Firstly, thank you for the initial post; for me it is great to see interesting topics regarding the various technique, styles and motions of longboarding.
farside wrote:It seems more a matter of having the right wave and position on it, to be able to maintain your trim speed while keeping enough water under the nose of the board to take advantage of the extra bouyancy without doing a kind of reverse stall with the nose.
I disagree with your comment concerning trim in conjunction with nose riding… Generally when you are on the nose you are not in trim… To be properly trimmed out you need to be slightly set back, more around the ¾ mark heading almost parallel to the face of the wave, but that is another topic. However, position on the wave face and having developed the necessary skills to successfully get to the nose without the board racing out of position is of a major concern. I am by no means an expert but am able to do it… now to explain what I do is almost as hard for me to explain as how and when to popup. As you have stated
Silvershark78:
SilverShark78 wrote:...I'm sure a lot of it is trial and error...
It really comes down to getting out there and making the most of it. There must be a ton of sites on nose ridding, in the end you really need to just do it.
SilverShark78 wrote:… I'm still a little fuzzy on the noseriding technique… … I'm having a hard time picturing how to dig the tail into the curl to walk up to the nose… …Ideas? Suggestions?
To have a chance at ridding the nose you first need to get there… probably the quickest and certainly the most pleasing method to the eye is the cross step at a slight running pace. Get some old flicks and watch them over and over again; practice on land until you are satisfied that you can move fast and without needing to think… once out attempt over and over again and sooner or later it will come naturally.
Position… I find the easiest place is when I am in the top half of the wave face (heading across and up and just turned a touch coming around to go down ie. before heading in a side ways/downward motion). You need to move to the front of the board both smoothly and rapidly; you don’t want to shift your weight to the front to slowly or you risk pulling the board back down the face, gaining speed, loosing altitude and making the progression to the nose impossible (slight modification to your line can be made from the nose or front half of the board). I find that one foot from the nose is easy, it’s the step to hang 5 or the last to rap the whole 10 is difficult. Hint, keep more pressure on the wave side of the board; this is also how you control your direction although a great change in direction isn’t possible but slight alterations are).
As far as digging the tail in… Maybe you are thinking along the lines of the fin holding the tail in position whilst at the front of the board? If so this really comes back on to the tail and fin design. Being a 9’2” nose rider I am guessing both the tail and fin are fine and of no real concern to you at this point in time. Get out there and enjoy yourself.
SilverShark78 wrote:… I've been reading up in as many places as possible, but I'm still a little fuzzy on the noseriding technique…
The greatest thing about surfing is that you never stop learning and have never learnt enough… SilverShark78, what have you read and do you have any worth while sites? I am interested in having a read to see how I can improve…
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