Surfing Waves

Guys,

My kick out sucks. There are two situations when I usually attempt kick outs:

1) wave closed out

2) wave is still open, but want to kick out because someone deeper than I made the drop

In situation (1), there's usually not enough speed so I can't kick out. But I can step on the tail and let the wave slide past.

Situation (2) is more the scenario where I want to improve. I usually have speed. I usually can do a shallow bottom turn, up the lip, then fall behind the lip. What I cannot do is get the nose (or front half of the board) nicely rotated and out. Usually, the inside rail ends up being parallel with the lip.

(On a skateboard, I can do manuals & 180 kick turns...Olas, the whole rotation thing fails me in the waters.)

Any drills I can practice on land with a surfskate? If not, would appreciate any tips to attempt next time in the waters!

Move your back foot further back? Rotate more?

Seems like you are just not doing a strong bottom turn, which is usually a combination of the above

You can't just turn on a sixpence on a surfboard like you can when kickturning a skateboard. If you're kicking out to get out of someones way it's likely you've just taken off. I'm guessing you're riding midface and then trying to kick out. In this scenario there probably isn't enough space between the middle and the top of the wave to really turn the board much, so you just fade out of the wave with your rails still parallelish to the wave. This is fine. The only important thing is to get out of the way.

If you really want to crank the nose round so it's facing the horizon, you'd need to do a strong bottom turn in the flats and head straight up towards the lip. This will be wave quality and speed dependent. However, it's not that likely to happen since if you take off in front of someone you'll likely be more conservative and stay midface then fade out, to keep out of their way. Either way I wouldn't worry about it too much. Improving your surfing generally should see the problem go away.

dtc wrote:Move your back foot further back? Rotate more?

Seems like you are just not doing a strong bottom turn, which is usually a combination of the above

I think so, can definitely do both more.

Lebowski wrote:You can't just turn on a sixpence on a surfboard like you can when kickturning a skateboard. If you're kicking out to get out of someones way it's likely you've just taken off. I'm guessing you're riding midface and then trying to kick out. In this scenario there probably isn't enough space between the middle and the top of the wave to really turn the board much, so you just fade out of the wave with your rails still parallelish to the wave. This is fine. The only important thing is to get out of the way.

If you really want to crank the nose round so it's facing the horizon, you'd need to do a strong bottom turn in the flats and head straight up towards the lip. This will be wave quality and speed dependent. However, it's not that likely to happen since if you take off in front of someone you'll likely be more conservative and stay midface then fade out, to keep out of their way. Either way I wouldn't worry about it too much. Improving your surfing generally should see the problem go away.

Yeah the experience was gathered from turning mid-face. I haven't had the chance to practice this on fun size+ waves yet.

I'm riding backside when kicking out. Guessing could practice having back arm rotate across chest.

Thanks both for your advice!

waikikikichan wrote:

Screenshot 2020-07-25 at 7.01.23 AM.png

How to parse this picture?

ConcreteVitamin wrote:

waikikikichan wrote:

Screenshot 2020-07-25 at 7.01.23 AM.png

How to parse this picture?

Do you have a traction pad on your board ? If so, stand on the kick as if it were a step on a ladder. As the board stands up straight, grab both rails, then twist and rip the board over the lip.

You can practice this maneuver in flat water ( away from others ). Just make sure it's deep enough not to bang the tail into the reef. Try to stay upright bobbing in one place. Once you can feel the balance point, then you can start to play around with spinning clockwise and counterclockwise. ( depending you could be on your in-step or toes at the moment ).

waikikikichan wrote:Do you have a traction pad on your board ? If so, stand on the kick as if it were a step on a ladder. As the board stands up straight, grab both rails, then twist and rip the board over the lip.

You can practice this maneuver in flat water ( away from others ). Just make sure it's deep enough not to bang the tail into the reef. Try to stay upright bobbing in one place. Once you can feel the balance point, then you can start to play around with spinning clockwise and counterclockwise. ( depending you could be on your in-step or toes at the moment ).

Got it, I will give this drill a try! No traction pad but I'll try to move the foot as far back as needed.

ConcreteVitamin wrote: No traction pad but I'll try to move the foot as far back as needed.

Do move your foot way way back, like stand on the leash plug. But without a traction pad this drill won't work.

waikikikichan wrote:Do you have a traction pad on your board ? If so, stand on the kick as if it were a step on a ladder. As the board stands up straight, grab both rails, then twist and rip the board over the lip.

Thank you for this simple and effective tip, which, after a little practice, has smoothed my kick-outs considerably.