Surfing the Short Board is the goal of many new beginners who were enticed to surfing by movies, the culture, and visiting the beach. The short surfboard is like the Top Gun of surfing. The best athletes and professionals perfect their surfing on the shortboard.
The surfing shortboard is a low volume board which is the measurement of length x width x thickness. The lower the volume, the easier it is to make the cuts and throw the board around, so to speak. The short board is most effective on medium size waves from 4′ to 20′. After that, many surfers are opting for “guns” which can handle more speed of bigger waves.
Progressing to the Short Board
The beginner short board surfer has to pay his dues. He begins with the foam board mastering the fundamentals in foam waves. He builds technique, timing, and courage. He paddles out through the shore break foam waves for bigger foam waves. He becomes used to the increased speed, power, and weight of bigger waves. Then he begins to catch small real waves in the 2′ to 3′ range.
All this can be mastered on a soft top board. The advantage of the soft top board is it is easier to paddle. Until a surfer has developed the strength and stamina necessary for lower volume boards, he will have more fun learning on a higher volume board. When a surfer is riding 4’plus waves and executing the maneuvers of bottom turns into the pocket, accelerating for speed, and cut backs, he can start thinking of a hard board.
Getting to the First Hardboard
Slow progress perfecting all the steps makes the move to shorter board much easier. The surfer starts with a fun board which is 7’6″ long, 21″+ wide, and 2 3/4′ thick. This orients him to paddling a lower volume board. Hard boards were meant for real waves so until the surfer is only riding real waves, he should not move to a hard board.
When the surfer can execute the same maneuvers of bottom turns, accelerating, and cutbacks on the 7’6″ board he might think of shorter. He should only move shorter 6″ at a time. As this happens, the paddling stamina needs to increase. If a shorter board makes sessions shorter, the move may have been too fast. The shorter board will make carves easier, but catching real waves changes because now the board needs more power from the wave. This means the surfer lets the wave roll under him and lift the tail so he can just paddle down the face.
How to Execute the Carves
Bottom turns are executed like all carves with moving the eyes in the direction of the carve and then the upper torso creating a torque that reaches the feet and is applied to the toes or heels, whichever is on the side of the carve direction. Cutbacks are the same, but the surfer is reversing his direction so he will be going down the face of the wave.
After a surfer executes a bottom turn to get into the pocket, he executes a bottom turn to get up the face for a trick. To get the speed for this maneuver, he wants to accelerate. Accelerating is pushing the nose of the board up and down the face with the front foot. This only has to be done two or three times. On close out waves, a surfer may only have time for a few tricks.
The short board technically starts at 6′ 10″, but there is no need to keep getting shorter. Lots of fun can be enjoyed with more volume and the surfer only wants shorter if he has the stamina to paddle and can utilize the smaller volume for more aggressive carving. The shorter board doesn’t make the surfer better. The skills have to be in place to utilize the advantages.
Read Other Posts:
Beginner Surfers Learn on Soft Tops
5 Steps to Improve Surfing Performance
3 Ways to Catch Real Surfing Waves
Training to Ride the Surfing Short Board
Short Board Surfing Techniques
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