Riding bigger waves on a soft top board comes with dedication, practice, and courage. Many new surfers think moving to a shorter board helps, but it doesn’t until a rider needs more assistance with carving. That is advanced surfing and a surfer learns a lot before that.
The reason a surfer begins in foam waves is to learn all the advanced fundamentals in a safe environment. The surfer learns timing on waves, how to pop up and how to ride on waves that won’t hurt him. As he builds skills and courage, he moves to bigger foam waves and then real waves. This assumes you are practicing on a sand bar beach where real waves turn to foam.
Riding Bigger Waves on Soft Tops
Once the surfer has mastered the shore break, he paddles out to catch bigger foam waves and begin riding small real waves. On the small real waves, he lets the wave come under the board and paddles down the face. The timing difference is that a surfer allows the foam wave to hit the board, but on a real wave he wants to paddle to catch the arc before there is any impact.
As the bottom of the arc comes under the surfboard, the surfer paddles until the tail is up and the nose is facing down. Then he paddles hard for a few strokes and pops up riding down the face. If the waves are small and steep, the longer board might want to pearl. The surfer has two other choices. If the wave is not too steep, he can catch the wave and before popping up, he points the nose toward the pocket. Then when he pops up he is facing sideways and not straight down.
The other approach is good for first tackling big waves or if they are too steep. The surfer watches where the foam comes over the lip, called the apex, and paddles down line where the wave is unfolding. Then at a 45 degree angle towards the beach, he allows the wave to roll under him. Then he catches it as he is still riding at a 45 degree angle toward the beach. Here he is catching the pocket without the drop.
Surfers have to learn the bottom turn to get into the pocket off the face. The surfer turns his eyes and upper torso toward the carve. Then he places a little pressure on his toes or heels, whichever are on the side of the direction being traveled, and carves a turn into the pocket. Then he accelerates on the wave by pushing the nose of the board up and down with his front foot before beginning a maneuver or trick.
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