pumpin for speed

Questions and answers for those needing help or advice when learning to surf, improving technique or just comparing notes.

Postby uglystick » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:47 pm

by leaning forward on your front foot and bending your knees bringing your centre of gravity down and forward on the board will help you generate speed.

If this does not work....surf a bigger board for smaller conditions. Also the weight of the surfer compared to the volume of the board will have an effect on how well you can catch smaller waves.

'Pumping' a small flat wave does nothing but slow you down.

'pumping' bigger waves allows you to generate speed down the line of the wave to do your next big manover.

Dont get these two mixed up.
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Postby robstar313 » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:22 pm

been out this morning got it sorted on my front side. All over the place on my backside though.
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Postby smick » Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:32 pm

Similar issues for me on mush. I have longboarded for 7 years but just bought a Webber Fatburner 6'6 hybrid fish. I am having a lot of fun on it on punchier waves, but continually bog when it gets flat or mushy.

Its hard to keep the board going in mush in a regular stance with my back foot on the tailpad. Everything just bogs and any pumping attempts fail as I don't feel any "push".

I now regress into my longboarding habits and have taken to shifting forward on the board when this happens. My back foot goes in front of the tail pad and my front food moves 8" more forward. It definitely maintains speed better and I can do mini-pumps to keep the board moving, but obviously can't turn hard until I shuffle back. I think this board walking on a shortboard feels kooky and always throws me off kilter for a few seconds.

One of my friends suggest a wider stance, so when I weight my front foot it has more effect, but I guess I am worried about becoming a stinkbug.

Any thoughts? Is it ok to keep shuffling forward? Do you guys have wider stances while shortboarding than longboarding?
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Postby smallwavegrovellerchick » Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:50 pm

smick wrote:Do you guys have wider stances while shortboarding than longboarding?


No. I shuffle slightly forward or back when necessary or redistribute my weight on either front or back foot depending on the waves. However, on a 6'0" there's 6" less distance from nose to tail. You can get away with a slightly wider stance if you do the knock knee stance but if you do a wider squat stance you'll look like a guy taking a dump (the typical beginner stance). On some high volume shortboards it's actually possible to do cheater 5 on the nose. Might not be the coolest thing to do but if you want to ride a soft, mushy wave far, you do what you gotta do to keep your board going.
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Postby Guest » Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:07 pm

To do it on small waves, especially on a fish, you need to angle off on your takeoff and stay high on the wave near the lip. If your bouncing, and its slowing you down its because theres nothing to pump on or you need to wait for the wave to build back up. In that case, do a cutback instead of pumping, then continue to pump. When I surf in small waves, I underweight my weight over my front foot and when I reach to the top of the wave, I apply pressure on my front foot to drive down. Repeat that, and you got some speed. Also, try surfing a different break, some spots work better on tinier waves. Might also want to try and get a smaller board. Your supposed to ride a fish 4 inches shorter than your short board. It's easy to pump on smaller boards.
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Postby smick » Fri Apr 04, 2008 4:44 pm

thanks guys!

thromback - this is my first shortboard so I can't go smaller yet but would like to be able to in the future.

I actually am starting to think I need to fade these smaller waves more aggressively. I am generally focused on going down the line from my longboarding mentality, but I think fading back into the foam more where the wave is steeper might make it easier to start pumping and building up speed again until the wave steepens.

I'll also try to work pumping with my foot on the tailpad and will play around with widening my stance a bit as I think I don't have enough front foot pressure to get drive on the small waves.
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Postby Guest » Sun Apr 06, 2008 4:02 pm

Actually, you want to narrow your stance. I tend to move my feet off the deck almost if its real tiny, and drive my whole stance forward. Then when I wanna turn I walk back onto the tail and try to do tiny turns. You'll figure it out just keep going. Read this. You might also want to pick up Taj Burrows Book of hot surfing, it worked wonders for me.


http://www.surfingvancouverisland.com/s ... ntside.htm
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Postby smick » Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:53 am

thx - i can pump ok when the wave has some face.. but still find it a lot easier and more efficient in the middle of the board with my foot off the tailpad.

i just didn't know if moving up was a technique flaw from longboarding and if i should try to keep my foot on the tailpad always on a shortboard... to be clear, this bogging is just when the wave mushes out and i'm waiting for a reform. The wave sucks at this point anyway and I'm just biding time... I'll just keep shuffling around if it works and other people do it.
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Postby smallwavegrovellerchick » Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:27 am

Surfing small, mushy waves requires a lot of technical skill. If you can surf these kinds of waves by shuffling your stance, the more versatile you are as a surfer. I actually think that transitioning from longboard to shortboard makes your surfing smoother. Longboarding helps you surf with finesse and style. Riding a shortboard will help you shred turns.
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Postby kmak » Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:30 pm

I hate to say it but that Webber Fatburner isn't going to help you out much with speed or turning. I've seen those China boards and they have horrible rockers, non existent bottom contours and bad glass jobs. Sorry you get what you pay for....
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Postby smick » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:32 am

kmak - i don't know which one you saw, maybe the old surftech versions, but I bought one of the 2008 ones made by the Cobra factory in thailand out of eps foam/epoxy resin and it looks and goes great.

the rocker, outline and deep double concaves on the bottom are all nicely blended. I looked at a bunch of boards around the same dims before I bought this one and heard positive feedback from the shop on the new models as well.

i wanted a cheap board for travel (lugging longboards was getting old) and it is very durable. plus since this was my first shortboard i didn't want to spend a lot on a custom board before i knew whether i would like shortboarding.

i just got back from a week in mex and had a blast with it on some very long point breaks in head high and slightly overhead conditions. no need to worry about small waves or mush on this trip at least!
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Postby robstar313 » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:39 am

the cobra factory is knocking out the best of the best epoxy. Apparently!
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