Learning Short Board Surfing Maneuvers

Mark
March 4, 2021
4:07 pm

Learning short board surfing maneuvers can begin with intermediate surfers after they have learned to catch real waves. The maneuvers help surfers ride and enjoy the waves.

The most important are the bottom turn, accelerating, and the cut back. With these three as the basics, surfers can move on to add other techniques. It is important that a surfer has mastered catching and riding real waves to the beach without falling off to enjoy advanced maneuvers.

The Basic Maneuvers for Short Board

The bottom turn is one of the two most essential maneuvers. It is used carving off the face of the wave into the pocket and riding up the face of the pocket to do a trick or to escape a falling lip. It is executed by turning the upper body toward the direction of the turn and placing pressure on the toes or heels that are on the side of the turn.

Accelerating is needed to get speed in the pocket to perform a trick or maneuver. It is executed by pushing the nose of the board up and down the face of the wave with the front foot. Three pushes are considered sufficient to perform a trick. Once a trick is performed, the surfer accelerates for the next one.

A cut back has many purposes. A surfer cuts back to return to the lip where the power of the wave is. A cut back is performed to stall while waiting for the power to catch up like before a barrel. A cut back is a style move and can be executed completely or just partially to break up a routine.

The cutback is performed by turning the upper body in the direction of the turn and placing pressure on the heels or toes in that direction.

Surfers can learn by watching video and other surfers in the water. Have fun.

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