SurfBabu wrote:When you take off, and want to do a nice bottom turn, WHEN are you sinking the rail? Mostly, which method is faster? I sink rail when I want to power down the line but I wanted to know what others thought. I appreciate the replies.
You
don't sink the rail, but I think I know what you mean. During a bottom turn, if your rail is digging in, then your weight is too far forward (likely to be foot placement issues). Down the line, that's exactly where you need to be - back foot a little forward of the fins, rail nicely engaged, head/shoulders/arms driving forward.
For a bottom turn however, drive down the face, but then a touch before you hit the flats, weight the back foot, bend the knees, and then really drive with your shoulders and extend the knees to exit. On a right, and assuming you're natural footed, getting your rear (right, in this scenario) hand into the water and pivoting around it (imagine you dropped your keys at the bottom of the wave and you reach down to pick them up) is a good way to start.
If you catch too much rail or set it too early, you will wipe out
And it's not either/or for down the line or a bottom turn - they're two different manouevres to do two different things, and it'll depend on your positioning, the wave, and - crucially - what you want to do next. You can't do a big spray off the lip if you're halfway up the face to start with, while conversely you can't outrun a crashing lip from down on the flats.
