more tiptime tips from Ki-chan no Korner

Putting on a bigger fin on your longboard probably will not make you noseride better. In fact, you will probably have a harder time noseriding because your board will become too hard to turn.


Remember last weeks photo of TOOTS Hanging Ten ?  Look how much of rear half of the board is in the wave. The fin is not holding down the tail, the RAIL is.


Look how the wave is rolling over the tail.  That is the "lock".   The wave rolling over the rail is holding the tail down at the rear so you can be at the front.


She is walking with no lock.   Maybe she is just moving forward to stay on the wave, but I chose this photo to show you a tail that is not held down


70% of his board is being held down by the wave.  It does not last forever but just a second. But in that second you can do good noserides


Again if you do not create the lock or wait for the lock, the nose will go down.  

Larger fins do create more resistance side to side, but not much up and down.  

It is more important to be able to turn your board and control your board so then you can put it in the correct part of the wave to noseride   


Here I am on my 8'8" Southpoint Bonga Epoxy board. Water is flowing over the rail from the mid-section where the white area is behind my back foot.  You can see that mainly my rail is in the wave, not much of the nose area. My tail is "locked" in. 


Oh by the way,  I did not have a center fin, just the side bites.  

Learn to control the rail , not rely on the fin to noseride

From the best noseriding site ever!

  I've learned more from this blog than from anyplace ever.  check it out. Ki-chan no Korner

One time I asked someone at Waikiki beach if they would like a surfing lesson. He replied " I'm a snowboarder, so I don't need a surf lesson ".    That is funny, because it is actually harder to teach surfing to a snowboarder than to someone who has never been snowboarding.


Why ?  1st. because you dont need to "catch" the mountain, but you do need to catch the wave.  Surfing is 90% paddling and only 10% riding.    


2nd.  Snowboarder lean on the FRONT leg and slide the rear to turn.  Surfers lean on their BACK leg and slide the front to turn.  Notice the coach's weight is forward.  His student is a bit scared and leaning back, more like a surfers stance. The coach is saying " lean forward !"


3rd.  Snowboarders turn to SLOW DOWN or control their speed.   Surfers turn to GO FASTER or make speed. ( in surfing, when you cutback, you actually "come back" to the wave, which is where the power is )


look closely at this drawing made by the first foreigners to the Hawaiian islands.  Even then, the illustrator noticed that the surfers put their weight on the back foot. 


Sometimes you need to lean forward to make "flat sections" on a wave. But on a longboard it is better to take a step forward.  ( by looking down, it only brings the nose up, which makes matters worse )


See how he is shifting his weight FORWARD over his front leg.  His left hip is leading


looks sort of same here, even her hands position is the same.  She might also be a snowboarder.  One of the reason why she is turning this way is her left foot is turn in past 3 o'clock.  If she put her foot a 1 o'clock it "gives" power to the rear foot. 


See her right rear foot leaning inwards ? most her weight is on her front foot. Her hips are leading. 
This photo is from 2011


this photo is from 2013.  Habits are hard to break.  Take a lesson from a good surf instructor so he can point out any bad body lines or foot positioning before they become habitual. 


When the snowboarder goes too fast, he turns.  Thats why when a surfer goes snowboarding for the first time, he is surprised that he doesnt have to do anything to go fast , just go straight. 


but in surfing, the board flat to the wave is slow, being on rail is fast.  Opposite of snowboarding

If you are a snowboarder, you probably dont need a surf lesson,  you will need many !!

check out http://starb.on.coocan.jp/ to spot snowboarder stance

more tips

For the nose, here is my stuff, but I am a thousand times less than expert Bear: For me, longboard, the trigger was when instead of trying to "hover" on the nose, I started a to "bite" the nose into the wave by pressing firmly on the side, and have a feeling of "piloting airplane wing" as if the nose of your board that you had your hand through the door of your car "is the plane." Technically this means that it is necessary that the nose is well in the steep part of the wave, so quite high, so you have to force the edge to keep it there, even if it does not show necessarily the photos. If you let the board will only stall it will get too low, where there is no energy to carry you, you feel the nose "push water" Look at this picture (it's not me Photo :-) in wave height and pressing the inner edge, we can see that the nose does not grow water, the lift is given by edging. The board is almost a right angle to the surface of the water, you must have the feeling of being on a ledge at the edge of a vertical wall, and not on a skimboard has a flat glide. Driving is very dynamic, it is constantly being taken to adjust the lateral edge. 
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