Surfing Waves

Hi there! I have been surfing for 15 years in mostly mushy conditions. Where I live we have some great days with hollower waves and offshore winds in the winter, but its not so consistent. I started off with a minimal, then went straight to a high-performance shortboard which truly delayed my development as a surfer for a couple of years. I have now ridden a Hyptokrypto 6'0 for a while and gotten a lot of waves with it (im 6'1 tall and weighs 187 pounds). I recently bought a Lost Baby Buggy 6'1, since I felt that it was hard to change direction quickly with the pintail on the hyptokrypto.

Yesterday the conditions here where as perfect as it can get, and i got to practice some critical moves. Usually i lack speed in the mushy waves, and have to make the turns in the middle of the face rather than towards the lip. I tried to hold the bottomturn a bit longer than i usually would do to gain speed, and then looked straight towards the part of the wave that i wanted to hit, and my body went in that direction, but my board continued towards the shore. This was on a righthanded wave and I have a regular stance. I find it a bit easier to perform these kind of turns on lefthanders.

I know its very difficult to give pointers when you dont have any video-footage, but there is really not a market here for video-coaching. What is the main thing I need to think about? Upper body and hand movement or is the stance as important? Would be very grateful for some tips!

My technique for small mushy waves is to generate speed by exaggerating and enhancing my turns with my body weight . Starting off I popup and stand and extend my legs so that right before I reach the bottom of the wave they are completely extended. Right before I reach the bottom I crouch down this adds force into the turn and compresses my legs so I can extend my legs and get some spring coming back out of the turn. This allows me to unweight at that point releasing the pressure off the board and bringing it up the face to the top. So as I am moving the board up the wave my legs are going back to a crouch and then extending again but as I reach the top I crouch again to add force to that turn and extend coming back out of the turn. It is important to keep your body weight low and in front of the wave so don't stand up or flatten the board at the top keep the turn going and bring it back down.. It's more about moving the board and using your weight to add force to the turns so the board moves a lot more than your body. It's all a lot of work but can turn a blah wave into a fun wave. I am not sure if this helps but thinking about it perhaps a reason you are having the problem you stated is because you are too far forward on the board? All of this is very difficult to learn on small waves and I advise you to try working on slightly bigger waves that don't require as much of your power then work the size down to smaller waves once you get the techniques down.

Another possible reason for your board going another direction is that you had extended your legs already in the bottom turn and didn't have any spring to bring the board up. In that case you want to stay crouched till you want to make the turn then extend your legs and push the board down so you get some spring coming out of the turn.

Great explanation! Thanks a lot for the reply. I probably stood tall when i was about to turn upwards yes! On the Hypto I definitely was too far forward, and thas was also probably why I couldnt kind of pivot the board, but the squash tail on the Babybuggy turns a lot easier, I just have to crouch more? Its so hard to change up things because everything happens so fast in bigger waves, and I get kind of tunnel-vision. The swell is looking decent for tomorrow so Im gonna try out all of your tips:-)

One way to start doing this is when you are going slow say you are stalling at the bottom of a wave or the end of a bottom turn. Stand all the ways up then crouch suddenly and turn. Your weight falling down as you suddenly crouch adds push in the turn and allows you to turn on a mushier wave

I found two photos from last easter, which is in a sequence. But that wave was really mushy and slow. I dont know if you can see the upload.

Looks like you are doing ok but in this sequence you could from your position in the top picture drop down and turn then hit the lip and bring it straight back down or maybe even fade a little and get two turns in that part of the wave

Okay, great! So if I understand it correctly it looks like I go too straight in the bottomturn instead of going more towards the shore and then quickly hit that exact spot of the wave that you can see on the first picture?

That is most likely what I would do but a while back I was practicing cutbacks so I would have done that

Thank you very much for your replies. I really appreciate it!! Im looking forward to try this:-)

gsseirik wrote:What is the main thing I need to think about? Upper body and hand movement or is the stance as important?

You can't think just about only one aspect. The "action" may start with your brain, but it's the eyes that lead, then the the hand, arm, shoulder, chest, waist, knees then feet down into the deck off the board. But agreed, a bad stance will make it harder for your body to move. And just as you focused on the "pin" tail ( which it is not a pin tail ) of the hypto for why it was hard to turn, that is only one aspect, you have to take the board as a whole. same for how to turn a board, your whole body. ( and working with the wave ).

gsseirik wrote: I just have to crouch more? Its so hard to change up things because everything happens so fast in bigger waves, and I get kind of tunnel-vision.

Again "crouching" is just one aspect at one given moment in time at one point of the wave. You need to constantly change and adjust.
That tunnel vision is keeping you in a holding pattern, pausing your movement. You need to be 1-2 steps ahead. Like how a Chess player is thinking 3-4 steps ahead. Be more pro-active, not just reactive. by the time you "see" the lip throwing over, it's too late.

Your photos look great, and i wouldn't consider those waves mushy. There is a face and open shoulder.

Question:
1) Do you still have your minimal ?
2) Can you get access to a twin fin fish shape ?
3) what size model fins are you using ?

Thanks for the input! I just thought that the pointy-look of the hypto tail would make it sink deeper, and be more directional-stable than a more square tail. But I understand from you that its way more too it;-) I still have a 7'0 minimal yes, but i have already had one loong period going back to it to catch more waves. Since me and my friends started surfing, advancing to the shortboards was the ultimate goal. Going back to the minimal now would kind of feel like a setback. But i know its easier to understand stance and weight distribution with a bigger board. I use it on really small summerdays.

The Lost baby buggy is very new, so I can't afford another board now, although a twin fin would be superfun to try.

On the Hypto i just use the fins that came with it. On the babybuggy i bought the John John large futures.

The history of surfing in Norway is quite new, and there is no shapers in town. I find it hard to get good advice on surfboards, aside from the youtube- not so objective reviews. Im so happy that I found this forum:-)

And what are the fins that came with the Hypto ? If they are also Futures Fins, like on the Baby Buggy, with the Large John John fronts, try putting a smaller center or trailer. That should let the rear come out ( drift - slide butt ) out a bit more on your bottom turns and cutbacks. In small mushy waves, in not about a fast(er) board, but more critical to be in the part of the wave that gives the most speed. The smaller trailer might help with that.

They are also futures yes. I have been thinking of switching the fins the next time I use the Hypto. But it has been dinged for a long time, and i have been searching for repair guides, and found out that repairing epoxy is much more complex than I could ever imagine. After numerous attempts its now finally sealed with microballons-mixture, but the super expensive epoxy that I importet solidified in the garage. Gonna heat it up and do the glassing someday soon.

At one point I startet to figure out how to pump for speed, the typical movement you can see people doing on carver-skateboards. But i tend to stay a bit low in the wave. Should probably exaggerate the movement even more to get speed, or find a way to get the best tilt or angle on the board on the way down to easier to get up again.

I have a sequence of photos of the best wave I have ridden, if theres anything to point on or to break it down. But i have to upload it tomorrow after surf. I see the face of that exact wave, and try to imagine what a better surfer would do to it. I kind of wasted a perfect wave, but it was fun!

Im so grateful of you guys responding to this post:-) Have a nice weekend!

Heres the wave i caught a while back. I think its already 3 years ago, and I dont know if I have improved much since then. The sequence is twice as long, but I couldnt attach more photos.

Nothing wrong with your handling of that wave and the traffic around you.
Trouble is when we see pictures of ourselves and think how the myriad of surf pros‘ pictures look we might judge ourselves more harshly than we deserve!
Nice ride!

Thanks a lot! I Really appreciate it:-) But I would love to improve and be able to do more on a face like that. Maby tucked in a bit at the start there and so on, hit the lip etc. That day I was a bit scared of trying out stuff. Only got that wave, but I was superstoked after. Like in the 4 and 5 pic there it looks like I absorb or attenuate the speed/energy instead of utilizing it into something.

Nice wave. You were riding at the bottom part of the wave, so you weren't able to do much more because you could only match the speed of the wave (could have stalled a little and tucked into the barrel maybe). If you want speed and turns you needed to get to the top half of the wave where it's steeper and use it to make some speed.

Looks cold.

Yeah, right on! I remember it felt like it was hard enough just to keep up with the speed of the wave. At the last photo i stand tall, but in the next photo I almost dont get any higher. Too little spring? Its cold yes, and the holddowns almost makes me hyperventilate, even though I could hold my breath for a while.

Long ago the main goal of a surfer was to stay in the pocket and you did that very well.You could break out of that slot by doing some speed turns but I wouldn’t feel to bad about a wave like that