Twist

Just twist at the waist if you want to turn
I have heard some people tell beginner surfers to " just twist at your waist if you want to turn your (surf)board "

While that is some part true, turning goes from top to bottom. Eye, neck, shoulder, (then) waist, knees and lastly feet.


She is dropping down the face, looking forward and away at the oncoming lip


her board goes from Inside rail to transition to the flat bottom of her board. But notice she is looking ahead to her landing spot. WHERE YOU LOOK IS WHERE YOU GO.


Now watch this surfer's arms. Back hand is readying to swing forward


Notice you can see more of the bottom of the board, that is " being on rail ". Her eyes are focus on the part of the lip she wants to hit. Back arm is now coming across her chest area


at the top of the turn she rips her back arm down to swing the board back down. Eye, then neck, then shoulders


Here is a great approach. Wind up of the eyes and arms look good. But ......................


She only turned the top portion of her body. Her board stayed FLAT. Remember you need to go Down, Up then Around. She never transitioned from inside rail to outside rail and back. her body turned but her board is keep going straight.


again, Surfboard turn more like Motorcycles. Not flat like cars turn. Both surfboards and motorcycles lean to turn. The more pressure and greater angle the stronger the turn. That does not mean to Turn Harder.


setting up. looking at the lip. board is trimming on the inside rail


she turns the nose to the right as she gets on the tail to pivot off the fins and set her rail. ( how can you spot a good surfer ? you can see the fins on their turns )


BOOM ! explodes off the top. Notice her green front arm is leading the action. Her boad is transitioning from the flat bottom to outside rail.

Turning a surfboad is more than " twist your waist ". If that was true, then golf must be easy becuase you just need to " hit the little white ball ". ( and it even is not moving ! ).

If you want to turn your board, do up-and-downs, cutback etc. I can teach you.

in the mean time check out http://starb.on.coocan.jp/ for good turns and flat turns

soleus

By having a properly lengthened soleus muscle, you will increase your ankle's ability to dorsiflex when your knee is bent. The more lengthened your soleus muscle becomes, the greater ability you'll have to dorsiflex while undergoing deeper knee-bent positions -- hence the better balance you'll have on your surfboard. In summary, if you're goal is to fit into tighter barrels (deeper knee-bent position), then a properly elongated soleus is necessary.

Soleus Stretch
Set-up: Position yourself facing a wall. Place your hands on the wall about shoulder high and shoulder-width about. Have your feet about shoulder width apart as well. Allow your front and back knees to bend slightly. Keep your back heel attached to the surface of the floor.

Response: You should feel a comfortable pulling in your back leg -- in your calf muscle belly.

Regimen: Hold each stretch for 30 seconds. Repeat 4 times. You can do these nearly daily as comfortably tolerated on both sides.

eyes again

The Eyes Have It

Todd Walsh | todd@surfstronger.com

A key body part you can employ in surfing is your eyes. Yes, your eyes, and more specifically "sighting" to help project where you are headed on a wave. A great surfing technique to improve your surfing performance is using your eyes to help initiate, and make solid and stylish turns. All good athletes -- be it an NFL quarterback, a major league baseball player, or even professional snowboarder, use their eyes to lead their movement. Look where you want to go, and your hips, then your board will follow.

Let's consider the backside off-the-lip -- a fundamental surf move, and one you want in your repertoire. There are three key moves within this maneuver, and you'll use your eyes and sighting to help make this turn.

HOW TO
1. As you paddle for the wave and make the drop, immediately look down the line to see how the wave is breaking. Once this quick assessment is made, look five to six feet ahead and look for a good section for a bottom turn.
2. As you go into your bottom turn you are already looking to the next section -- the mid-face or even top of the wave (Figure 1). This is the critical part of the turn and looking where you want your body and board to go, will help you get there.
3. As you approach the top of your turn start to think and look towards the bottom of the wave, the next place you are headed (Figure 2).

And so this repeats on down the line, or on the next wave.

Try to remember this tip on your next session. Use your eye sight and look where you want to go before you are there.

See you in the water,

Best of

You need to knead the rice before you pound the rice or it will not turn into mochi.  Kneading is 80%, pounding is 20%.  But most people only watch/know the 20% 


Same for Noseriding. When you think of noseriding you think of the surfer on the front of the board. Will that is the latter 20%.  Most of the work for a good noseride is in the set-up.  The creating of the "pillow" and "lock" which is 80%


Before you go forward, you need to go back ( or lean back ) to create an area on the wave to ride on that will support you without the nose dropping


See the "pillow" she is riding ? Also notice the the back of the board is locked down by the wave.  Lots of air under the nose of the board while she is still in the middle of the board. 


This is why Go Suzuki is a Pro.  He is actually doing a stall to set-up the noseride.  This type of stall is very uncommon.  Usually you lift up the nose, but he is burying the rail to slow down.  80% first


Then when the wave/time is right, he goes to the nose. You can just see the yellow board in the wave.  Good set-up leads to good noseride.   20% latter


Here is a great set up.  She is lifting the nose to stall the board and create the "pillow".  You can see the water going forward under the board.   Watch DVDs and you will see that forward spray right before the surfer walks to the nose.  


But it is not as easy of lifting the nose and then walking forward.  You need to have patience and timing.  She is now walking which is the latter 20% but she did not create the lock for the tail.  Notice you can clearly see the tail but no water flowing over it.  Plus the nose is too close to the water's surface and she is still in the middle of the board.  If she waited 1/2 a second more, the lock ( red arrow area ) would be there.  


Before you walk forward, you set up by stalling the board to create a "pillow" to ride on


You wait for the "lock" which is the wave curling over the tail before you walk.   If there is no lock, then it doesnt matter how good you walk.   No matter how much you pound, it wont turn into mochi without the kneading first



His head is Way behind his butt. He is doing a Lean or Arch turn. His head is still over the center of the board but his knees ( actually thighs ) are driving the board through the bottom turn.


Same thing here. Her lower body is leading the board to the turn in target point she is looking at. 


Notice Go Suzuki's body is really bowed out like a .......... hmmm ...

Last week we looked at the Japanese correct posture for sitting, standing, etc. And how it might effect your surfing technique


A straight up and down back leads to a sitting posture during surfing. It makes your center of balance behind your heels. Not good.


See here how her legs and back are aligned together. Another good point is she is looking to the future



You can see clearly her head and butt are behind her heels. So to make up for the imbalance she bends her knees out . Her legs and back are not aligned. 


She has great posture for surfing. The legs and back are aligned together. ( notice i used the seam off her right leg to mark the yellow line since that where her pressure is )



notice her knees are slightly bent but she is not crouching down



she picks up her back foot .....



crosses over her front foot. Her toes on her right foot are still at 3 o'clock since they were the back foot. See her front leg's shin can rest on her back legs calf.



now the front foot crosses back over the rear foot. notice she curls her toes over the nose. Perfect noseriding form. Eyes up and forward, soft knees and relaxed upper body.

Here is the Body English.  Her lower body is flowing up with the board but her upper body is still vertical (  she step all the way back to the green area to turn, spray coming off the left rail )

Rail Loading - Dont rock the boat
" loading the rail " is a technique good surfers do unconsciously.



this surfer just got up to her feet, but she positioned both feet on the inside (right) rail. Her eyes are up and looking down the line. Perfect rail loading 

watch some stylish long board surfers and you'll see something interesting.


that they smile yes, but also that their front toes lift up on their back side turns

see how she is focusing her eyes away from the soup to the clear open face of the wave Also she is surfing her " height ' , with her head over her butt. she is standing tall and not bent over

not all bent knees is bad, watch this great noseride set up

The Cutback

proper front side cutback
you can tell if a surfer has a good front side cutback or not by the way he "SQUARES " his shoulders


if you draw a line from right shoulder to my left shoulder, the angle should match the angle of the board on the water


you can see the angle of the water on the bottom of board matches the angle of the girls shoulders. also notice her right hand is higher than her left hand


hard to see here, but notice the inside hand is higher than the outside hand.
my shoulder matches the same angle has the board's deck


you can see here a more classical drop knee cutback , but same proper shoulder's "Squared" to the board . also notice where he is looking.
( photo from http://starb.on.coocan.jp/


here Hiro is powering through a front side cutback. Eyes looking through the turn, inside hand higher than the outside hand, shoulders square to the board
( see the bottom of the board matches Hiro's shoulders exactly

YOU CAN CAN DO A GOOD FRONT SIDE CUTBACK TOO !!

Front side cutback

front side cutback - open palm
to do a really nice cutback, watch this girl i found on http://starb.on.coocan.jp/


she twists her body counter clock wise towards the wave. notice where her right hand is


she looks back through the turn and now twists her body clock wise. now her right hand is totally open - palm open leading through the turn. also see the great power line from her head through to her feet


here the riders arm is locked to the body and palm closed which makes it hard for his torso to twist. his body is also "broken" , hinged forward at the waist


here same thing - arm locked to the body and palm closed. hand is stiff and not leading the turn


clearly you can see the surfers' open palm as he drags his finger tips to gauge the angle of the turn and create a pivot point


his wrist wants to go right but his shoulder is showing left because it is closed not open


eyes are okay but her shoulder is restricting her neck from turning more. again wrist/palm closed.


see the surfers right arm flexing ? her inner elbow is fully open trying to almost bend backwards. this is awesome technique