Surfing Waves

Hi
I have been surfing for a few years on a shortboard in Cornwall, UK and now want to work on my stance as I do stand quite upright. Due to me standing upright every time I pop up it has become second nature and feels natural, and crouching feels very weird. I was wondering, what would be the best way to have a lower stance? Would taking a easy to ride board out such as a soft board or long board and repeatedly catching waves and crouching until i crouch naturally be a good idea? Has anyone else had this and how did they resolve it?
Many thanks.

I repeat 'stay low, stay low' in my head as I'm paddling. Doesn't work that well to be honest but I'm usually a few inches lower and that's a help

You don't need to be too low after the pop up, it's more the compression when (before) turning where it becomes important

I stand tall or crouch depending on the wave. Are you having a problem? If not then why worry? If so then what is it? On the average wave I will stand crouched but as I drop I stand up tall and when I reach the bottom I crouch once again. I don't have a problem. I think perhaps the solution is bigger waves? If the waves are small I stand tall because there isn't much I can do crouched or whatever I am just trimming along a wave however if there is a section to make a hard turn I will crouch into it. I will crouch if I need more stability also but otherwise I stand up pretty much which actually isn't that much because I am always trying to do stuff as much as possible so only stay up on slow small mushy waves and kind of ride my board like a longboard.

Touch the water when you turn....classic drop wallet style....can't stand tall when you do that.

Try this as well:
http://www.theinertia.com/surf/the-mech ... explained/

http://www.theinertia.com/surf/the-diy- ... our-speed/

surfer123321 wrote: I was wondering, what would be the best way to have a lower stance? Would taking a easy to ride board out such as a soft board or long board and repeatedly catching waves and crouching until i crouch naturally be a good idea?

First question is WHY ?? What is the reason you need to crouch / be lower ? You already ride a shortboard, so most likely you have a good paddle and pop, and can bottom turn and cutback. If you're surfing fine, what's the problem.
If your tall upright stance leads to being guillotined by the lip every time you pull into a barrel, I get it. If you tend to loop out backwards ( and "roll up the windows" with your hands ), I get it.
Most people, including me, was guilty of the stink bug / poo stance when we starting. That is too much squatted. You are opposite.
Please explain what your goal is by attaining a lowered stance.

waikikikichan wrote:

surfer123321 wrote: I was wondering, what would be the best way to have a lower stance? Would taking a easy to ride board out such as a soft board or long board and repeatedly catching waves and crouching until i crouch naturally be a good idea?

First question is WHY ?? What is the reason you need to crouch / be lower ? You already ride a shortboard, so most likely you have a good paddle and pop, and can bottom turn and cutback. If you're surfing fine, what's the problem.
If your tall upright stance leads to being guillotined by the lip every time you pull into a barrel, I get it. If you tend to loop out backwards ( and "roll up the windows" with your hands ), I get it.
Most people, including me, was guilty of the stink bug / poo stance when we starting. That is too much squatted. You are opposite.
Please explain what your goal is by attaining a lowered stance.

Thanks for all the responses guys.
I want to stand lower as it helps with lowering CG therefore balance. On top of this I think i would be able to push through turns more. When pulling into a barrel for some reason i go to lower myself, and instead of this happenening in the knees it happens at the waist, sort of like a right angle.
I will try touching the water as I turn
Anything else you guys would recommend trying?

oldmansurfer wrote:I stand tall or crouch depending on the wave. Are you having a problem? If not then why worry? If so then what is it? On the average wave I will stand crouched but as I drop I stand up tall and when I reach the bottom I crouch once again. I don't have a problem. I think perhaps the solution is bigger waves? If the waves are small I stand tall because there isn't much I can do crouched or whatever I am just trimming along a wave however if there is a section to make a hard turn I will crouch into it. I will crouch if I need more stability also but otherwise I stand up pretty much which actually isn't that much because I am always trying to do stuff as much as possible so only stay up on slow small mushy waves and kind of ride my board like a longboard.

Yeah I see what you mean, but I think when I pop up i go straight into a tall position and stay there. I still feel a lot of speed being generated when pumping but think turns would be better if I am in a more crouched position and maybe generate more speed.
Any suggestions?
Cheers.

Mental imaging. When you are not surfing think about going into a crouch. But first if you are only pumping turns then the only time to be crouched is at the top turn. So your legs come up but your upper body stays in relatively the same place except on bigger waves. To generate speed pumping first you need a fast wave. If you aren't on a fast wave forget about it because on a slow wave speed just takes you away from the power and you will end up losing the wave. So when you are pumping for speed you upper body stays in the same position relatively and your lower body and the board come up the wave forcing you into a crouch. Then at the top of the wave you put more pressure on your front foot forcing the board to go back down the wave quickly without standing up. If you stand at the top of the wave you loose speed. You need to keep your center of gravity below the lip and in front of the wave. Standing upright on the lip makes you center of gravity equal with the wave compared to the shoreline and above the wave vertically. This stalls the board. But at that point if you lean over the lip the board will start back down. so you have to move your center of gravity in front of the wave to get back down the face. If you keep it there all the time then you can speed pump. Speed turns are about falling forward and bringing the board under you to keep from actually falling. So at the top turn part of a speed pump you are falling forward and you aim the board for where you are falling then at the bottom you make a turn assisted by gravity to redirect back up the face and then fall back down. If you skateboard it is similar to pumping where you are falling forward and bring the skateboard under you only a little more complex because it's not a sideways motion it is an up and down motion on the face of the wave that generates speed. So crouching at the bottom of a speed turn slows you down a little because you have to alter where your center of gravity is again but you crouch at the top to keep your center of gravity as unchanged as possible. I think for a beginner it is difficult to understand that you need to have your body in front of the lip the whole time to generate speed

oldmansurfer wrote:Mental imaging. When you are not surfing think about going into a crouch. But first if you are only pumping turns then the only time to be crouched is at the top turn. So your legs come up but your upper body stays in relatively the same place except on bigger waves. To generate speed pumping first you need a fast wave. If you aren't on a fast wave forget about it because on a slow wave speed just takes you away from the power and you will end up losing the wave. So when you are pumping for speed you upper body stays in the same position relatively and your lower body and the board come up the wave forcing you into a crouch. Then at the top of the wave you put more pressure on your front foot forcing the board to go back down the wave quickly without standing up. If you stand at the top of the wave you loose speed. You need to keep your center of gravity below the lip and in front of the wave. Standing upright on the lip makes you center of gravity equal with the wave compared to the shoreline and above the wave vertically. This stalls the board. But at that point if you lean over the lip the board will start back down. so you have to move your center of gravity in front of the wave to get back down the face. If you keep it there all the time then you can speed pump. Speed turns are about falling forward and bringing the board under you to keep from actually falling. So at the top turn part of a speed pump you are falling forward and you aim the board for where you are falling then at the bottom you make a turn assisted by gravity to redirect back up the face and then fall back down. If you skateboard it is similar to pumping where you are falling forward and bring the skateboard under you only a little more complex because it's not a sideways motion it is an up and down motion on the face of the wave that generates speed. So crouching at the bottom of a speed turn slows you down a little because you have to alter where your center of gravity is again but you crouch at the top to keep your center of gravity as unchanged as possible. I think for a beginner it is difficult to understand that you need to have your body in front of the lip the whole time to generate speed

Okay thanks for the response. I'll give the mental imaging a go.

To imagine you are surfing stand in your surfing stance and in your mind imagine you are surfing while trying to imitate the motions with your body so crouch while you imagine you are surfing doing a particular maneuver and try to hold your arms in the appropriate position and move your body sort of like you are doing it.

if you want to stay really low, pop up and keep your back hand touching the board. its pretty limiting because you cant do much when crouched like that, but I guess good for small barrels...

keep in mind that you could be standing high due to (for example) ankle or hip mobility issues or balance issues (eg arms in the wrong place). If you cant comfortably crouch very deep without restriction or without losing balance, then your body wont easily go into a position that is a struggle. That may be me as an old person talking!

Just some thoughts:
1) You are only working on one aspect, not the whole package. Like some one only wanting bigger fins, more rocker etc. on their surfboard, not realizing it affects other aspects. If you just throw on a free flowing exhaust pipe on your motorcycle, you might have to re-jet your carbs becuase the fuel mixture gets too lean.
2) I understand your goal is to lower your CG and gain more power in your turns. But I think if there's a "problem", you need to look back two steps to solve the problem.
3) It's okay to hand out/down to "gauge" the depth of the lean/angle. But most just end up reaching down, hinging at the waist. That breaks the strong bodyline from head to toe. MotoGP riders don't drag their knee cause it looks cool, it's a by-product of the lean angle and counter-forces. I'm worried you're putting the cart before the horse, by wanting to get lower.

If you can watch a surf video with a good surfer doing the maneuver you want to do then you might see what positions he/she gets into to do what you want to do. Then in your mind imitate that. When I learned there were no videos so we just watched each other or we did something that worked by accident at first and then repeated it. I learned to do a few maneuvers long ago when I was younger by mental imaging. One of them was a fins free at the top of the wave turn that I saw a picture of Barry Kanaiaupuni doing in a surfing magazinie. I just thought that looked great and I wanted to do that so I did mental imaging of what it would feel like and where and when I would do it. Then on my first try I actually did it although these days I am not so sure it was exactly the same because I never saw him do one in video or in person but way back then I was able to do my version of it consistently rarely failing right from the start. I quit surfing for a while and restarted and I am just getting to the point that I may try to do something like that again now with multiple fins. I just got my cutbacks down reasonably well enough and I am going to start working on my top turns again.

If your problem is bending at the waist then I would recommend this.... practice standing in your surfing stance crouched with your legs then move your hips around but especially forward and backward so without standing up move your weight over your forward foot and then back over your back foot and repeat this numerous times. This will get you used to crouching with your legs and to move your weight around while crouched which is what you need to do to surf better, so do this every day. I think for many it is awkward to crouch with your legs so you need to get used to it. I am old and feeble and I do this to limber up my old decrepit legs and hips. The actual exercise I do is I stand in a wide stance and hold my arms out then crouch down then rotate my upper body to the left and move my upper body over my left leg without standing up then I drop my right knee down toward the ground. Then bring the right knee up and rotate the other way bringing my upper body over my right knee and drop my left knee. This is done without changing the height of my head so I concentrate on keeping my head at the same height. I just do this to increase my flexibility because I am an old man and no longer flexible like I used to be.