Bottom turn to cutback

[oldmansurfer]

Besides concentrating on not getting off balance on takeoff you need to also work on your popup. It should be quick, before you get down the face of the wave. Practice at home on the floor.

[IanCaio]

If you could already paddle well, drop in the wave and kick the lip I think you are ready to practice on your 6'8". What the hell, if you could only drop in I would say you are ready to try it further!

It might be a little frustrating sometimes, but if you're having fun with it why not?

[dtc]

Now i had two days off for work and it feels like ive lost most of it.

Sometimes you are Kelly Slater and sometimes, to borrow an expression, you are Bambi on ice. Just chalk it up to a bad day and start again.

That sounds exactly like what im doing. Even when i start angled, look down the line i still end up straight.

Check that you aren't looking down the line but actually paddling straight.

I'm a fan of sticking to a board unless its obviously unsuited to the conditions (or your skill level). You learn a lot/improve by picking up the tricks and traps that every board has, what it does well, where you need to nurse it etc. It sounds like you do OK with the shorter board, just not consistently; so keep with it and learn the board.

[oldmansurfer]

When I takeoff on a wave I push everything else out of my mind and concentrate on what the wave and my board are doing. I don't let bad experiences creep into the next attempt. So when I am taking off I don't think about how I did on the previous wave, I just look at the wave and my board especially the nose of my board if there is a chance I might pearl. Once I start my bottom turn then I switch to down the line and think about what I will do after the bottom turn. Learning to judge the wave and what it's going to do helps but you still have to check it to be sure it's doing what you think it will and be prepared to react to whatever happens. During a steep drop I do several adjustments usually and I know this because I watch what I am doing also. It's almost like I am just a passenger on the ride but basically in the breif second you are dropping down a wave you may need to make several split second adjustments and the only way to do that is to develope refelxes by doing it over and over again. Everyone goes through the same thing so you just need to push the last wave out of your mind and focus your entire mind on this one wave.

[300thumper]

These are all great points. Thanks. I think i may be paddling straight but my body is set ready to go at an angle down the wave. Im certain im constantly critiquing myself from previous sessions but at te same time trying to mentally see myself doing it. Eventually itll click im sure. I can see how learning to surf is a step process. I cant move forward till i get the previous step. Took a few hard falls the other day and tweaked my back. Gonna rest it till Tuesday and get back out.

[hcfkavh]

Before performing a fs cutback do you guys usually do a longer, drawn out bottom turn (compressing longer then straightening legs)? I don't get many opportunities to try them because of how the waves normal break here. But I noticed that as I pop up I think I may be rushing my bottom turn and not dropping down the face enough. I end up doing a sharp pivot bottom turn (straightening legs fast). As I shoot up the face I try to change directions by opening up my shoulders and turning from my upper body while putting weight on my back heel but I still fall. I'm not entirely sure what's going on. However, I've seen some advanced guys do a bottom turn to cutback right after they were pumping too far down the line and they were about mid-upper face when bottom turning.

[oldmansurfer]

Sounds like maybe you are popping up too late. You probably need to work on popping up sooner

[oldmansurfer]

doing a bottom turn to a cutback is an intermediate to advanced maneuver. You still need to work at basics. Mostly cutbacks are done from midface. However don't worry about that now you still need to be able to do a useful bottom turn first.

[oldmansurfer]

I usually do a cutback from a bottom turn and exactly what kind of bottom turn depends on the wave and where I am and how fast I am going. Sometimes I do it from a midface setup turn if I am really flying but I generally like to do a cutback from a bottom turn on the bottom of the wave right before the wave gets less steep. So the wave is going to slow down but I want to turn on the last part of the faster portion of the wave. Long ago when I surfed I would do a cutback on the less steep part of the wave but the board I have now does a better cutback while the wave is still steeper. But first things first. You need to learn to get down the wave quicker and make a bottom turn that generates some speed and also maybe learn to read the waves. A cutback is supposed to be a way to slow down so it sounds like you need to learn to go fast first. I had problems doing cutbacks because I would sometimes popup on the front of my board to get down a face then fail to move back. It could be you are too for forward on you board. What happenend to me is I failed to hold the rail in the wave and the board goes flat to the wave but my body is leaning for a carving turn and I fall due to lack of contact with the board. If I am bending my legs enough I sometimes could sit on the wave with my butt as the pivot point and pivot the board around me to where it is back under me and then stand back up on it. What happens to you that makes you fall? There are so many possibilities a video would really assist us in figuring out exactly what you are doing.

[hcfkavh]

ughh..I wish I could get some video footage. In terms of falling while attempting a cutback I'm thinking it happens because of several reasons.

1) I get too high up on the wave and don't cutback fast enough
2) Like you said, too far forward and rail bogs
3) Not reading the wave, everything happens so fast

For certain waves particularly reefs/points or jetties 3-4 ft. I have no problem bottom turning then top turning down the line. But at my home beach break I only managed to do that about 5 times total since I started surfing...pretty sad, so a majority of the time I count my sessions to be bad . But I remember ever good session I have and write down the conditions, swell direction, tide, time, etc. hoping that one day I'll run into those conditions again. Most of the time I end up with quick angled drops which turn into close outs or waves get fat and flat which make rides last a split second. I started using a 5'8 x 18-3/4 x 2-1/4 round tail, paddle-wise I feel fine, I can catch waves. I'm a skinny guy, about 125 maybe a pound more with a wetsuit.

However, I have an easier time popping up on certain waves while other waves I can barely get to my feet. I've been having a streak of bad sessions surfing in dropping tide and I've been having trouble popping up. I try to shake off bad session streaks, they tend to happen often no matter what size board I use. I'm just trying to build some consistency.

Last week I managed to pump along the face, it felt like I was weaving up and down the wave. It probably looked extremely ugly and was most likely a fluke but it got me stoked. That was the deciding factor to stick with the 5'8. Probably not the wisest decision for board choice but I'm chasing that feeling every session. thanks reply OMS.

btw, if anyone surfs regularly in the California Bay Area and wants to alternate to get video footage, feel free to PM me. I have a camcorder and everything.

[oldmansurfer]

I wasn't saying the rail bogs on my failed cutbacks but the rail pops out of the water and the board rotates along it's axis to align with the flat surface of the wave. I think that maybe if I move my front foot to the inside rail on the cutback then maybe it would still go if I am forward on the board but I haven't had a chance to try that. I have been popping up with my rear foot in the normal position so not having cutback problems lately. I can recall when I first started doing cutbacks, (this is my second time learning to surf) it took me several sessions to get it down. This time around it has taken much longer due to less time surfing. Don't get discouraged

[Jester]

Your board is too small for you.