Will surf on reef for the first time.. probably

[oldmansurfer]

You do need to work on your paddling and fitness. I would say this: the first wave you were too far out to catch it but if you were in better shape maybe then you could have caught it. The second wave maybe a little too far inside but in reality you didn't paddle enough and gave up when it got steep. The third wave you stood up too soon and also maybe didn't paddle enough but in theory you could have made it onto the wave if you stood more forward on the board or ran up the board. The main thing is you enjoyed yourself. I guess this means you are improving? If so then good job and hope you get some more.

[BaNZ]

and do some paddle work on flat days get rid of the flipper flapper technique and sick frog leg flopping.

lol, I never paid attention to my leg. That is just embarrassing.

I listened to your advice on leaning forward a bit more today. So much that if I don't popup, the nose starts to dip into water. Which forced me to popup as I either nose dive or ride the wave. Also digging deeper into the rails and I recall someone taught me to push the water and direct it towards your fin. I think I caught more waves today but I wasn't able to ride a good wave. Was either in bad position or people were just incredibly rude today. No one wanted to give way and I kept getting blocked off.

You do need to work on your paddling and fitness.The main thing is you enjoyed yourself. I guess this means you are improving? If so then good job and hope you get some more.

I didn't expect that I'll lose my fitness that fast with a 9-5 job sitting in front of the computer all day. I have perfect BMI and my muscles are very well defined. Saying that, I don't do any exercise at all apart from walking 1 mile to work. Yes, I'm starting to enjoy surfing now that I'm able to catch some waves. The first week here I just felt so useless when I go out and I'm not even close to catching a single wave.

[oldmansurfer]

Perhaps what might help is picking up the pace a bit on your way to work. Fitness is the big limiter unless you are doing tow in surfing. Not fit and you have a problem catching waves and if you do catch the then you are out of breath and tired so you spend your time gettting fit.

[waikikikichan]

Your turtle roll is a full 360 cork screw. Try doing a 180 flip over to left side, do what you need to do under the water, after the wave just passes, flip the board back over the opposite way to the right. To envision the move, stand up and do a Karate punch. left right left right. Now hold a magazine in your hand acting as the board. Rip the board over by pulling the right hand back as you extend the left. Then throw the board back over by punching with the right as the left hand pulls back.

Also I woulds move up 1cm on the board. If your "missing" the waves or the waves keep passing under you, you need to move just a tiny bit up. You will plane better and use less energy.

[benjl]

Hey banz

Glad to see you're starting to get some waves although some room for improvement to really make the most of it. I am so jealous of those waves, they look mint!

I was out at my break in possibly the best conditions of the year yesterday (similar to the waves in your video) and I saw so many people on longboards doing the same little errors you were doing in your video and just having the waves roll past them. I was out on a narrow 6'3 shortboard yet I probably got twice as many waves as Most of the guys on a longboard. The reasons were exactly as the other guys have been pointing out on this post- they didn't paddle hard or long enough, they didn't have good paddling technique (which contributes to the first point), they were too far back on their board or they were just not in the right part of the wave (which also again could be offset if they had awesome paddling).
The only reason I got so many waves is because I just kept paddling for the wave like my life depended on it and eventually on most I would catch the wave and make the drop. Even on my low volume shortboard. The better longboarders would paddle their ass off and get the wave about 10m earlier than I could but it showed that it was all in the technique, paddling, board positioning and wave positioning.

I noticed on your video that it looked like you kinda gave up paddling on a couple when you probably thought the wave had passed- often you can still catch these with a few more big and hard strokes! Especially if lean forward on your board a little so your weight starts going with the wave and your board starts to plane as waichan mentioned.

Focus on the paddling technique mentioned above and then perhaps find a good spot, wait Til your energy is good and then just go 110% committed to the wave- even if it starts to pass you still paddle hard! I reckon you'll start making them and boosting your wave count!
Let us know how it goes get that stoke back!!

[BaNZ]

So... I only went to the reef spot once when it was full tide and when it was about waist size. Didn't catch any waves so I went to an easier beach.

This is the video of my surf trip if anyone is interested. It's 7 mins long of pure embarrassment. I got depressed when I saw the videos as I didn't know how bad I surfed. Seem to always go the wrong way where the waves are closing out completely. But most importantly, I've had the time of my life. Wonderful people, surf food and waves!

[Jester]

Banz mate those waves are sweet!! Where is this?

You did good fella, better than me anyway

[BaNZ]

This is Portugal. There are waves every single day within 20 mins drive. As there are different spots for different kind direction of swells and wind. It is crazy, at one beach it would be 1-2 feet and 100m away would be overhead to double overhead.

I love'd it, would definitely recommend people to go. But preferably when I'm not in the beach as it is so crowded.

[oldmansurfer]

The main thing is you had fun. Don't worry about performance stuff that comes with time.

[drowningbitbybit]

It's 7 mins long of pure embarrassment.

You're surfing, the rest is details

Waves looked good, and you seemed to be doing alright. And you could see that you'd improved as the days went by

I think most of what needs to be said has been said. The two things I might add are...

1) Get a balance board (indo board or similar). Your balance seemed a little off and might be helped by a little out-of-water strengthening. Good for leg and core fitness too.

2) Remember your arms! On many of the waves, once you'd caught it and were riding the face, your arms went down to your side (your leading arm was even behind you on some waves) and you were standing up dead straight. Raise your leading arm and point where you want to go - you and the board will follow!

But as I said... details!
I'd be quite happy with the length of some of those rides

[BaNZ]

My arms just flaps around, I don't even think about it. dbb you're exactly right with the tips. I had a look at simply surf videos about leading arm. It was talking about the same thing. It says it is the most common mistake and also that you will struggle to trim and will fall off easily. I thought I was falling off when I try to turn because I wasn't having enough speed or on the wrong part of the wave. Didn't think it could be my arm. It also says that I'm balancing using my hips and head due to the placement of my arms.

Had a look at balance board. They are fairly cheap and I'll look into getting one.

If I compare myself to other surfers, I'm standing nearly centre of the board? I'm guessing I should be standing further back. I think I'm standing in the middle because I can't generate speed so I try to get the nose closer to the surface of the water. I'm only 64kg and 172cm and on 9" longboard. My friends who were 85kg+ said the board was jus fine for them.

This is the simply surf video I found.

[oldmansurfer]

On small waves like that I am not sure it matters too much but on some of the bigger waves riding a long board I would be moving all over the board. Take off and step back to bottom turn then move forward to get speed up then back to tail to turn some more. On even bigger waves I stay near the tail. I think considering the waves you were doing ok. Yeah maybe you should have went the other way sometimes but then again the way I learned to go backside was turning the wrong way on waves. Yeah the hand placement thing always looks so odd to me but you didn't fall (at least not all the time) and considering the hand placement thing you must have a good sense of balance.

[jaffa1949]

BaNZ you are about average in that crew of surfers shown! Your surfing has improved greatly .
Some tips for further learning , figure out which way the wave is generating a better ride and ride in that direction, it looks somewhat like awkwardness in your take forces you to fall into missing the right hand waves and have to go backhand.
Smooth your paddling more , on a long board ( as i suggested before ) put your feef together on the board, if you out rigger your feet they act as brakes and unbalance you and slow your paddling. Paddle along the board not out to the side, ( your paddling and wave selection has improve , your are catching more and steeper waves).

A harsh criticism here , going right you lock your front knee straight and you try to do a sort of scissor action with a sort of jump move on the board ( it fails each time).
Sort of jumps disrupt the fluid movement of the board on the wave and often digs a rail or nose.
The lock knee stance sometimes both knees has no ability to absortb bumps on the wave or facilitate turns as you have to unlock a knee to do anything.
You are trying to turn the board using only a lean from the centre of the board, the waves are weak really and will not support a leaning turn from the centre.
Further proof that you stance is not the best is howeasily you are knocked off by the white water and sometimes you still jump ( stop that).
This may seem like a lot of criticism but it is sent with best intentions to you as you are progressing well and are so stoked.
I'll post a video across so you can compare , bear in mind the guys are the best in the business and where better to learn.
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23499
I invite you to watch this check out the foot positioning , the movement around the board back and forth and particularly weight and unweight and moving back for turns.

Then watch your own video ( might be painful) but look at what do that works and what you do that doesn't.
BTW we all get freaked when we see videos of ourselves for the first time , but as a teaching aid great. Congratulations for having the courage to post your progress, go back into your gopro archives notice how much you have improved.

[waikikikichan]

Are you wearing Webbed fingered gloves ? If so, that is so that is part of your paddling problem.

[waikikikichan]

comments and critics.

1st - You got to stop looking back. 1:25, 1:27, 1:30 3 times in a matter of seconds. There wasn't a shark was there ? 2:06, 2:10, 3:15. Just upsetting your form. 6:05 and 7:45 you look back at the end of the wave, but still there is no need to be doing that. That is a bad habit you need to break.

2nd - Sit down turns 1:18, 2:24, 3:19, 4:57. Your leaning back with your weight, squatting with your butt. Many people have already recommended what you need to do about that

3rd - Dismount, end the wave cleanly and in control. At :50 it was trying. 4:54 was good. At 7:18, that was very very dangerous. Even if there was no one in sight. lie down then get up, ride and then lie back down.

4th - Positioning on take off - 1:52 you said you tried very hard physically, but were in the wrong spot. The rider inside of you was. BUT at 3:59 You were in the right spot and the other guy wasn't.

5th- Watusi dance - 5:46 what was up with the flailing arms ? As other wrote, that just created more motion to fling you off the board.

Good stuff :

Re-entry - at 1:45 you did a front side re-entry and at 7:08 a back side re-entry. Nice !

Trim - 1:54, 2:27, 2:35 and 5:19 all those you set your line and had nice trim. Those waves you didn't flail as much but had better longer rides

Looks like a great wave to surf. Wish I could have been there with you.

[Jester]

I'll second that, wish I coulda been out there with you mate!

[benjl]

Hey Banz!

Great to see that you got your stoke back and are progressing on those waves! I could see your progression from the first couple to when it was like day 18 etc. Those waves looked sooo nice for long boards! I'm surprised at how some of those people just sat there on the wave while you were approaching and made no attempt to move what so ever and how lots of people kept trying to drop in on your wave.
I agree with what Jaffa was saying on the turning and he put it much better words than I could explain! I look forward to getting my own criticism from these gurus when I upload something

Question for everyone- how I do upload some videos to the forum aside from youtube? I've got them in a format that I took on my phone and can watch them on windows media player but the site won't let me upload them?

[BaNZ]

oms, when the wave is big. I tend to freeze up and not do anything because I'm just focus on getting away from and not falling off.

Jaffa, there were some really good LB surfers. I see them walking all over the board, I just didn't include them in the video. Will post them later.
I've practice my bad habits for so long, so it is really hard to change. But I'll list them down and remind myself each time I go surfing.

I've never experienced criticism here. It's all good advices and everyone has been very helpful.
Are you saying that when I go right, I tend to do a scissor jump and my popup is more natural when going left? I've never noticed the difference. I'll look into the videos later as I'm at work. It might be something with the injury I have on my right ankle that never seem to heal.

The video you shared, I've seen it so many times. I've even downloaded it. That is one of my favourite video and I hope one day I can go surf in Noosa and maybe surf like that.

wkkk, yes I'm wearing webbed gloves. I've bought the glove especially for this surf trip. I did struggle at first but got used to it eventually.
At work so I can't go through the video in details. But thank you for taking the time to study the video and point out the issues. I'll definitely study it when I get home.

I always surf alone since most of my friends are either shortboard or absolute beginners. It would really be nice to surf with someone that can point out the mistakes and help me improve.

Jester, maybe one day when I'm crazy enough during the hottest day of the Irish summer. I'll popup for a surf trip. I'm tired of the crappy waves I get in Cromer....

benjl, yeah I did made some progression. But I wish I had posted the video earlier so I could get advice on it everyday.

You can also use vimeo to upload them. I think there is probably an attachment limit on the site.

[BaNZ]

5th- Watusi dance - 5:46 what was up with the flailing arms ? .

I had to google Watusi dance and I cracked up in the office. it's exactly like me.

[Jester]

You're welcome anytime buddy, and I'll be me learning from you so you get to be the teacher for a change!

I gotta say, this forum is great and the care everyone takes to actually help out us groms is much appreciated and humbling, I hope one day we can be as generous with our knowledge.

Although this is Banz's post I gotta say thanks for all the honest appraisals as that is what actually helps us move forward, it can be tough to hear but without it you'd never twig what you're doing wrong for a long time! Keep up the video analysis!!

My turn someday when I find someone to rope into filming me nice camera work and editing btw, not sure who did it but looked pretty steady mate.