Surfing Waves

Hey all, just wondering if I (advanced beginner working on bottom turns, cutbacks, too turns, etc) should be trying to make my turns large and risk losing the wave/wiping out, or smaller turns that I am less likely to wipe out on, and get a longer ride.

Is there a rule of thumb here?
I would guess start smaller with control and go bigger with more experience.

I also think that smaller surf (faces under 2-3 feet) require smaller turns, especially on bigger boards. Is this correct?

I guess there are options. I worked on making functional turns so at first a bottom turn that generated speed and a top turn or cutback that wasn't an end of the ride. If it requires that you start small I guess then that is what you do. Really dedicated surfers who surf all the time might work on one maneuver that makes them fall over and over until they get it down. If you aren't surfing every day it might get depressing falling down a lot so working up to a maneuver in small increments might be better. I think the rule of thumb is to not challenge yourself so much that you can't enjoy the surfing. I think at 2 to 3 foot faces you will have hard time learning to turn any board other than small turns at first. And generally you learn to do small turns first then bigger ones but for myself I wanted to learn functional turns so never paid attention to the size of them but most likely small turns at first but turns that kept me on the wave.

Smaller turns are easier, so normally start on them. Even just doing ‘S’ curves as you go along the face gets you feeling how the weighting and gravity and all that kind of stuff works. IMHO, bedding down the basics helps with the more advanced stuff

But as old man says, if you just play safe all the time then it’s hard to progress. You don’t want to just do little tic tac turns using your lower body only and forget the upper body. Pick a few waves and go hard; then surf ‘normal’ for the rest. Best of both worlds. Plus some turns eg bottom turns

If you fall off a wave then you are closer to the take off spot so can catch another wave quicker!

I hear what you’re saying, and I think it’s not so much about Big or Small. More like Critical ( where you can suffer the consequences) or Easy ( where it doesn’t matter ). Turn basics is really a basic turn. That is the WHAT. “ What did he do ? Oh, he did a big turn “. But what makes it critical is WHEN you turn and WHERE on the wave you turn. Do you wait till you get way out on the shoulder and slow down enough before you think to turn. Or are you initiating the turn in the critical pocket of the wave under the lip ?