What surf tips do I need to progress? That's the big question many beginners ask after spending hours trying to catch the face of a wave without success. We'll give you some surf tips that can help you get past this frustrating stage.
It's often a feeling of frustration when you realize you're paddling, standing up, and "surfing" the foam, which has already lost all its power and surfability. The truth is, that transition from "foam" surfer to "wave face" surfer is one of the many transitions that surfing offers along the learning path. But undoubtedly, it's one of the most complex.
To make it clearer, the PROBLEM is as follows:
- You paddle with all your strength, the wave pushes you, you feel its power and momentum, and you also feel yourself "dropping into the wave" in a prone position (lying on the board).
- When the moment comes that you feel your board is firm and stable, and you decide to stand up, you manage it with difficulty and in 3 steps.
- You are standing firm, feeling like the king of the world, but immediately you realize that you are surfing on a wave that has already broken. Basically, what is known as the "whitewash" of the wave. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
Basically, and to summarize, the gap that exists between surfing the whitewash and surfing the face of a wave is due to the following factors or mistakes that you are probably making.
Check out these surf tips to correct them and progress:
Surf Tip for Progress 1. INSUFFICIENT PADDLING:
Your paddling is your introduction to the wave, it tells it who you are and how far you're willing to go. Weak paddling doesn't allow the board + body combination to break the inertia they're in. Therefore, the speed you'll reach when the wave arrives will be lower compared to if you were already moving before it (the wave) reached you.
It is very important that your board (and you) are already moving before the wave reaches you. This requires good paddling. Put your fingers together, sink your hands deep into the water, and be aware that you must move forward. Train!
Surf Tip for Progress 2. VERY SLOW POP-UP:
Beginners usually stand up in two or more stages. The correct pop-up is in just one movement. You must go from a prone position to a standing position in less than a second, in an agile, fast, but CONTROLLED movement (a topic for another chapter).
When your pop-up is too slow, even if you have paddled correctly and are on the face of the wave, it will close and break before you can stand up on its face. The time it takes for a wave to break depends on the specific characteristics of the seabed and the place where you decided to catch the wave. In general, it is a fast process, which requires a pop-up of the same characteristics.
Surf Tip for Progress 3. YOUR BODY POSITION:
Ok, you've paddled hard, stood up agilely, and are on a clean, still-forming wave. Usually, the beginner in this situation drops into the wave standing and continues straight ahead, perpendicular to the beach shoreline, meaning there is no lateral movement and therefore no possibility of "surfing" the wave, because inevitably if you don't make that lateral movement "looking for" the face of the wave, it breaks and you will continue straight ahead, once again surfing in the whitewash.
Another fundamental surf tip for your progress is that where your body and board go once you're standing on a wave face fundamentally depends on where your gaze is directed. It sounds strange, but your gaze is the element that will ultimately guide the movement of your head and then the movement of your body. "The body goes where the eyes look" and that is really important not only in the initial stages of surfing (also a topic for another chapter of this section).
Surf Tip for Progress 4. YOUR BOARD:
It seems that those who surf on those giant, colorful, school boards are condemned to surf in the whitewash forever. The truth is that another very important point for learning to surf waves is your board, and specifically the RAILS of your board. The rails are the edge of a surfboard, which usually have a lower profile, or are thinner than the rest of your board. This is fundamental for your board to "rail" like a real train on its tracks on the face of the wave, so you don't leave it until it reaches the shore (or until the ride lasts). Look at the profile of your rails, do they meet these characteristics? If you have a Flysurf board, rest assured, all models have this characteristic, with their low-profile shaped rails, which cut into the wave like real knives, allowing you to rail and find the fine tune on the face.
I hope, friends, these simple surf tips for progress are useful to you. Keep surfing, reading the sea, and remember to re-read these tips just before entering the water and, above all, put them into practice! If you need more tips to progress, click on these 13 surf tips for beginners. Hugs.
Wolf.
Flysurf Team. #SurfBetterNow!
www.flysurfboards.es
