Once you have managed to get 'outback' or beyond the breaking wave it is a good idea to position yourself so you can see the incoming sets or group of waves. The best way to do this is by sitting on your surfboard in the middle like riding astride a horse, grip your board with your inner thigh, and circulate your legs, if you feel you need to stabilise yourself. If you are sitting in the middle of the board it will feel fairly stable.

As a set of waves approaches, you are looking to position yourself where the wave is at its highest or 'peaking'. Choose the third or fourth wave in the set and watch where the first few waves peak and break. Continue to watch them from behind as they move towards shore and try to assess which way they are breaking or peeling. Are they breaking left or right? To catch the wave from the sitting position, slide towards the tail so the nose rears up, circulate your legs in opposite directions, grip on to the rail with one hand and maybe paddle or stabilise your self with your other hand. The idea is to spin your board around quickly and in control. Then lie down on your board, remember check your trim position to ensure that you are lying on your surfboard correctly and start paddling, keep looking over your shoulder at your incoming wave and check to ensure that there are no other surfers straight in front of you. Keep looking left or right to see whether another surfer has caught the wave, if so pull off by placing weight on the back of the board and drag your legs, this will act as a brake. If there is no one on the wave or in a position paddling nearer to the curl or directly on the peak, then go for it. Look left and right at the wave shape and try to determine whether the wave is going to break left or right. Remember the higher a section of the wave the more likely it is to break first.

Adjust your paddling speed based on the waves shape behind you so you don't over run or under run your paddling approach resulting in a miss timed take off or a missed wave. If you are attempting to catch green waves for the first time you must go to a beach which will provide a long spilling wave rather than a short hollow dumping wave. This is so important in aiding your learning.

Surfing is a lot about timing, intuition and reaction. For the learner, practising on white water waves increases the 'time' available to get from prone to surfing stance. For the intermediate your pop up should be getting faster and your timing a little more in line with the incoming wave shape each time you go surfing.

The idea of surfing is to ride the green wave or trim/manoeuvre in the pocket; this is where you will find the most power. The pocket is the meeting point of the upwelling forces locked in the wave and the force of gravity overriding the wave energy making it collapse into whitewater. The highest point of the green wave before it collapses into whitewater or 'soup' is where the pocket or curl lies and in very powerful waves breaking in shallow water produces a tube or barrel. The idea of surfing is to use both these opposing energies when they are at maximum force, translating these forces into movement and in turn using this movement to get more energy from the pocket by manoeuvring to stay in this energy zone.

To position yourself so you can be in the pocket you must take off ideally just before or well before the wave starts to collapse. You must ideally stand just before the wave starts to break so you are locked into an angled surfing stance as the white water chases you from behind. You have to ask your self when is the wave likely to break? When you understand where the peak is or where the wave is most likely to break you will be able to position yourself slightly further out so you can get enough paddles in to generate the correct speed for a comfortable take off. As you paddle for the wave keep looking over your shoulder, adjust your paddling speed to the incoming wave shape. In other words slow down if you feel you are too far inside or speed up if the gradient of the wave looks a little shallow. Keep in your trim position for a split second just to control the board, maybe angle to one side of the other in your prone position by leaning either on your left or right rail before popping up. This pause ensures you have been picked up by the wave and angling allows you more time to pop up as you will travel down the wave at an angle rather than drop straight down. The real indication that it is time to pop up is that in your prone position you feel like you have caught the wave, the tail of the board is lifting and the nose is starting to point downwards.

Tips

• Paddle hard but in control
• Adjust paddling speed keep looking over your shoulder
• Pause in prone position and angle for more time to pop up and setting up for green wave
• Push down on your hands in prone to push front of board down enabling more of the tail area to be pushed forward by the wave
• For longer boards when paddling try lifting your heels to your bum to shift more weight to the front of board, again enabling more of the tail area to be pushed forward by the wave
• Use your head and neck, rock them forwards for acceleration, lift or slide back to prevent pearling or nose diving.

<< prev page | next page >>