The Techniques of Riding a Short Board
Many intermediates who have learned to ride real waves want to ride shorter boards and learn The Techniques of Riding a Short Board. The transition begins with mastering the fundamentals on a soft top and the gradually moving to shorter boards while not trying to lose too much volume.
The volume of a surfboard is the length x width x thickness. As surfers move from an 8′ soft top to a shorter board, they should move 6″ at a time while trying to maintain the width and thickness at 21″+ and 2 3/4″ thick. This makes the transition easier.
Learning the Basics
Surfing consists of paddling, catching waves, popping up, riding the pocket and doing maneuvers or tricks. It takes a lot of years to move through the progression to learn everything. In the process the surfer is learning to judge waves, build skills, get in better condition, and build courage. Everything is needed as a surfer moves to shorter boards and rides bigger real waves.
In catching a real wave, the surfer lets the wave come under the board and as the tail rises he paddles hard down the face a few times until the wave catches the board. Then he pops up and rides until he does a bottom turn into the pocket. A sandbar beach has a steeper wave that closes out and pop ups have to be quicker. A reef wave usually has a more gentle face that is easier to catch and gives a surfer more time to reach the pocket. Most islands have reef waves that are gentle at smaller sizes.
Selecting the Waves and Beach to Ride
When a wave is steeper, the surfer often points the board towards the pocket before catching the wave or catches the wave and then points the board toward the pocket before popping up. These techniques prevent pearling. The surfer has to get in front of the falling lip. The next technique is to accelerate by pushing the nose up and down the face with the front foot.
Once the board has speed from two or three pumps the surfer can do his first maneuver. Most advancing surfers like to rip the lip which is doing a bottom turn up the face and then a cut back at the top to return to the bottom. A bottom turn begins with looking in the direction of the turn and moving the upper torso in that direction which torques the feet. Then the surfer applies pressure to the toes or heels, whichever is on the side of the turn.
Getting the Cut Back and Moving to Other Maneuvers
The cut back is reversing direction. The surfer looks down the face of the wave and turns is upper torso toward the reversal while pressuring toes or heels on that side of the board. The surfer swings the outside hand around the front of his body as he executes the carve. Once in the pocket again, he accelerates with two or three pumps and gets ready for the next maneuver.
This process sets up the rest of the maneuvers and tricks such as 360s, aerials, floating the lip, and other tricks. Move to lower volume boards slowly as you learn the maneuvers with each length board.
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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