Beginner Surfers Progress to Short Board
Beginner Surfers Progress to Short Board with learning skills, building strength, and developing courage. Surfing is a full body sport and challenges the elements to reach top achievements.
The surfing set up is simple. A nice piece of equipment, a free ocean, and voila, you are riding waves. What is not so evident is how technical surfing is and how much strength and courage are necessary to surf big waves.
Learn the Fundamentals
Starting with the fundamentals on a soft top develop everything necessary. The surfer learns to time foam waves which is similar to real waves. The surfer learns the skills to pop up and ride straight to the beach. The surfer develops strength and courage from frequent trips to the beach.
To ride smaller volume boards the surfer must master the pop up and arriving on the board in the perfect stance. The feet should be shoulder width apart and the hips and shoulders squared to the front of the board. If the board goes straight to the beach in a foam wave, the stance is correct.
Moving to Bigger Waves
Then surfers begin paddling through the foam to ride bigger foam waves and soon looking for small real waves. The surfer uses all the same skills he has learned. The real wave arcs rather than push straight so the surfer has to get the small real waves at the bottom of that arc.
As real waves get bigger in the 4′ plus range, the surfer lets the arc of the real wave roll under the board. As the tail rises to the lip, the surfer makes three hard paddles to get down the face. Soft tops catch the waves easily and short boards use that arc for the power to go down the face to launch.
Learning the Maneuvers
After riding the face of the wave to the beach, the surfer learns to bottom turn into the pocket. The surfer turns his eyes and upper torso toward the direction of the carve. Then he lets the torque run down his body to the feet. The toes or heels which ever are on the side of the carve, pressure the rail into the wave to make the board turn.
The second good maneuver is accelerating. The surfer pushes the nose of the board up and down the face with his front foot. This gives the board speed to outrun the falling lip. The soft top can be driven in the pocket to the end of the power, but the short board has to be accelerated.
The surfer then learns the cut back. The cut back reverses the direction of travel. The surfer looks down the face of the wave and carves the nose toward the bottom to reverse direction. It is used to get back to the power, for style, or to stall waiting for the power.
Moving to the Hardboard
At this point, the surfer can consider a hard board. He should move down in size only 6″ at a time and maintain width and 21″+ and thickness at 2 3/4″. After starting with a 7’6″ fun board, the surfer moves shorter just 6″ at a time.
During the period of moving to lower volume boards, the surfer is mastering the techniques of wave catching and maneuvers with the new board. Each move shorter brings new challenges. Each move shorter brings the need for more paddling strength, more courage, and better pop ups.
More Posts
Oceanside Surf Lessons for Beginners
Beginner Surfers Learn the Pop Up
How to Progress to Surfing the Short Board
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