3 improvements for the intermediate level surfer
, by PTY LTDCroch AU, 3 min reading time
Today, we’re going to discuss a few improvement points for the intermediate surfer specifically three main things that we think intermediates can work on to progress to an advanced level.
Today, we’re going to discuss a few improvement points for the intermediate surfer specifically three main things that we think intermediates can work on to progress to an advanced level.
The first of these is increasing where you look, where you point and therefore the upper body rotation that you have. This will have a massive impact on how critical your turn is, how much spray it throws and also how good it looks to people watching yourself. So, by looking back instead of just looking down or even looking down the line creates more upper body rotation, which then transfers into your board to bring the board around, further, pointing, towards the power source. Making it look a lot more critical, leaving the board on rail for longer which creates more spray.
Next is putting your board above the lip. We speak a lot about how to carve and how to do cutbacks because that’s an easier thing to do and a good way for beginners and intermediates to practice their surfing and improve. However, to go above the lip well, that’s now a hardest skill and something that an intermediate surfer needs to work on. This skill is called re-entries. They are harder to perform because more timing is required you need to hit the falling lip. If you hit it too early, you’ll fall off the back; if you hit it too late, you might get smashed. So timing is key. You look where you want the nose of the board to go and then rotate through with your front arm pointing to where ever you want to go and your back arm should follow. It’s important to note that with re-entries, the movement in your body positioning, the changes that happen, they need to happen quicker so you need to be aggressive when you perform these maneuvers. If you perform slowly, you’ll fail. A prone climb just a different version of re-entry and they’re often performed on phony sections that you have to climb up. Drive off the bottom and then throw arms up as your body extends, by doing that, it creates a weightlessness effect and allows the board to travel up the foam.
The third and final point for an intermediate surfer to progress to an advanced level is linking all these things together on a wave. Let’s discuss it because it is the icing on the cake. To surf with flow, you need to link your maneuvers together seamlessly and as fluidly as possible. Go from one maneuver to the next with little stoppages or pumping in between. That’s key to having good flow but you also need to be able to read what the waves doing in order to achieve this and if there’s a section that’s falling down in front of you rather than going around it. It’s good to do a transition move like a floater or a lip line to get around it. That counts as a maneuver and it contributes to keeping your speed and flow on a way. Another key point that we’re aiming for to surf with flow is to add a variety of maneuvers together. So, mixing up cutbacks with carves, snaps and whatever else you can come up with, this adds to the excitement of the wave for a surfer. One last important tip to surf with flow on a wave is what you’re actually thinking and sometimes surfers can overthink what they’re about to do. They can predict what they’re gonna do on the wave. However, the wave will dictate what turns you do, so by going in with a preconceived idea of what you’re gonna do can sometimes go against you. Therefore, it’s better to try and stay in the moment and just surf the wave as it lets you. Remember, it is crucial that you stay close to the power source.
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