Turning Surfboards

[gabrielb]

some surfers are "front leg" surfers some are "back leg" surfers(weight distribution?). Subtle distinction in surfing styles...(google about it but it's hard to find), even for professionals (some are back, some are front). I find myself front most of the time.

[Slappy]

My advice:

• most important thing is to get your back foot back near the tail of the board and at the same time take your weight off of it unless you are using it to turn.
• this means your back knee will be tucked inwards towards your front knee and quite bent.
• having your back foot on the stomp pad also takes speed, but the waves we get wont give you speed, so you'll have to use the kite for speed. (I personally enjoy riding the wave without any kite and just not doing sharp turns in our mushy waves)
• If you want to practice on flat water you'll need to downloop so rig small.
• keep in mind that the reason you do bottom and top turns on the wave are to slow your speed down to stay in the critical section (where the wave is curling) but we don't get waves that break like that (except WR Westerly).
• I actually find that riding chest high swell out near the mile marker is better than riding our knee high breaking waves.

[Alton]

My advice:

• most important thing is to get your back foot back near the tail of the board and at the same time take your weight off of it unless you are using it to turn.
• this means your back knee will be tucked inwards towards your front knee and quite bent.
• having your back foot on the stomp pad also takes speed, but the waves we get wont give you speed, so you'll have to use the kite for speed. (I personally enjoy riding the wave without any kite and just not doing sharp turns in our mushy waves)
• If you want to practice on flat water you'll need to downloop so rig small.
• keep in mind that the reason you do bottom and top turns on the wave are to slow your speed down to stay in the critical section (where the wave is curling) but we don't get waves that break like that (except WR Westerly).
• I actually find that riding chest high swell out near the mile marker is better than riding our knee high breaking waves.

Angus - Thanks for explaining the reason for proper stance and how to use the stomp pad. It's all becoming clear now. I just need some decent wind to put all this great advice into practice.

[Uluwatu69]

I agree with Gabriel.
Head turns towards where you wanna go, shoulders follow then lower body. Then depending on where you stand on the board (forward or aft), the turn will be affected by it. More forward will be less effective. More aft, the board will be more responsive. But then comes the problem of speed and keeping it. You can see on many surfing movies that the surfer moves up and down the board. It's either up for favouring the the speed or aft for the turn...
There are so many surfing styles and techniques out there that it would take a book to dissect everything.
Now, I wouldn't be any good for kitesurfing though...
Practice, test what works best for you... Check out YouTube videos....
Wipe outs are part of the fun... ...and no worries we all learn something everyday, that!s the beauty of it.