Surfing Waves

Hey, I can almost chop hop now, but I was wondering how to just even air out. I know you need a ton of speed, and you need to go for a closing out section of a wave. Whenever I try to launch off I go off but my board doesnt. Is it similiar to an olly on a skateboard? Like, you actually want to launch off your back foot right?

ok i dont know for sure but: i imagine that its a bit similar to an ollie on a skateboard but not too close. id imagine that once uve got the speed youll probably need to crouch down then push hard just before you get to the lip then completely unweight your board when you get there. like in an ollie. i might be completely wrong but thats how id try to do it.

not really sure my self, just try and try loads of different things

You have to preload your board just before you hit the lip. By this I mean you have to shift your weight to the exert downward pressure on the board. That way it (the board) will take a second to react and will naturally exerts pressure back against you and gives you that grip to pull off a manuver. Think of it like rocking back and fore. When your rocking downward the pressure is on the board, but when you go upward the pressure is going thru the board into you feet. It give you a lift and control of the board.

Try it sometime on a simple floater.

What your basically saying is... When I'm pumping high on the face of the wave that I should do this: Approach a lip thats closing out. Then put pressure forward? to drive up the wave, then unweight the board, and kinda luanch off my back foot??

Ok for simple airs all you need to do is drive off the closeout, but make sure the board is leading more than yourself otherwise you go flying and not your board. Make sure your weight is leaning towards the beach and away from the wave or you'll fly without your board.

For bigger airs you need to almost ollie off the top.


Also, speed and timing are very important. You need to have the right type of wave and the right section to hit.

A good book that explains how to do airs and cool tricks is Taj Burrows book on hot surfing. I dont have it with me now to tell you what he says though, but you can pick it up on the net fairly cheap.
Im hoping to try some of the advanced tricks this summer.
How hard did you find chop hops? Because i am dieing to do these!

I haven't actually landed one.. I only try them on closeout waves, but I do own Taj Burrow's book. He explains it, but all he says is to launch off the wave. I'll figure it out, but its been flat here . Chop Hops are pretty easy though, I haven't ut much effort into doing them because I only do them when the waves are garbage so I don't waste them. Give them a try, apparently it's the first step to doing real airs.

i tried it out today after a long surf, and found that i could get air by just flying up the face and then turning the board sorta, but i didn't land any, but still was fun for the little time i was in the air