turning on the face

[ken]

hey guys just went surfin in about 3ft face waves. I was able 2 get up on the un broken wave but when i tried 2 turn i lost all speeed and the wave just went straight under me. Any advice?

[el_timmo]

what size board are you using?

I guess all I can say is don't try any snappy turns just yet, just make smooth, carving turns.

Other thing is, the waves could just be weak, and when you're riding them, you don't really have that much momentum to keep up the speed when turning.

I dunno, I guesss there are millions of explanations

[isaluteyou]

could be just a weak wave or maybe you were leaning too far bak or there wasnt enough snap in he turn causing drag. Dunno for sure without actually being out in that surf

[gdude335]

maybe go down the wave then turn?
Also you might have tooo much weight on your back foot or you jsut got up to early

[ken]

thanks for the replies guys i think it must just be the waves cus i didnt think i was turning to hard and i was tryin to cosentrate on leaning forward because that was my problem before

[ken]

oh by the way el timmo im usin a 7'6 minimal

[GowerCharger]

id guess that youre probably heading to far out into the flats before you make your turn, in weak waves you dont get a lot of speed from the drop so you need to keep in the steep part of the wave to build your speed, if you shoot to far out in front then turn your on flat water and just slowing down, you need to angle your board down the line as you take off and pretty much be turnign as soon as you hit your feet. In bigger surf you get loads of speed from the drop in and then you can shoot out in front and do your hugest bottom turn without dropping off the plane and pushing water.

[rich r]

It's not just about leaning, as well, on a longer board. You can move your feet up - shuffle them, if you aren't confident of your balance. But on a 3 foot wave (shoulder to head high) you shouldn't have any problem with speed. Also, you want to work up and down the face.

[IdRatherBeSurfing]

But on a 3 foot wave (shoulder to head high)

shoulder to head high id have thought 3ft was waist high dude

[rich r]

The proper way to measure a wave is from the back, like when you're out in the ocean, before it starts breaking and jacking up - as that's the only way to measure it without a face.

Once a wave starts breaking, the trough in front is lower than the sea-level of water pushing up the back of a wave, thus creating a face height that is typically 1 1/2 to 2 times the back height of the wave.

So, a 2 foot wave, when called properly, usually has a 4 foot face.

Which is why I've just resumed calling things waist, chest, head high, etc (based on a 6 foot adult) because all these newbies and shoobies always go "Dude, I surfed a 6 foot wave!", which for them is a 6 foot face, but us old timers immediately classify it as double overhead - a 12 foot face.

[dougirwin13]

Measuring on the back is Hawaaian style.

Everywhere else in the world the preference seems to be trough to crest.

-doug

[rich r]

Well, I wouldn't say the preference around the world is that clear. I can remember whole articles in the 80's and 90's dedicated to the whole argument of back versus face, and growing up on the East Coast of the US (at least in New Jersey and the places south I travelled to), it was generally accepted that you call waves by the back (or just half the face size). Also, pretty much all the surf mags supported the '1/2 the face size' of wave height (Hawaiian style is a bit different from traditional 1/2 the face reporting).

As the sport became more popular, and more people entered the water, and the majority being unschooled in etiquette, let alone anything about the ocean and waves, I might agree with you that the preference in that generation is trough to crest because they never took the time to learn or know anything different. It was one of those things we used to look for to identify a shoobie or kook.

Finally, in 2001 or 2002, the scientists got into the game and started 'officially' calling wave height from trough to crest, basically because people were getting hurt by going out in what was called 3-foot surf.

As a result, and of the long-running confusion, pretty much every surfer I know calls it by the 'six foot adult' standard of waist, chest, shoulder, etc. nowadays (even in daily surf reports. Though in many surf reports still using feet, they're still doing it Hawaiian, as you may term it)

Though one difference between Hawaiian and the classic 1/2 the face size is that Hawaiian typically starts around 1/4 of the face size and as it creeps overhead becomes more like 2/3 of face size. the former is to keep people off the beach and out of the waves for the locals and the later is for impressive story re-telling of big surf stories.

One extra note is that the wave at the peak might look bigger than it really is down the face for a number of reasons. In any of it, it's all very subjective measurement except when you have a surfer standing right there on the wave, at the bottom of the trough. But then, if he's standing in the trough and not on the face, he's probably gonna get worked.

[GowerCharger]

i measure from the back, so does everyone i know (except this one guy but he's a pub surfer so no-one listens to him anyway).

In every other science wave amplitude is measured from the center to the peak (1/2 peak to trough), so it makes sense.

[dougirwin13]

All interesting!

Everyone I know "measures" by face... Except our measurements are ankle, knee, waist, chest, head, overhead, double, triple...

All wave face.

-doug

[isaluteyou]

i measure by face as theres too much maths involved to work out the back Anyway surf measurements are never very acurate when someone has a session and uses there interpretation. Example - a dwarf would consider head high 3ft

[mar1eylove]

you might have the same problem i had. when you paddle in and stand up, do you go straight forward to the flat water infront of the wave? well i did, and like you i lost all speed and the wave. so i started paddling in at an angle when i was learning so it sets you up to ride the face and not have to turn all that much

[Phil]

All interesting!

Everyone I know "measures" by face... Except our measurements are ankle, knee, waist, chest, head, overhead, double, triple...

All wave face.

-doug

thats what i do everyone knows what your talking about then

im sure some hawaiian legend once said the surfer that measures the wave from the back has allready missed it

[IdRatherBeSurfing]

hehehe phil love it.

i measure by the face; but then I'm a kook... I obviously dont know what Im on about