Carving for beginner surfers can begin in foam waves on a soft top board. First a beginner has learned to catch waves, pop up with balance and ride straight to the beach with hips and shoulders squared to the front, not snow board style.
Carving on Foam Waves
Once the surfer is squared to the front and riding a foam wave, they can begin a carve. The carve on a foam wave is the same motion as a carve on a real wave. The idea is to dig the edge into the water with appropriate pressure considering the speed.
A soft top board is thick and on foam waves you are moving slow, so it has to be very subtle. On real waves with a thin short board and moving fast, the surfer can really pressure the rails to carve up the face, make a cut back, or carve into the pocket off the face.
Start Carving by Moving the Eyes
The action always begins with the eyes looking in the direction of the carve. Then the head, shoulders, arms, and upper torso turn without moving the lower trunk. The surfer applies pressure to the toes and the board will dip a rail and turn.
If the surfer is regular footed with the left foot forward, turning to the right, he pressures his toes. Turning to the left, he pressures with his heels. If a surfer is goofy footed, its the opposite. Go subtle on foam waves.
Once the surfer is on real waves catching a face, he does a bottom turn to get into the pocket. This is following the same instructions as above and carving right or left. Then the surfer accelerates by moving the front foot up and down the wave causing the board’s nose to do the same.
With speed, carves are much easier. Once at speed, the surfer can carve up the face to escape a falling lip, do a trick like ripping the lip, or do an aerial. The surfer can also do a cut back to reverse direction by rotating in the opposite direction of travel using the instructions from above.
For Oceanside Surf Lessons, see the Home Page
See the Post Search Lessons Teach Fundamentals
See the Post Catching Real Surf Waves
See my Dry Land and in Water Demo video
See my other Surf site for more Posts
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