X

X-Factor Japan
Proper foot placement is important to turn a surfboard. Your front foot should be pointed about1-2 o'clock and back foot pointed at 3 o'clock for regular foot surfers. Or 10-11 o'clock front foot and 9 o'clock for the rear foot for Goofy foot surfers


notice here you can see the outside ankle bone of her left foot. her foot is turned "in" too much.


when she puts pressure or pushes down on her legs, the knee joint bends making the knee caps come together causing the X-Factor


different girl , same problem. front foot at 3-4 o'clock


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


she gets to the nose , then too adjust trim ........


instead of stepping back , she softens her knees to allow her legs to become shock absorbers like on a car. that's good "X"


but here the leg should be pushing against the wave not absorbing the wave


here Kitamura Pro doing a drop cross bottom turn


here Ito-san , cross stepping to the nose.


the surfer on the orange board is doing another type of X-Factor on take-off. ahhhhh ...... no comment ............

more photos at http://starb.on.coocan.jp/

The Eyes

Where you look, is where you go
In riding a bike or motorcycle, where you look is where you go.

Same for surfing. If you look down you go down. If you look to the end off the wave you go to the end of the wave.


the rider eyes are looking slightly up. Why ?


Because he wanted to go up to hit the lip. But now where are his eyes looking ?


he is now looking down to sight for a landing spot


here staring at the feet brings your body down to the feet


looking down and to the side causes the head to rotate past the butt


when you stare at the nose the nose comes to you.


looking down at the board causes the board to straighten out ....


which makes you ride in the bumpy soup. notice in the above photo the clear shoulder running away


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


notice he is looking at something in the distance. little hard to tell


now you can clearly see he is looking at the breaking lip


look up go up. now he is looking down to go down.


Don't look at your feet. Don't look at the board. keep your eyes up and look to the future. ........... this person didn't take my advice

please check http://starb.on.coocan.jp/ for more photos

On Your Toes

Up yours .... Toes !
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


why lift your toe ? to transfer weight to the back foot while still controlling the swing rate of the nose


if she kept her toes on the board, her weight would have been more forward.


another way to shift the weight back is to actually step back. but that takes more energy and time. plus this looks more stylish


do not focus on lifting your toe. focus on looking through the turn and twisting your core. the toe will happen naturally

just a slight lift makes a big difference



toe up toe down, main thing is have fun. style just like fashion is up to you.

check http://starb.on.coocan.jp/ for more stylish surfers

Spring!

Spring Action
to gain speed or travel up the wave, a surfer needs to know how to pump the surf board.

imagine your body as a steel spring. you can make yourself small ( compressed ) or make yourself tall ( extended ).

This is his top turn. Notice his leg is almost fully extended ?



at the very end of the turn , he pulls his legs back in


now his body is fully compressed ( or coiled up ) eyes are looking up


and just like the first photo, he his legs explodes outwards like a spring extending


looking down the line, he compresses his body to get down the wave. The nose is pointing downwards

right after the bottom turn , he extends his legs fully. The nose is now going upwards


compressed with knees bent


still compressed. There was no "spring" action


back knee is bent but front leg is stiff which causes the nose to rise which maybe on purpose, but the back is leaning forward restricting the action


again body compressed.


and again still compressed


here she extends her legs off the bottom turn


at the top she compresses her legs/knees to tighten up the turn. And now she is ready to extend off the next bottom turn

Do not make the mistake of bringing your head/torso to the board. Compress and extend the legs NOT the upper body. Make the board go up and down, not your body

Please check http://starb.on.coocan.jp/ for more surfers with "spring" action

The Bottom Turn

Setting up for a Backside bottom turn
During a Backside Bottom Turn, be careful that your back hand DOES NOT go over your head



she looks fine, but notice her front arm is "locked" down.



Since the front arm is limiting her hips from twisting, the back arm rolls "over" the head. That causes the body to over rotate and fall backwards



Front arm is leading the rotation of his hip, his center of gravity is low and his back arm is in front of his chest.



back arm rotates with the front arm across the chest. see his legs compress ( coil ) to spring back thru the turn.



her front arm too is locked down. Hand is high and away from the chest.



which leads to LEANING not TURNING. Can you see her back toes coming off the board ?



back arm coming across the chest , palm facing out. Right after this, she can rip that arm back during the backside cutback. Coil up , then un-coil out



Hey this is not a backside bottom turn ! Correct, this is Tom Curren doing a frontside cutback. a frontside cutback is similar to a backside bottom turn.


Practicing your backside bottom turns will make you do better frontside cutbacks.


some photos from http://starb.on.coocan.jp/