Surfing Waves

Hello everyone,
I am having a problem with wave timing before I pop up. It seems that when I paddle, I keep paddling waiting until I can feel the board catch the wave. The result is that I paddle my heart out and the wave passes me by. If I try to paddle eariler the wave starts to break on me while I'm in the process of poping up and I'm going over the wave like I'm going over Niagra Falls.Can anyone please explain what I'm doing wrong?

Thank You

It's hard to say...could also have to do with positioning.

Watch others at your break who are riding similar boards.

First of all what type of board are you riding.
You're main problems are probably positioning of yourself in relation to the waves and on the board itself. When the wave gets to you it should be almost breaking but not breaking on top of you. If you're too far back on the board the wave will pass you out and if you're too far forward you will nose dive. These are the basic steps to catching unbroken waveswhich you should follow.
There is no easy answer so these are just my suggestions.
Practice makes perfect so practice positioning in the line up and on the board untill you feel you are starting to get it right. It happens to everyone when they start up but it will comes with practice.

Good luck

the kind of waves also plays a big part..if you're a beginner, it's better to stick to beginner waves..goodluck!!

your probably to far back on your board. skoot up. oh and try a hybrid fish. i surf east coast so the waves arnt that good often. and my 58 hybrid is so nice. i barley have to paddle to catch the waves. i love that thing.

I think that you are doing what I just told someone else on here a few days ago.

You might want to try to Ahhhhh Hell with it, I am going to Copy and Paste what I said to her.

This is one of the post that I posted to someone else to try to explain what I think might be your problem, because it was mine when I started, and I see it all the time:

I think you should wait for a few seconds, after the board catches you, before you even think about standing up.

here is the rest of that post:


I would try this (from start to finish) (I'm making a baked potatoe, so I have to kill some time anyway)

1) Before you even go in the water, take about 10 minutes or more, and just look at the waves, watch how they are breaking, where they are breaking, and try to figure out why they are breaking there, is it the sand bar, is it a reef, etc.

And then look at the shore and find some things up on shore that stand out, visual referrence points, that way you can look back at the shore and know exactly where you are.

Keep in mind the changing tide is going to move where the waves are breaking in a lot of breaks, especially by piers.

2) Practice duck dives, dive deep when you duck dive, you can NEVER dive too deep with a surf board when you are duck diving, so push down hard... And practice your pop ups up on shore, it will help to build your mid section and condition it for dynamic movements, like surfing.

3) Once you are out there, in the line up, if there is one, relax. Don't be so quick to take a wave, just hang back, it is best to stay out of priority, in other words, hang back where everyone else out there knows that you don't intend on paddling for a wave anytime soon.

Watch the waves as they roll in, you will notice that a lot of the waves you may have paddled for before are not the better ones, watch sets come in, they tend to form a real rhymic trend. Sometimes they come in with all the energy up front, in the first wave, sometimes the last or middle wave is the good one, Be patient.

4) Here is the big trick: CATCHING THE WAVE, STANDING UP, and RIDING IT.

Once you have a wave picked out, start paddling, slowly... Take long, purposeful strokes. Then as it gets under you, then you go crazy ass with the paddling to make sure you have the speed to catch it.

Once the wave catches you, use your arms and upper body to 'body board' .... yea just body board.... For a couple seconds. This is stabilizing the board, and you can turn the board down the line (which is your ultimate goal, to ride the line of energy just in front of where the wave is breaking)

Then Once the board is stable, and you feel like you can control the board, THEN stand up, or pop up.

Start off by just getting to your feet any way you can, one knee at a time if you have to, worry about popping up fast once you are catching bigger waves, when it matters.

OK, next

Riding the wave:

Basically it is pretty simple

Lean on the nose, and you will accelerate

Lean on the nose too much, and you will dump your board forward and fly off the front of it as it flips you.

Lean back on the board (stomp pad) and you will slow the board

Lean back too much and you will stall the board.

You can use your front or back foot to steer the board, this is just natural balance control.

BUT, if you don't have natural balance, then just lean your weight LIGHTLY on your front foot, in the direction you want to go. If you lean too hard you will bury your nose.

Next, if you start to slow down and you dont want to, lean forward, if that doesn't work, start pumping your board, that is simply bouncing up and down on it to create energy, but usually once you start pumping your board, you are better off to just carve the board backwards, and lay back down on it and paddle back out, if you pump your board too much you might just extend a shitty ride and have to paddle farther to get back out.

Hope this helps.

austin325 wrote:your probably to far back on your board. skoot up. oh and try a hybrid fish. i surf east coast so the waves arnt that good often. and my 58 hybrid is so nice. i barley have to paddle to catch the waves. i love that thing.

What is the make of your hybrid fish. I am 6'0 tall and 200 lbs. I am currently riding a 7'6" Rusty Moby Fish

Thank You all for the advice. You have given me some starting points of reference. Hopefully I will be able to improve my positionong and timing as I am getting hammered out there.
Caveboy