SUP Surf 101 Basic Track Chapter 4–Up and Surfing

This ebook is being written in four parallel paths: Basics; Surfing; Theory, and Conditioning.  It will also eventually have a lot of pictures and video added. I have an outline, a shot list, and plans for the videos, but they have to wait until I can get to them. Chapter 4 of the Basic track covers catching waves. Source material include:

Learn to Surf: Intermediate Level

The Art of Surfing: A Training Manual for the Developing and Competitive Surfer

Let’s go surf.

Chapter 4: Up and Surfing

You’re in the lineup, away from other surfers, looking outwards at the waves with your board pointed more or less in the direction down the wave you want to go. If you’re standard foot your board is pointed to surfer’s right, goofy foot you’re pointed surfer’s left. (Surfer’s right means to the right as you face the beach, which is where you will be looking once you catch the wave. Since you are currently facing the wave your board will be pointed to your left).At this point in your surfing career, you are not ready to go to the backside on a wave, which means ride the wave with you back to it, you’re going to surf frontside, with your body facing the wave.

You are centered on your board, feet in a parallel stance, and you’re comfortably riding swells and chop. When a wave comes that you don’t want to take, you turn your board to point straight at it, paddle a little to power over the wave, then turn back sideways to your ready position. You see a wave you want to take. The peak is coming straight at you and no one else is getting ready to try for the wave. You move your rear foot back towards the tail to raise the nose a little, give some short, wide sweeps with your paddle to turn the board towards the beach. You pick a target on the beach to paddle towards, and start paddling to gain some momentum. As you feel the tail of the board start to lift, you shift your weight rearward a little and start paddling hard. The board accelerates well but is hanging on the lip of the wave a little.  You lean forward and stroke hard and fast, the paddle strokes ending before they reach your feet. The board drops into the wave and starts to shoot for the bottom, so you lean your weight backwards to pull the nose up so it won’t pearl at the base of the wave. You’re zooming straight down the wave. You look over your shoulder to the left to make sure no one is coming towards you, then to the right in the direction you want to turn. With a small weight shift towards the right rail–really not much more than just thinking about turning–the board swings gently in that direction and you’re trimmed in, riding the wave fast across it’s face.

The waves starts to crumble in front of you, with a big whitewater section forming that blocks your path. You straighten out and point the nose towards the beach, leaning back on the board to keep the whitewater from lifting the tail, and pressing back with your paddle to stabilize yourself in the turbulent ride. As the wave starts to peter out, your board drops out of the wave, you turn the board around and paddle back out to the break.

This little scenario describes a very simple ride on a wave. No big bottom or top turns, no cutbacks, just catching the wave,  gentle changes of direction and a smooth, trimmed ride. Let’s take it apart and make sure you understand how to do each part of it, and outline both some practice moves and some corrective actions to take when you have problems.

Find the Peak

In a moderate-sized wave it’s very useful to find the peak. This is that place where the wave will break first and it is the steepest section of the wave–the steepness makes it much easier to catch and ride the wave. When you are looking out a a wave you can easily recognize a peak–it’s taller and more defined than the rest of the wave. But as the wave moves towards you the peak may move around or almost disappear. This is caused by varying bottom contours. In general you need to watch waves at any particular break for awhile to figure out where the peak is going to form to produce a rideable wave. The peak will not form in the same place every time. How the energy is distributed in the wave has almost as much influence over the position of the peak as the bottom contour does. You may be able to tell though that a wave that has an outside peak 50 yards to your left is going to have a peak at the break that’s ten yards to your right.  So you paddle to where you believe the peak will be and take the wave.

If the break has other surfers in it, even those that are fairly far away, they can be right next to you in a few seconds if they catch a wave and ride the face well. If they are closest to the shoulder (to your left if the shoulder is breaking to the right) then they have the right of way–it’s their wave. You need to stay out of their way. If you see someone coming at you, either turn out of the wave, or drop down onto your board and sit on the back end. DO NOT bail out and let your board run to the end of it’s leash, DO NOT fall and let your board get away. If you do your board will probably hit them, and they will either be injured or righteously angry at you.

Paddling To Catch The Wave

Once you have an idea where the peak will be, paddle to that point, turn towards the beach, and start to paddle. You may find that you have a hard time turning the first few times. In your excitement (and maybe a litle fear) you are forgetting how to turn, probably standing in the middle of the board, taking ineffectual little dabs with the paddle. Calm down, take a big step back with your rear foot, lean back a little, put the paddle in in the water up near the nose and sweep outwards to 90 degrees. Don’t sweep further, you’ll just be pushing against the fin. Several smooth strokes from the nose to 90 degrees will turn the board quickly.

If you turned properly your foot is already back. All you need to do to complete the surfer’s stance is bend your knees and keep you back straight. Surfing is largely balance, and balance is largely posture. Shoulders squared, knees bent, looking at the shore, start paddling. DO NOT take long strokes. Short strokes from the nose to your feet, or even shorter, will aid your balance and keep the nose light which helps acceleration. Long, sweeping strokes pull the the tail down at the end of the stroke and pull your weight forward as you lift the paddle.

As you start to feel the tail lift from the wave,  paddle harder, keeping your strokes short but increasing the pull and the cadence. As you feel the wave take the board, be prepared to shift your weight back to pick the nose up to keep from pearling. Depending on your board’s design, you may have to shift a lot of weight back, and even move your feet back further.

If the wave starts getting away from you, pushing the board but starting to get ahead, you can paddle harder and pull against the face, you can shift more weight forward to try to tip the board over the face, or even thrust the board forward with your feet and hips. Or you can just let it go–there’s plenty of waves. Though that raises the specter of the next wave and the possibility of being caught inside, which we’ll cover in detail later.

Turning and Running

There’s nothing wrong with running straight in front of the wave if you are by yourself–in a popular lineup you’ll be detested, but in your own wave, off by yourself it’s OK, but it’s a bumpy ride. The wave will break and you’ll be in the turbulent whitewater. You really want to be on the shoulder in the smooth and powerful water as long as possible. Most of the maneuvers people make in waves are aimed at staying in the sweet spot. But you don’t have to rip up a wave like Dave Kalama to turn, trim in and get a nice ride from a wave.

Technically speaking, any turn you make at the bottom of a wave is a bottom turn, but we’ll tell you later how to do the powered-up driving turn that most people think of when someone says “Bottom turn”.  For now we’re going to proceed more gently because you are probably not going fast enough to slash a turn.

The first determinant of how a turn is made is the speed you are holding. If the board is moving slowly, leaning back and pushing hard on a rail will pivot the board sharply, digging the rail and bringing the board to a halt. You won’t know all that happened because you’ll be under water.  If your board is gliding along you need to make gentle adjustments to initiate a turn, and gentle trimming to exit the turn.

It’s easiest for a beginner to turn in the directions your toes are pointing–so if you’re a regular foot your first turns should be towards the right, goofy foot will turn left. All turns engage your lower and upper body, your shoulders, arms, hips, knees and your ankles. But when you’re first learning how to manage these pivot points it’s best to concentrate on just a few and let the rest take care of themselves.

First, try to keep your upper body quiet. That doesn’t mean stiff: Stay loose, stay athletic and poised, but don’t wave your arms around and don’t pivot forward at the waist. Look in the direction you want to turn. Use your knees and ankles to press on the balls of your feet and your toes, lifting your heels gently. Your board will start to turn, probably a little sharper than you had in mind. Surfboards are subtle instruments, it doesn’t take much to make them respond. As the board turns and starts to climb the face of the wave, flatten the board by centering your weight on your heels and the balls of your feet. Bend your knees, keep your back straight, and your board will fly along the face of the wave. Going straight is just riding a wave. Now you’re surfing.

A Clean Exit

Once you’re up and running along a face the temptation is enormous to go as far as the wave will take you. Unfortunately that could be into water that’s too shallow. You want to exit the wave at a point of your choosing, not by having your fin smack a coral head. The easiest way is to simply sit down. Bend at the knees, then at the waist, grab the board by the rails and sit down with your legs in the water. Your board will stop quickly and you’ll look like a pro.

Don’t get in the habit of simply falling off the board, and never hop off feet first. In the tropics you’ll be asking for coral and rock cuts, or much worse. A Sea Urchin could be waiting there for you like an underwater porcupine. A dozen or so inch-long barbed spines broken off flush in your foot will ruin your whole day. But anywhere you surf it will pay to learn to be “one with the surface”. You want to fall flat with a huge splash. Spread out like a starfish. And once you are in the water treat the bottom like it was poison. Don’t put your feet down, slide onto your board and paddle out. Coral may cut you up, but you’re actually harder on the coral than the coral is on you. Stepping on coral kills it. Keep your feet up.

You can also turn out of the wave. To do this just press the rail down with your toes and hold the turn until the board curves out of the wave. This doesn’t work if the board is in whitewater or the wave is sectioning in front of you and the whitewater in the section hits your board. The turbulence will turn your board back toward the beach, usually without you on it.

And finally you can turn out of the wave by stepping back onto the tail of the board. shuffle back a bit until the nose comes up and the board will lose way in the wave and slip back out of it. You can help this by dragging your paddle in the water.

Once you are out of the wave, you need to look out at the next waves and see where you stand. If you caught the first wave of a set you might have some big stuff bearing down on you. Stay alert and prepare yourself to get back to the lineup.