How to Catch Surfing Waves on Short Boards

Mark
April 1, 2021
2:54 pm

People taking lessons often want to learn how to catch surfing waves on short boards. It is a journey of slow patient progress requiring conditioning, practice, observing, courage, and patience.

It is important that surfers have first learned all the fundamentals on soft top boards and can catch and ride real waves on soft tops including the maneuvers of bottom turns, cut backs, and accelerating before moving to shorter hard boards.

The Fundamentals of Catching Real Waves on Short Boards

As a surfer progresses from longer surf boards to shorter boards, three things become more difficult. First is the paddling. Lower volume boards sink further into the water making it more strenuous to paddle.

Secondly is popping up and riding. The smaller boards are less stable and the pop up has to be more accurate. Thirdly, is the wave needs to be arcing over the surfer’s head to supply the power to a lower volume board.

In catching a real wave with a short board, the surfer lets the wave roll under the board. Then when the nose is pointing down, the surfer paddles hard 3 times and pops up. If the surfer is going straight down the face, he then bottom turns into the pocket and accelerates to get ahead of the falling lip.

On fast breaking close out type waves often found on sand bar bottom beaches, the surfer will often catch the wave and then point the board towards the pocket before popping up.

Another easier way to catch real waves on short boards is to paddle towards the corner away from the apex where the wave is smaller and not breaking. In this maneuver, the surfer is paddling at a 45 degree angle towards the beach instead of straight at the beach when going down the face. This allows the wave to roll under the board at an angle an it is not as steep.

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