Learning to Surf the Shortboard arrives after making progress on the fundamental early steps. A surfer first learns to catch foam waves on a soft top surfboard. Then he paddles out to catch bigger foam waves and attempt small real waves.
The transition from a soft top to a short board should be slow and patient. I suggest dropping size lengths only 6″ at a time while preserving the volume with width and thickness. In this process, the surfer is riding bigger real waves and learning a few maneuvers.
The Essence of Riding the Short Board
As the surfer progresses from the higher volume soft top to the lower volume hard boards, he is developing paddling stamina, learning to time real waves, and adjusting to less stability in catching waves and riding provided by the short board.
The three maneuvers the surfer has learned in his progress are bottom turning into the pocket off the face. Accelerating for speed by pushing the nose of the board up and down the wave with the front foot. And cut-backs in which the surfer reverses direction on the waves.
The main advantage of the short board is the deeper carves provided by narrower rails. Until you have progressed to the point you need this advantage, there is no reason to be in a hurry. One of the advantages of the short board is you can duck dive waves to minimize the impact of paddling out.
As the shortboard volume decreases, the surfer has to let the wave do more work to launch the surfboard. The surfer lets the wave roll under the surfboard and as the tail rises and the wave peaks over his head, he paddles hard 3 times to launch the board and do his pop up. Timing the waves takes judgment and courage. If the timing is not right the wave crashes on the surfer or he crashes popping up.
The shortboard is a tool to facilitate certain maneuvers. It does not make surfing easier. It is much more difficult to surf a short board that a higher volume board. Remember to keep the fun in the game and most surfers want to catch more waves, not crash on every one.
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Read a good book to get ready.
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