Any tips on how to tighten up turns and cutbacks?

[achanakbhayank]

I'm new to surfing, but I'm holding the line on pretty much every wave that I catch. I've been working on cutbacks and turns and such, but I'm super slow on them.

A little context is that I'm riding a wavestorm (at your guys' recommendation), so I know it doesn't have much power to really dig into the wave. I got the perfect storm kit and turned it into a single fin (which has been AMAZING btw, and I highly recommend it). It does loosen it up a lot.

Anyway, I'm just not sure where my technique is lacking. I do notice that sometimes I'll be cutting back or turning extremely slowly, and when I look at my feet, almost half the board is underwater. Being such a floaty board, I imagine I'm doing something very wrong to get that to happen. I do have a tendency to step too far forward and stomp my nose into the water sometimes, so maybe that's it? Maybe both feet are too far forward. Did any of you run into the same problem when you were learning?

[jaffa1949]

Hi and welcome, your description of your surfing and what happens has me thoroughly confused!

So let’s clear a couple of things first, boards being inanimate objects have no power,they translate what you do on the wave into power in turns.
Your doing the single fin thing on the wave storm GREAT! That will eventually translate to a good longer board style whenever you go to however many fins!

Now the problem areas, and I need to ask first off , “ holding the line” is this going across the face of a green wave or being able to keep your balance riding white water?

You mention slow turns and cutbacks, hmmmmm on those turns are speed manouvres, not something else, turns are initiated with your rear foot over or close to over the fins, although you shouldn’t look at your feet ( where are they), if you are too far forward you will be bogging the board into the wave by leaning, why oh why are you stomping your nose of the board?

Have you had any lessons?
A thing that might help us help you is to get a friend to video you surfing from the beach, GoPro videos will only show you doing spastic gyrations, the real,diagnosis of your surfing will,be from the beach ( be prepared for ego shock)

The overall slowness in your surfing may be from trying to cope with the lack of balance your positioning is causing!
Back to you have a lesson or two when you go to SoCal!

[jaffa1949]

Hi and welcome, your description of your surfing and what happens has me thoroughly confused!

So let’s clear a couple of things first, boards being inanimate objects have no power,they translate what you do on the wave into power in turns.
Your doing the single fin thing on the wave storm GREAT! That will eventually translate to a good longer board style whenever you go to however many fins!

Now the problem areas, and I need to ask first off , “ holding the line” is this going across the face of a green wave or being able to keep your balance riding white water?

You mention slow turns and cutbacks, hmmmmm on those turns are speed manouvres, not something else, turns are initiated with your rear foot over or close to over the fins, although you shouldn’t look at your feet ( where are they), if you are too far forward you will be bogging the board into the wave by leaning, why oh why are you stomping your nose of the board?


Have you had any lessons?
A thing that might help us help you is to get a friend to video you surfing from the beach, GoPro videos will only show you doing spastic gyrations, the real,diagnosis of your surfing will,be from the beach ( be prepared for ego shock)

The overall slowness in your surfing may be from trying to cope with the lack of balance your positioning is causing!
Back to you have a lesson or two when you go to SoCal!

thankyou so mch!!

[RinkyDink]

Anyway, I'm just not sure where my technique is lacking. I do notice that sometimes I'll be cutting back or turning extremely slowly, and when I look at my feet, almost half the board is underwater.

I've had something similar happen, but it only happened to me on takeoffs. I remember one day after popping up I was looking to turn and go down the line, but something was wrong. I looked down and my entire board was 6 inches under the water. I was kind of riding the board, but the entire thing was under the water and, well, then I wasn't riding it Anyway, I think you called it right. You might be moving too far forward and nose diving your board. I had a phase where I was doing that on my popups. It helped me to switch back to my longboard, but I think you might want to focus on your tailpad as a reference point for your stance and moving on the board.

Being such a floaty board, I imagine I'm doing something very wrong to get that to happen. I do have a tendency to step too far forward and stomp my nose into the water sometimes, so maybe that's it? Maybe both feet are too far forward.

I think you're probably right. You might want to review your stance on the board. Stepping around on the board, however, is helpful for familarizing yourself with positioning on the surfboard, especially for gaining speed. Forward stance helps with gaining speed. Move too far forward and you'll go down. I'm working on my positioning on the board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rsq2Px8_JQ (This video goes over getting into a surfing stance.)

[waikikikichan]

and when I look at my feet, almost half the board is underwater.
(I) stomp my nose into the water sometimes, so maybe that's it?

1) Could you clarify what half of the board is in the water ? The front half or the back half ?
2) Why are you looking at your feet while surfing ?
3) Why do you need to stomp the nose during a cutback ?
4) How are your front foot toes pointed ? To the rail or more towards to the nose ?

[dtc]

As jaffa said, you need speed to do those things. Wkk has asked questions that might allow him to help you out in determining why you dont have enough speed and/or whether you have a technical issue making turning harder

I'll add to that
- where on the wave face do you surf (bottom, middle, top)
- do you do go up and down the face at all before trying to cutback or do a sharp turn
- do you compress (bend knees) and decompress (stand up high) when you are surfing

If the reason for these questions is a bit unclear, this is a good summary

https://barefootsurftravel.com/livemore ... -surfboard