Surfing Waves

Hi guys! I'm trying to improve my turns, and after looking at some photos I found out that my back foot is a little far ahead on the pad, at the very beginning of the pad. I'm quite far away from the tail kick. I think my back foot lands at this same point on every popup. I find it hard to adjust the backfoot backwards during the ride, it's easier to adjust forward. Do you have any good drills that can help me change this habit? I feel that I don't have the time to look at my feet during takeoff. Regards from Eirik

I consider taking the pad off, in order to break out of the pattern or muscle memory. Have any of you tried this before?

Try to make sure you arch your back before you popup. This allows for you to get your hands back further which makes you popup further back on the board. I quit surfing for 12 years and restarted and found myself having a similar problem
not getting my foot back on the popup, however you can turn from forward on the board but it just needs to be done differently and for me at least the problem just went away with more time in the water however I did notice the above was a help. My problem was the waves I was riding at the time were steep and fast so I didn't have time to reposition my rear foot and then if I did it later there was a delay until I could do a hard top turn ( the time it took to adjust my footing.) Anyway I eventually started getting my foot back. Just seemed to happen. I first noticed when I did one of the most powerful turn I had done in recent times on a wave that was just shoulder high. I put so much pressure into the board that my heel was bruised a little. I checked my board and found a new foot shaped pressure ding over the top of the fins where previously I had been creating a huge one in front of the fins. Anyway besides arching your back it will take some time.

Thank you for the feedback OMS:-) It feels exactly how you describe it. I surfed steep waves this tuesday, and there was only time for one bottom turn and one top turn, and then the wave collapsed. Only a few waves had longer walls. Usually in smaller and mushier surf I have time to wiggle the backfoot further back, but thats also hard due to the friction made by the 7mm boots. I never thought about my back during/before popup, I guess it's arched only a little bit. I will give it a go this weekend:-)

I don’t think you mentioned what size board you’re currently riding, so what size it that but also what size boards did you start on ?

Take off foot placement and turn foot placement can be very different.

Taking off the pad will make matters worse. As there will be a “no man’s land” to where your foot is.

Looking down to check your foot placement is even worse.

But you’re right in that your back foot “needs” to be over the fin(s) in a turn, BUT the take off is NOT a turn. Thus so the back foot can be in front of the pad.

As wkk says, you dont always want your foot over the back fin, that just bogs the tail and acts as a brake if you are going down the line. Look at any pro and watch their back foot on their short sub 6ft boards - the foot is moving back and forth all the time, in front of the pad to right up the back. On a longer board it’s the same, but your foot moves further

Yes it's true the pros move their feet all the time but for a nonpro it might not be that easy. I surf an 8 foot board and if the waves are slopey and slow I have no problem moving my feet all over the place but in the tempo of a fast breaking wave I don't feel I have time to move my feet but on those waves I don't need to as long as they are back over the fins. Once in a while I will move way forward on the drop because I guess I won't make it down the wave in time then after a bottom turn where I don't need to be back on the tail to carve a hard bottom turn if there is a long section with smooth water then I have some time to move back over the tail otherwise I just make do with where I am. If I hit a bump moving I will often fall. On my 8 foot board there are lots of turns I can do from a forward position but noticeably not hard carving turns except for bottom turns because of the speed from the drop and gravity assisting. But I first figured out I needed to get back further when I attempted an all out hard cranking cutback. What would happen is the fins would pop out and the board would go flat instead of carving into the wave but I had started the turn and my butt would sit on the water and my feet stayed on the board and I just rotated around my but till the board was beneath me then I stood back up on the board. Some one watching me do this once asked me what I call that turn LOL I said "a mistake" but I repeated that same mistake a few times before I got my feet back enough to not do that. I surfed a longboard for a while and it was the same way and I would get way back over the fins on steep fast waves, somehow I just did that but with my 8 foot board I did not so for a while I am guessing that I needed to be forward to make the drop more often with the 8 foot board so it became a habit? Whatever it seems to be all good now. It will likely just take some time but arching your back so you can place your hands closer to your waist before you popup will likely help.

Thank you all for the replies. I started surfing on a 8'6 or something. I bought a 7'3 Bic and used that for several years. Then transitioned to a tiny shortboard. I went back to a 7'0 minimal, and thats when I feel i started to really make progress. Now I mostly surf a 6'2 baby buggy, and sometimes a 6'0 hypto. My takeoff and bottom turn feels ok with my current stance. I could maby go a little bit more straight towards land on the bottom turn to get more speed. But I don't have time to re-arrange my feet before going up the face again. Sometimes when the waves dies out a little bit I jump a little more forward on the board, an manages to stay in the wave in order to reach the steeper inside section ahead. It's the moving backwards that is so hard.

I consider removing the pad on the hypto to remove the "reference point", and instead try to feel what happens when the foot is at any given position.

To be honest, you should have enough time to move your back foot on a short board ie if you don’t then it’s you skill level. Your front foot will generally stay in the same place, your back foot moves up and down a few inches - which doesn’t take too long.

Possibly your standard stance is a bit too wide which makes moving the back foot a bit harder?

On a longer board, as old man says, getting your back foot way back usually required your front foot to move as well and that can take a bit of time.

Have a look at this video at around 58.20 and watch his back foot. Indeed his whole ride - he doesn’t need to move the back foot for bottom turns because of the speed (and he isn’t doing sharp turns) but moves it for the top turns (it is a midlength so slightly different but the concept is the same)

https://www.surfer.com/videos/torren-ma ... w-zealand/

Thanks DTC! That clip was very illustrative to what I need to do. Nice waves and good style;-) I feel my stance is too narrow actually. And that the backfoot is glued to the same spot I have a photo of a cutback:

gsseirik wrote: I feel my stance is too narrow actually.

I think the cutback looks good. You may "feel" your stance is too narrow, but it seems the board is angled right and on rail with enough speed / water sheering off the inside rail.

You think the problem is with your feet. I think the problem is with your Left hand.

Thanks wkk! It feels better on cutbacks, and I have gotten a lot of help from you guys to improve them. Yeah, it looks like the left hand goes backwards. Should it go down instead to make a "pivot point"? I feel the backfoot problem is bigger if I try snaps or what they are called. That something doesn't feel quite right. But I don't have photos or video of that.

Thanks dtc! Great article:-) To lift the left shoulder on a backhand bottomturn seems hard, but does he mean that you should do it as soon as you reach the flats and starting to climb the wave face again?

In snowboarding I know exactly what the different weight distributions and my arms/upper body does to the technique. The snowboard does exactly what I wan't it to do. But in surfing it feels like fumbling in the dark, and I can only practice a few seconds twice a week or less.

I removed the pad now, and gonna try it for fun after work. As you can see in the picture, the pad was installed a little far from the leash-plug. And the blue area has a huge pressure dent from my backfoot.