Surfing Waves

Finally i get my very wobbly act together and ride a 5‘8‘‘ short soft board on The.RiverWave in Austria, the lack of length, this size as opposed to 9ft+ and the water going in the opposite direction to a surf wave, one challenge is rear and front foot weight transference, you need to front weight to drive down but you can catch the nose into the stream coming down at you, you are actually below the water level of the stream above.

Right now I am on a par with straight in white water riders, so opposite if I catch my nose I get immediately get washed up and over the back of the wave and down stream, like so


1000 kilometers from any ocean but doing it albeit wobbly!

I see your practicing the El rollo. Good to see you surfing 1000 kilometers from the ocean albeit wobbly (still fun)

I remember El Rolos ,quasimodo’s, , I still head dips, added pigdogging later as the world went short, Paul Strauch crouch, cheater fives. island and standing island pull out! Made and still make nice exits with those!.
The was an El Spontaneo but I cannot remember what it was!

Fantastic. Looks like fun. As a ‘front foot’ surfer, maybe that would suit me!

You need to have a controlling back foot as a front foot heavy will drive your nose into the sluice of water coming at you about chest high

This is why the majority of boards are less that 6ft, the trough is not much wider, and most early rides are just balanced facing straight up stream so turning is very much back foot pressure and front foot drive around.
I did one full bottom turn just to see if I could, result: perfectly executed proper pull out

Note how high I had to lift the nose to drive around!Front hand and eyes leading where I intend to go , up beside the white water under the deck chair!

Would it help to have a nose rocker?

Yes it would but this is a foamy soft top, a PU or epoxy would support a good nose rocker, but the concrete wall,wall smacks would break that down quickly, I chose to keep my hard boards for the surf, The Tommo noses are popular ( that is truncated almost an injured elephant pun).
Short soft boards are less prone to damage, the are several board makers in Salzburg, both are popular and there are a number of makers in Germany coming across! Burgeoning surf scene!

Bumping a few threads for udontgiveup!