom turn before you attempt to "pump".

It's all about timing. When the wave is going to break on you then you turn down straight toward the beach and beat the wave to the bottom then crank a bottom turn and get sideways speed from that. So what to do depends on what the wave is doing. If it is not going to break immediately then you can do a little pump and get a little down the line speed. Of course it helps to be high on the wave to start with. When I see the wave may be breaking on me soon I may do a little turn just to get a little higher before I turn back down the wave so I get maximum speed from dropping down the face

Perhaps you need to be more aggressively surfing. On the first wave it looks like you could have done an off the lip or floater you had a steep wave got to the bottom but needed to get back up the face. If you did it would have resulted in either an off the lip or a floater maneuver. On the second wave it looks like you outraced it and probably should have gone more down the face then turned and instead you did a midface turn and caught a rail. The third wave I am not sure but it looks like you should have paddled a little more at an angle. It looks like you aren't even looking at the wave just looking at the shore or in front of you. if you could have seen the way the wave was forming perhaps you could have angled a little more. Or you perhaps you also need to work at getting speed from a bottom turn then you could have just dropped down and jammed a turn around the breaking section.

Sometimes the only way to make a wave is to be very quick in your approach ......if you hesitate the wave will pass you by so you need to go from one turn immediately into another turn into another turn into another turn. It takes some practice. I find myself hesitating once in a while and missing an opportunity to do an aggressive maneuver which would have allowed me to make the wave.

I think in the above dialog I missed the actual first wave you posted which you got off balance and fell. Not sure what that actual first wave is about but it looks like you were trying to get high but lost your balance. I think the going from one turn directly into another turn is what you needed there.

Seems to me that you are trying to turn to hard up the wave. It's hard to tell but it looks like this wave is too small to turn that hard up the face cause it's not big enough and the wave does not have the power to "slap" you back down. What's happening is the wave just passes you by. Can you take off left and just ride the open face without turning for a few seconds before the wave closes out? I have driven to Linda Mar a few times when I first moved to NORCAL from Hawaii and from what I could tell the few times I saw it was basically what you have here. Super short and mostly close outs. I never bothered paddling out cause I never did see anyone riding the face, just a lot of 1 turn and its over type of thing. If those are the conditions not much you can do. When the wave is not big enough to push back on a hard turn to the top I would suggest staying high on the take off, highline it, but not much else you can do with those conditions. What are other surfer doing? Anyone catching waves and performing more than 2 turns?

after another look at the wave again, I have another question. Is there anyway possible you can race past the first section of white water you are hitting and get to a more open face? Sometimes the first section of a wave might dump on you and if you race out in front you might make to another section more open face friendly. Have you surfed Ocean Beach yet? Still a beach break from my experience you have a much longer wall to work with there vs Linda Mar. Left's are hard to find in our neck of the woods so you may have to drive a little to find but you could always drive south to Davenport, which is a left and has nice long walls. If you live in San Fran give Fort Point a shot, kinda fun on the right day and its a left. I guess I am saying there are better waves close to you and I would go there. You are paddling fine, popping up, just need some face to work with. Happy hunting.

Makes sense, thanks for the feedback waikiki. Looking at my videos again, you're right that I am sort of trying to force a turn. Some are making it to the open face, but I think the wave quality at Linda Mar is just poor. This sessions have been before work so I've been working with the closest beach that is rideable.

I don't think I was meaning to paddle the wave it, was probably just trying to balance and flailed a little. In terms of stiffness, any suggestions on how to improve? Just more practice I assume. I've been using my carver skateboard a few times a week to try to instill some fluidity into muscle memory, which has been helpful

Thanks again

waikikikichan wrote:You need to not be soo tied to "Theories". Don't feel you need to ride higher. The wave is alive and ever changing. You need to also. You wanting to stay high early, doesn't allow a bottom turn which launches you out onto the face.

You are "Reaching" with your back hand and trying to brace against/off the waves face. You are "holding a wall/railing". That makes you stiff.
On the last video, it almost seemed you tried to paddle the wave. That is a very bad beginner habit, thinking it will help speed you up. but actually it breaks the body line and cuts your leg drive.

Make sure that your leash mold/joint is facing outwards by your ankle bone. In the last video it was facing inwards. Happens, not a biggie.

A beach break closeout is what it is. Are others are making it to the open face ? I would use the closeout to re-direct your energy to do a top-turn or mini floater re-entry.

You need to work on your bottom turn before you attempt to "pump".

Thanks for the critique. I just gotta keep putting in the hours so that I can surf quicker / more aggressively. And again, thanks for pointing out that I was probably trying to force a midface turn and that I should probably look down the line earlier.

oldmansurfer wrote:Perhaps you need to be more aggressively surfing. On the first wave it looks like you could have done an off the lip or floater you had a steep wave got to the bottom but needed to get back up the face. If you did it would have resulted in either an off the lip or a floater maneuver. On the second wave it looks like you outraced it and probably should have gone more down the face then turned and instead you did a midface turn and caught a rail. The third wave I am not sure but it looks like you should have paddled a little more at an angle. It looks like you aren't even looking at the wave just looking at the shore or in front of you. if you could have seen the way the wave was forming perhaps you could have angled a little more. Or you perhaps you also need to work at getting speed from a bottom turn then you could have just dropped down and jammed a turn around the breaking section.

Sometimes the only way to make a wave is to be very quick in your approach ......if you hesitate the wave will pass you by so you need to go from one turn immediately into another turn into another turn into another turn. It takes some practice. I find myself hesitating once in a while and missing an opportunity to do an aggressive maneuver which would have allowed me to make the wave.

Yeah you and the others have all pointed that out correctly. I took another video today of a wave I caught and I kind of just went down the line without turning sharply to beat the close out section and afterwards the open face just kind of died out.



Every time it goes out there are only 1 or 2 guys doing 2+ turns, but it's very rare as the right wave hardly shows and generally closer to 1 or 2 max.

Must be rough on the surfing moving from Hawaii to Norcal.. hahaha

Surf Hound wrote:Seems to me that you are trying to turn to hard up the wave. It's hard to tell but it looks like this wave is too small to turn that hard up the face cause it's not big enough and the wave does not have the power to "slap" you back down. What's happening is the wave just passes you by. Can you take off left and just ride the open face without turning for a few seconds before the wave closes out? I have driven to Linda Mar a few times when I first moved to NORCAL from Hawaii and from what I could tell the few times I saw it was basically what you have here. Super short and mostly close outs. I never bothered paddling out cause I never did see anyone riding the face, just a lot of 1 turn and its over type of thing. If those are the conditions not much you can do. When the wave is not big enough to push back on a hard turn to the top I would suggest staying high on the take off, highline it, but not much else you can do with those conditions. What are other surfer doing? Anyone catching waves and performing more than 2 turns?

I do regularly go to Ocean Beach as well and agree it is generally better than Linda Mar when conditions are clean; loved it in the fall but didn't have a GoPro then. Since it's winter right now the size and power is a little unmanageable for me about half the time, I try to only go out when it's 8 ft and under. It looked great today with some A-frames and nice peeling waves but was 10-12 ft+. You know how brutal the paddle is and not being able to duckdive there is a real pain in the ass..

I'll have to give Davenport a try, never even heard of it until you mentioned it. Are the spots around it similar (Waddell/Scott Creek, 4 mile)? I've only been to Pleasure Point, Cowell's and Manresa in the SC area and have found PP the only one of the three worth the drive, too bad it's pretty much all rights. Been meaning to go out to Fort Point, just seems like a harder place to figure out given the rips and sketchy main takeoff.

Have you ever surfed Rockaway (the point break next to LInda Mar)? Been meaning to give it a shot as well. I haven't really surfed further north in Marin (Cronkhite, Drakes Bay) besides at Stinson (was alright) but have been told it's often not worth the drive either.

Thanks for the feedback and glad to see another Norcal surfer!

Surf Hound wrote:after another look at the wave again, I have another question. Is there anyway possible you can race past the first section of white water you are hitting and get to a more open face? Sometimes the first section of a wave might dump on you and if you race out in front you might make to another section more open face friendly. Have you surfed Ocean Beach yet? Still a beach break from my experience you have a much longer wall to work with there vs Linda Mar. Left's are hard to find in our neck of the woods so you may have to drive a little to find but you could always drive south to Davenport, which is a left and has nice long walls. If you live in San Fran give Fort Point a shot, kinda fun on the right day and its a left. I guess I am saying there are better waves close to you and I would go there. You are paddling fine, popping up, just need some face to work with. Happy hunting.

I hope you are having fun, hard to tell from your face but in reality if you looked at me most of the time I would be concentrating and not smiling unless I pulled off some great maneuver. But if you look at me after I cool down I am all smiles. It's great of you to share your videos with us. I still can't tell much from a board mount video , too bad you can't get someone else to video you. That would give us more info.

oldmansurfer wrote:I hope you are having fun, hard to tell from your face but in reality if you looked at me most of the time I would be concentrating and not smiling unless I pulled off some great maneuver. But if you look at me after I cool down I am all smiles. It's great of you to share your videos with us. I still can't tell much from a board mount video , too bad you can't get someone else to video you. That would give us more info.

Ha definitely having fun. I probably just looked too focused as I'm still a terrible surfer hahaha. Yeah I would love to get friends to video but most of my sessions are alone before work in the mornings. Only get out with friends on weekends and usually we are all in the water haha