Will surf on reef for the first time.. probably

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Re: Will surf on reef for the first time.. probably

Postby BaNZ » Thu Jan 15, 2015 11:57 pm

waikikikichan wrote:1st - You got to stop looking back.
2nd - Sit down turns
3rd - Dismount, end the wave cleanly and in control.
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.
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


I finally had the chance to look into the time lapse and video. Actually I can still remember most of the wave and why I've done it.

1st- I look back for 3 reasons, Either I'm checking for my position on the wave or how far away I'm from the lineup and whether I can swim directly towards the lineup. Third reason is I know I've missed the wave and I don't know what to do so I look behind me.

2nd and 3rd, yes I really need to work on that. But I don't sit down because I think the white water is going to push me further into the shore. I'm short and small so for me a longboard is sometimes hard to control and I can't stop it.

The Watusi dance finally clicked, you won't believe what I was trying to do. I was trying to generate speed or trying to turn the board. Whether it is by moving up and down the wave or by shifting my weight. But there is no way anyone could tell that was what I was trying to do :lol:

Each time when you see me flailing my arms around, it usually means I'm trying to twist my body and shift the weight or trying to do something to make it turn. But by doing so I loses balance and the board becomes very wobbly.

The times that you said I had a nice trim. It's because I wasn't trying to do anything due to the size of the wave. Apart from the first wave, the other were big for my standard. Therefore I didn't attempt to do turns or try to manouever the board. I just wanted to ride it safely. The wave feels like it was much bigger, but now I look at the video and it is so just average size. It felt like it was overhead waves but now I just think they are waist to maybe at max shoulder size.
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Re: Will surf on reef for the first time.. probably

Postby dtc » Fri Jan 16, 2015 4:42 am

Hey BaNZ, I thought you did ok and well done on putting yourself out for target practice!

One small point to keep in mind is that turning your upper body does not, of itself, turn the board. What it does is change the weighting (through your feet) and, at times, 'coils up' your body so it can 'uncoil' as part of the turn. The change in weighting/the uncoiling of your feet is what turns the board.

However, if you are standing upright, the turning of your body has less effect on the weighting. So try this: at home on the floor, stand sideways like you are on a surfboard but upright with weight evenly distributed between heels and toes.

Then twist your body as you would for a turn. Notice how the weighting changes through your feet - hardly at all.

Then crouch down in a more surfer stance and do the same thing - you will notice that your weight changes quite a bit. You have to change it or you fall over.

On a board, that weight change goes through 'into the board' and causes it to turn.

Standing too upright make turning a bit harder; and can also make balancing harder as well. then you try harder and 'flail' your arms to get more of a turn and you fall off...

As you get more experience, you can use your legs more in the turn as well - oldman describes this well in a few of his posts
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Re: Will surf on reef for the first time.. probably

Postby waikikikichan » Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:47 am

1) Look at all the others surfers live and on video. Do you see them looking back ? Sometimes in a surfing contest competitors will check if there's more waves in the set. If not they might or might not decide to milk the ride farther. But in your case, you're trying to assure yourself of something but hurting something else. It is a really bad thing to do and you should stop asap.

2) I mean to say your squatting out your butt on your turn attempts. Everyone else is already giving good advice on how to correct that.

3) If you can turn out of the wave with your feet. Then kneel down, grab the rails and turn the board out. Make the nose come up and slice the wave with the rail as your knife. You can also sit down, jam your legs in the water and yank on the nose to become un-hydrodynamic.

5) Trust me, we all know what your were "trying" to do by flailing your arms. Do you skateboard and snowboard doing the same motion ? Slow it down and turn for a reason. Again, your best riding was when you were not "trying".

other observations:

6) - Hip jam - because of your front foot at 3 o'clock, it locks out your knee. So to shift your weight , you do this Hip movement at 3:20 ( and other times ). Your stance should be 1 o'clock for your left foot and 3 o'clock for your right foot.

7) - Stall Shove - at 7:00 you do this advance move of stalling and shoving the board forward, but it normally to adjust speed. You on the other hand, are attempting some sort of turn or little pop hop.

The great thing is your are experimenting with different moves. You can see the changes in your riding. I would recommend watching your favorite surf video, but only look at their right foot the whole vid. Next time just watch their left hand, and so on. You'll start to see a pattern.

Oh, and get rid of those paddling gloves.
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Re: Will surf on reef for the first time.. probably

Postby BaNZ » Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:16 am

waikikikichan wrote:
6) - Hip jam - because of your front foot at 3 o'clock, it locks out your knee. So to shift your weight , you do this Hip movement at 3:20 ( and other times ). Your stance should be 1 o'clock for your left foot and 3 o'clock for your right foot.

7) - Stall Shove - at 7:00 you do this advance move of stalling and shoving the board forward, but it normally to adjust speed. You on the other hand, are attempting some sort of turn or little pop hop.

Oh, and get rid of those paddling gloves.


My first surf lesson I was told to always place both feet at 3 o'clock position. That's probably where the bad habit came from. The guy spent 5 mins talking about the basics and spent the next hour pushing my board.

I love how you call it the advance move of stalling haha! I think I was trying to increase my speed, you know how when other surfers hop on their board. But I seem to be doing something completely different.

I hated the gloves at first, struggle to paddle. But water at 15C is quite cold for me, I loses too much body heat. So are normal gloves better?
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Re: Will surf on reef for the first time.. probably

Postby Jester » Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:29 pm

Dude I went out today and it was clear to me I'm still underneath you in the food chain so don't be too hard on yourself! :lol:
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