Great, I’m not on my own! 😂 We can trade frustrations :) Martin Dunn is good and his structure of teaching is great. I’m kind of struggling to pull it all together
Another great video James. My 2c worth... A suggestion: Watch some Joel Tudor videos. Notice how his back arm steers the board. His front arm just stays out of the way. An observation: In the Martin Dunn pop up video the guy is popping up off his toes. You can only do this on a longboard. Popping up on a shortboard is a lot more difficult. Hope this helps! You're doing great mate - just keep going. 🤙
Very cool. You have the perfect attitude to become a very good surfer. One thing in particular that stands out to me is your weight distribution in both your bottom turn and your roundhouse. Currently, I'd describe it as rather heavy on the back foot. That kills your speed and dynamism. These should be driving maneuvers where you engage more of your rail line and GENERATE speed. Perhaps experiment with going front foot heavy in both of these turns and report back. Best of luck! Subscribed.
Engaging the rail needs proper explanation because I have the feeling it's a rabbit hole! Which I'm more than happy to go down :) Thanks so much for the input, really appreciate people like you sharing your thoughts and trying to help. Thankyou
Awesome, you the man 💪 What’s your thoughts on board position? What I mean by that is the vertical position of the board relative to the say the surfer’s hips? It looks like people who have the rail fully engaged have the board up and in front of them. Appreciate there are a lot of details to a turn and having some speed as you are about to turn is paramount. Could watch those slater turns all day
I think that goes hand in hand with leaning more into your turns. Your board needs to push back into your turn so that you don't just fall off. Getting the board up to the hips almost gets the deck of the board parallel to your body wich alows you to get the most amount of push back so you can really lay it down. Ofcours you also need speed to be able to go through these kind of body/board positions. In the thumbnail of the video video I think you actualy perform your best turn and you are kind of suprised and end up falling becaus you can't control the speed you get. So I would tell you to really exaggerate those movements and experiment with fully falling backwords and just pushing that turn. Worst case you fall, but you just need those glimps of exceleration and drive that make you go "that's it".
@@nelson9027 Surprised is probably spot on :) Exaggerating the movements is good advice. Next session coming soon, will try and thanks for all your input
Really nice content and concept. I think you need to learn to engage the rail. Through most of your turns you stay on top of the board and it stays flat in the water. This makes you slow down and screws up the fluidity of a good turn. If you watch kelly and snoopie you can see they almost always set up there turns by turning slyghtly to the opposite side first and then turn the board on rail around there center of mass. This way they get a kind of slingshot effect and excelerate. I think surfskating will really help you catch this feeling of exceleration and unweighting the board. Keep up the stoke and the grind, cheers
@@averagejoe6355 first of all you need to engage the turn by rolling the board, frontside you aply a lot of heel presure and try to flex the ankles. Once the board is rolling you need to learn to shift your center of mass over the rails of the board. Frontside it's like dropping your but on to your favorite sofa. This will drop the rail further into the water making it possible for you to push against the board so you can knife trough your turn and excelerate. You can also use your leading arm to to guide you. You need to imagine yourself falling backwards into your surf stance and placing your leading hand onto a stool next to your outside rail and then pivot around it.
Can see the progress! Can't help but think back to your video in Morocco and the importance of putting your practice in the Wave into 'the real world'. Have you got any more trips lined up?
Great stuff dude! Can really see you opening that front arm up like you said you wanted. Especially in one clip specifically your front hand was facing up. Looked great. I think another thing to think about is where you’re placing that turn. You’re going for cutbacks. And snoopy does a great job pumping & getting infront of the wave - which gives him time to really draw out that turn. Sometimes you can see yourself starting a turn, realise oh fuck I’m deep in the pocket and have to almost cancel it halfway. I’d love to see you try to pump, wait at the top of the face for just a second then really draw that turn out. Almost like waiting a beat between moves. Love snoopy doing that little fin release at the end. From the slow mo I was like “oooh that section is nice pleeeease hit it - BANG”. Might be able to get my first Bristol wave session in a couple weeks.Pretty excited to absolutely kook it up, coming from Newquay.
Thanks for the great comment and input! I’m clearly trying to figure it all out and there are loads of levers but the line Snoopy takes, a free links to get out in front, is something I’m going to try. Hearing him talk about speed and it impacting his choice of turn and how he approaches the wave was super cool. I think I need to get that rotation improved and get both arms going back up towards the white water. So much to do…..
You need more speed. Literally use 1 wave to do one turn. The lack of speed and your size means you will bog every time. The 1ft wave pool puss is doing you no favours. Take a holiday to a decent right point break with a good swell. A larger wave will give you speed on tap and allow you to do 10 turns on 1 wave and really start to get a feel for the "wrap" and how much or little you can do with any given speed. You look flat footed on your board. I would look at working on effectively generating speed. Good surfers generate this from the bottom turn stemming from a well timed take-off. You have neither. This leaves you the task of using the length of wave to get it. You can't activate your lead arm as you do mot have the speed to wrap the turn. Lastly, ensure your back foot is right at the back in the block of your tail pad. 2" inches can make a massive difference in arc tightness, especially at low speed. Native how many small wave specialists move their foot backwards just before commencing the turn
Lots of progress here. There are several good comments already. I agree with HF: you're surfing "flat." It's making you look undervolumed. Your torso is locked (enslaved) to your legs. It really should be the other way around, or, your legs and torso should be quite independent. Let me explain. The wave pool wave is the perfect wave to see and feel how, even on a shoulder or head high wave, pumping is required to link turns and sections; there's just not enough wave power otherwise. Paul demonstrates this well. Biggest difference I see between you and Paul is two things. 1. how active Paul is with his legs - he's loose, constantly moving them, always pumping the transition, and even when it looks like he's not, he takes advantage of the wave transition, by pushing his nose down into it (kind of like dropping in on a quarterpipe; wave is 3D not 2D!) and it translates to speed and energy. 2. A tricky thing next is how Paul is constantly pushing off his rail, pumping in the transition, yet he's not initiating turns with his legs. You'd almost assume with all that leg movement, that his legs are in charge, but for turns, it isn't the case. It's a relaxed, loose look - pump, pump, look of the head, big twist of the torso, slight delay, board turns. He looks, and then his arms, torso, hips, and legs follow. I know these concepts aren't anything new to you, but may be a different way to describe things you know! I like InfamousBeat's comment about the arm cue. You should be reaching with your left arm as if to touch the wave face (after looking over your shoulder of course). This is to bring your weight over the heelside rail. My big improvement in regards to these two came with frequent practice on my Carver surf trainer. I'd find a mellow ramp/transition, sometimes a mellow quarterpipe, but usually a flatish incline like a driveway, and focus on initiating turns with my head then arms/torso, then legs. I video taped sessions often to check form. Taking away all the extra elements like the drop in and waves made it easier to focus on the single variable I was working on. I love how on a surf trainer, you can pump the board just by sticking out your hands away from you on either side and simply twisting your torso left and right, kind of like a stretch we did in soccer we called the washing machine. You can totally feel how twisting your upper torso causes the hips and legs to follow, and it clicks. Riding boards on all kinds of transitions really lets you practice pumping, too. You get used to the idea of surfing as 3 dimensional, instead of 2. That is, you get to practice how springing your weight up and down on a transition, or weighting and unweighting through different aspects of turn or pump, generates different dynamics. All surfing turns are a variation of weighting and unweighting your body and energy. In a lot of ways, you are well past a surfer who only knows how to pump on the wave. You are linking turns together on a single wave, but I wonder how a session stepping back to focus on pumping and energy generation could get you feeling looser, getting you unweighting and weighting the board more, and be the step you need to unlocking your torso from your legs. Cheers and Godspeed
It's quite the game trying to get more on rail, find the body positing and positioning on the wave, let alone the timing to put it all together! Great comments about locked torso and lower body. I'm on this and this is why video is so good because to me they feel separated but clearly they are not! thanks for the share
You're surfing very "flat" and rushing things rather than engaging your rail. Surfing for me has been a series of "aha" moments where you change one small thing and realize a completely new "feel" and a ton more ability. My one tip is to try and keep that left arm on the outside of your left rail even when you're just surfing straight down the line. I think this might give you an "a-ha" moment.
If only it was that simple! 😂 feels like so much going on! Loving the leading arm outside the board rail suggestion. Appreciate it’s all about the torso rotation but all these suggestions that might help things click are brilliant. Super cool. Thank you 🙏
I kinda had this issue as well then realised that the opening of the arm by itself hardly does anything. It needs to be the result of you reaching down into the carve trying to touch the water (6:55), thus engaging the rail and getting a burst of speed on the way down. You also really need to sit into the turn as it's basically a BS bottom turn(6:56). On most of these waves too, it seems your head is lagging and you're not looking back hard enough, which forces you to stay flat and slows you down instead of accelerating back to the foam. Roundhouses are endless work in progress 😅💪🏻 For the pool as well, seems you might be undervolumed and stayin a little too far forward stance-wise which then forces you to swivel off the bottom rather than driving out🤔 Ask you friend Paul to let you try out his Js in Hyfy 😏
Hey dude - looks great! I’ve always found on cutbacks that dropping the leading arm down (turning your palm up) allows your to really open up and come all the way around
It’s a good point. If you want to be really dig into this then IMHO it starts even further back from the takeoff because I’m blowing a lot of time and speed, not making the drop efficiently. Then there is the discussion about the line to take and which location I’m actually paddling in…. But fundamentally it’s about speed, how much I have to start with and then what that opens up on the wave. So great point about seeing I don’t have enough speed for turn 1, I totally agree with this
It’s the speed I lose from the start which is annoying. All good, all part of improving and I’m not overly negative, just a realist who totally agrees with your observation. More speed / energy to do what you want and reach the top of the wave…. And the rabbit hole of how you achieve this. Should get someone good to share their thoughts on bottom turns / where to do them / how different waves impact them / deep vs shallow ones / when to use them…. Think you’ve touched on a cool topic
@@paulsamson2481will check it out, always keen to hear different opinions. Martin Dunn has some great stuff on the topic too. Quite the subject to get into
I think you’re kicking too much too soon. You want deep smooth strokes into waves and kick the last second for that last power. Too much kicking too soon just makes you wobble on your forward momentum and creates unnecessary drag. Your strongest paddles should be the 3/4th as you’re a second into stroking into wave, that’s where you should kick. Don’t kick during the first two strokes. If you find yourself needing to kick and paddle so much it means you’re out of position already. Basically don’t kick unless the wave already lifted you if that makes sense. And if you watch yourself here. You’re basically kicking more than paddling. Not the way into a smooth n proper catch. So forget the pop up and twisting even. You need to work on paddling, positioning and wave catching first. You can’t have a good pop up if your wave catch/entry is poor.
Love it! Thanks for sharing. Hate admitting this but the kicking is pure worry about missing the wave. It’s getting better and I’m working on the details so thanks for all the advice :)
@@FluffyAlpaca81 the packed line up one is indeed Anchor Point. It was an interesting experience being in that line up. The dark arts and skills to catching waves :) Got a lot more surfing done at other breaks, but fascinating non the less and to you point, absolutely better off surfing at other places, especially when there are 30+ options near bye.
@@nanay7701 It’s not that easy to say but I started with a very basic level of being able to catch waves on the advanced setting (wouldn’t catch them all) on a foamie then within a year I had done the first session on the barrel setting. I’d say at least 3-4 sessions a week. Are you a total beginner thinking of going to the wave pool or are you starting with some level of surfing ? What’s the context ?
@@averagejoe6355 thanks, not a total beginner. Waikiki or Intermediate wave current level. Just curious to know how regularly you have to go to develop as I know if you are an infrequent surfer, it takes a while to re-orientate yourself.
Fully agree - Dont think the perfect board exists ( think I would have been able to retire by now if youtube board reviews werent a thing) rode mids and shorts at the wave - mids fun but not when you cock up and they hit the wall...shorts are fun but not when you are out of position due to the guy in front going over... did find a large gulfstream space hopper as the nearest to perfect for the pool for me ( wide and flat but turns well) but not exactly great when out of my depth on a pumping northshore fuerte. Have and had a lot of boards (short to long and regret getting rid of my 9ft JOB log....:) ) and echo a sentiment from below in that a board suits the rider and wave on any given day - it just gets expensive as we get consumered :) Keep cracking on !
I got certain boards for certain conditions. I’m 36 yrs old, 6’1” 160lbs (185.4cm, 72.5kg) been surfing most my life. I usually ride a 5’5”(l65cm) 28L gremlin Pyzel. For anything above 10ft and barreling I have 6’1” round tail, super narrow and a lot of rocker. And four other boards in between like a quad swallow tail… etc. but I’ve never ridden in a wave pool. Mid lengths can be fun, especially like single fins. Those are funky and crazy to ride.
@@averagejoe6355 It’s a play on my last name that sounds like Kooken but spelled differently, it’s an honorary nickname lol. I’m from CA, so 10ft+ California size. My favorite spot to surf is Blacks when it’s big but I’ve surfed all over, mostly Mexico and Hawaii.
@@Akooks Ah!!!! Respect. I started writing a complimentary reply then saw the account name and thought I'd been sucker in! 😂 Can never tell on the internet, especially when someone says the board they use when it is 10ft+ and barrelling ! So back to the original reply, wow! Speaking with someone of some credentials then. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and comment, much appreciated :)
@@averagejoe6355 No worries, I get it 🤙 I’m no JJ Florence lol but I try. I want to get a bigger board, tbh 6’1” is pushing it on the bigger days for me, but it gets the job done. It was shaped for Chris Coté actually when he went on a trip to indo, made for getting barreled. Sick vid, keep it up man 🏄♂️
@@Akooks Cool and thanks for the kind words! Now as for a new board you say...... I might be able to help you there: instagram.com/p/C7UDxr1tU3E/?img_index=1 Will talk about it in the next vlog, but instead of opening money on Facebook /. Google / RU-vid ads, I thought I'd spend the money on soothing surfers like..... a new board. So the trade is a FREE sign up and some brand activation for the Hodi.tv platform in exchange for 1 luck winner getting $1,000 towards a board (should cover most new boards). Only takes 2 mins and it would be helping a start up with their growth!
There is no criticism of any specific person. I would categorise myself as under appreciating a bigger board. And I think it also applies to surfers of all abilities. We are all just human. But it’s also such an easy set up / argument for people to start preaching about too. It’s also a very reasonable thing to say that if you do have some competence, are starting to work on some skills and are training at a specific wave then being in the right equipment can be beneficial. Thanks for sharing and commenting
Chris Mills surf strength coach has a mountain of great surf fitness. You look plenty strong enough, but you have bad habits. Chris Mills will be able to straighten you out. Its gonna be your hip strength and mobility. Definitely something you can fix. 👍 And @hydro mind. Great pop up stuff there too!
Surfing is hard....ride whatever piece of wood or foam puts a smile on your face so long as you are obeying the rules of the road. Someone can be surfing on an ironing board for all I care. Doing it with a smile helps.
There’s so much I disagree with in this video, but I know where you are coming from because I once had the same thoughts. 1) Only beginners would look at someone’s board and judge that person’s skill. Good surfers know good or bad surfing by watching body movement. 2) No one says you cannot learn on a shortboard (basically every good surfer has made this mistake), it’s just not optimal for skill progression which all good surfers figure out at some point. I wouldnt be surprised if in 5 years when youre a pretty good surfer, you end up giving similar advice to the ones you are criticizing here.
@@averagejoe6355you categorize midlength as if they are all the same and that you cannot make a perfect midlength for the pool. I disagree with that. You are using perfect as defined as a board that can do 100% of everything. That obviously does not exist and is a strawman. There’s no value in defining perfect in this manner and it comes off like midlengths cant be perfect for learning on the wave pool. A board perfect for the pool would be one designed for that specific wave. That definitely can be done with a midlength to the point where the board is not what is hindering an intermediate or even advanced surfer.
@@erickim8862 The vlog expressly states that there is no perfect board and perfect does not exist. So we seem to be in agreement on your first point. Not sure where the "hindering an intermediate or advanced surfer" is coming from in the second point but by saying you can change a board for a specific wave you seem to be agreeing with the point that certain waves and certain board characteristics go hand in hand. Probbaly should also reiterate my position that training, time int he water, hard work and focusing on technique is the entire philosophy of this RU-vid channel and vlog. There certainly isn't a "buy this board and you will instantly get better". Perhaps have a look at the board which the shaper of the OBE made specifically for the wave pool and what shape /. outline it is. It's isn’t exactly a mid length shape..... But is the OBE / mid length still arguably the one board most people would take anywhere with you if you had just one board to take? Absolutely, the versatility is insane. The problem with this topic is that it is very easy for someone to hear what they want to hear and respond by making the points they want to make vs actually appraising what the poster is saying . Always keen to hear other people's opinions, it's the corner stone of discussion. Is there anything else that was specifically mentioned which you strongly disagree with?
I have the opposite challenge to you: I can catch waves in the ocean fine, but struggle in the wave pool! Have you ever tried a longboard in the ocean? (Or maybe an 8-footer?) There's a lot more latitude for error when you're positioning for a wave. It might help you get the feel for catching ocean waves quicker, and then you can transition down in board size. Just a thought! Also, IMO the keyboard warriors are the worst part of surf culture. There's nothing more tedious than a surf bro in the comments section telling everyone how they should be doing it. My approach is to select board size based on what's going to give me the most enjoyment.
Bingo! Pick the right board for you which gives you the best chance for the type of surfing you do. I think JOB is an incredible surfer and it’s because he is insane that he can ride a foamie at pipe (knowledge, experience, skill to do so). But for us normal people we need to use the equipment that is best suited to what we are doing. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, much appreciated
The point that causes so much problem was one poster saying I shouldn’t be riding anything else apart from a longer outline and that someone of my ability shouldn’t be saying there were “disadvantages” of riding a mid length. I take issue with that. The sky is blue and I don’t think it matters how matters how good at surfing you are in determining if you can make that statement 😂
i find that the best is to keep on trying different boards as many as you can, go from midlenght to shortboard to grovellers , there is not one rule to what is right for an individual. keep on swapping between your boards depending on the conditions. i find by doing it, i see the difference in my technique, i usually use my midlength to fix mistakes i do on the shortboard 🙂
Ahhh! A smart man, finally! Obviously being very biased in this reply and always keen to hear different opinions vs just looking for validation, but couldn't agree more. I really think that if you are lower level then getting the right equipment for what you are working on makes a lot of sense. The JOB example gets rolled out a lot as saying anything is possible on a foamie, but I'd argue that only very very skilled and experienced people like JOB can pull this off. But to your point, different boards, different waves, different types of surfing are all good IMHO. I just love surfing, as many other people do!
Depends on your goal. If your goal is to get better at surfing as fast as possible the answer is, get a quiver that fits the types of waves you surf and keeps your wave count respectably high. After that it’s 100% time looking at your surfing and fixing technique. No matter what board you surf, the technique does not change. The speed/feel/balance/line changes but all your turns are the same technique. Perfect bottom turn technique is the same on a twin mid length as a hpsb. If youre not skilled enough to keep your speed to do good turns, ride a bigger board. There is a reason pro surfer after pro surfer tells people to ride a bigger board if they want to improve their surfing and improve their rail game. The technique is the same, but a bigger board is way more forgiving so you have more chances to try again. There are different mid-lengths fit for different wave types. It’s not the length of the board that is the issue at these sizes, if this were true, 6’ tall people wouldn’t be able to find a board that works for them on smaller waves. As for you cannot use shorter board to learn. The issue is a shorter board is easier to move with bad technique. A bigger board is much harder to move with bad technique. You will be able to do bottom turns and top turns on your short board with absolute garbage technique and it will be a lot harder to fix once those are ingrained. There are pro surfers that say this over and over again. All that being said, this is if you want to maximize surfing capability progression. If your goal is to have fun, do what is enjoyable.
@@erickim8862 Good technique is essential and the focus, a board isn’t going to over come putting in time, training and working on the technique and experience. Perhaps you disagree but being on the right equipment that can help what you’re working on if advantageous
While wave pools are amazing they do not help you at all when it comes to getting waves in the ocean. As I now classify wave pools as just another type of wave... eg reef break, beach break, point break now we have the pool which is the easiest but you should def supplement with time in the ocean as a reef break is different from a beach break etc etc.
Greta post. The wavepool is the gym, and the ocean the real deal. It isn’t. Supposed to replace the sea but it can complement it. No short cuts to ocean surfing …. have a look at the last 2 vlogs (if you haven’t already) and you’ll see some evidence for this
I always wondered if you were right about wave pools not ruing surfing. Looks like you might be right --- at least for now.... Sucks you didn't catch that many waves. I think you've astutely figured out that you gotta pay your dues paddling, paddling, taking water to the face, going over the falls, and maybe a hold down or two and some more paddling to get good at catching waves at real live ocean break. That being said, it looks like if you figure out wave reading you'd be on par with a surfer with 5-10 years adult learning experience, which is absolutely crazy given you've only been surfing for like 2 years
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, much appreciated. You’ve summoned exactly how I feel about there being no short cuts to getting experience and competence in the ocean. Anyone who thinks they can just rock up and smash it is probably in for a rude awakening 😂
@@averagejoe6355 I still think you are on to something. The amount of times you've gotten tubed is insane. Sure I can paddle to the peak and read if a section is going to closeout, but I think I've only had 1 or 2 non "wet exits" from a barrel my whole life. Makes me wanna find a wave pool and learn to stop dodging so many barrels. I think mixing the two is the real key. There was a guy on Noel Salas's Surf 'n Show who had the money to travel to the BSR wave pool and Trestles bi-weekly. He was absolutely ripping in like a year.
@@MrKleinsmk think what you just said is spot on. A combination is gold. I’ve watched many a surfer look like they are amazing with regards to catching waves / the line up, then when seen them on the wave riding it been a bit shocked. For time in your feet and riding waves then the wave pool is insane. But no short cuts for actually catching g then in the ocean 🌊
@@MrKleinsmk oh, and one more comment. Some people say it’s about buying success or paying to win but like anything in life, if you don’t have the dedication and mentality to accept bad surfs / beatings / failure then it’s hard to progress.
