Surfing Waves

I'm trying to progress my bottom turn to launch me up the face. I've got a decent bottrom turn both ways, but I'm having trouble getting up the face to hit the lip (surfing 2-4ft). I don't think I'm too far short - sometimes the lip has hit my board and I've fallen over the back, and sometimes I stall and the lip knocks me off. and sometimes I just go over the top of the wave. Should I be starting to turn off the lip sooner?

Your not picking up the full energy of the wave. How hard can you ride the line? If you just pefected your bottom turn, you might want to consider working on riding the line and learning how to control your board 'at speed' before you try to use the energy from the line of the wave to carry you up the face of it.

2-4' (I would say just hang out there and wait for the 4 footers and think about what you want to do when it finally comes).

you need to get as much drive off your bottom turn as possible, sounds to me like your not coming off the bottom turn hard enough and your stalling as you come up- thats why the lip is knocking you off. could also be your timing which is really one of those things that you can only improve by practice.
Try and keep your speed out of a hard bottom turn (at the bottom of the wave not half way up it or on the transition)and dont start your attack on the lip until the nose of your board is above the height of the wave.
How are your other turns? can you do normal top turns and cutback off weaker bottom turns?

I've just got my bottom turn sorted, and going up the face seems the natural progession. I can't cut back yet or do a top turn. I think you're right about speed. I think I should focus on riding the line better, as Wobbler sugested, and then look at other turns.
Thanks for the help.

i had a question about dropping in on a 4ft wave...

the other day i went out and the waves were a bit bigger than i was used to, but i decided to try my luck anyway. so, as cj suggested in one of the other posts, i body boarded for a few seconds after paddling for my wave, before thinking about popping up. i ended up on the lip of the wave i think, because i could see down the wave face, and flew over.

the break i go to is primarily composed of close-outs, but it's the best i can start with. also, my knowledge of wave mechanics is limited; i was curious if close out waves are more difficult to drop in on? i couldn't seem to gauge when the wave was going to break without looking behind me.

well its gonna be difficult to take off late on a close out, cos where you would normally pull in and head towards the less steep shoulder, there isnt one.

For the off-the-lip question; practice your top turn. Off the lip is just a hard and fast top turn. Remember, you create energy/speed going down the wave face and loose it going up. So, when you are going down the line, you want to work up and down the wave face by shifting your weight slightly.

As you get a hang of this, you'll be able to shift your weight and hips and legs/feet more to make more pronounced turns.

For the 4ft wave closeouts... you can't really surf a closeout other than taking the drop and riding the whitewater. Why not wait for something that isn't closing out, or observe the wave from the beach to determine where it shoulders up and doesn't close out? If you're going to commit to going on a wave you see is closing out, getting to your feet as fast as possible is key, versus trying to bodyboard it.