It's All About Positioning

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Positioning is all important when it comes to surfing. If your feet are not positioned correctly you will fall off or not be able to make decent turns. If you are not in the correct position when paddling for or catching waves then you will find yourself taking a pounding whenever you surf.

If you are not correctly positioned when riding on the wave then you will not be able to keep up the momentum necessary to ride the wave. The all important positioning eh! - let's start with the correct position for your feet when standing on the board.

Foot Position

Good Foot Position as soon as you get up is desirable so you can get straight into your surfing. You don't want to concentrate on sliding your feet up and down the board when you could be carving it up dude!. The picture below explains the desired foot position perfectly.

Foot Position While Surfing

As you may be able to tell, standing like this means that you will be on a sideways position on the surfboard - well done - this is exactly how it should be. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart and feel comfortable to you. If you plan to be a longboard rider then you will find that the position of your feet will be changing from one moment to the next as you run up and down your board. You will find that as you develop your surfing your feet will be moving into different positions for the different manoeuvres you are trying. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Body Position While Surfing

Keep your body slightly crouched to lower your center of gravity. You will find you pobably have your arms out wide to aid with balance which is great. Keep your knees bent at all times, riding a wave can be a bumpy ride. Your body will be turned to the side (which you can see from the mystery legs in the picture above) and the top half of your body will be turning to face forward. Take a look at surfers in action in our Surfing Videos section.
Next Up: Positioning to Catch The Wave.