Overthinking while surfing?

[jaffa1949]

Das good, enjoying it will take you further!

[pmcaero]

Jet if you think about all the details of a Pop up it is already too late!
By way of Illustration and showing just the major things happening you can learn to let your body just do!

that wave walls up fast!

Edit: nm,looks like different waves

[jaffa1949]

They are two different waves at the same spot as I state, I don’t take my hat off if I’m wearing it.
The illustration is to show the different lines of approach with differing wave conditions, the second wave is bigger and faster

[RinkyDink]

I've found that instead of working on or focusing on the individual pieces involved in surfing (wave positioning, popup, takeoff angle, bottom turn, etc.), I've focused my thinking on stringing those pieces together into chains of skills. For example, my angle of takeoff, bottom turn, and first turn are now more like one single skill in my mind rather than 3 separate ones requiring adjustments. Changing my thinking about what I was doing while I was surfing helped me get past those moments of "uh . . . er . . . what do I do now?"

[BoMan]

My angle of takeoff, bottom turn, and first turn are now more like one single skill in my mind rather than 3 separate ones requiring adjustments.

When I try to do that the wave doesn't cooperate. I go for a clean take off and keep an open mind about the rest.

[CarlsbadSurfer52]

I see what RinkyDink means though - sometimes we breaking it down into too many steps which messes it up. For a while at the beginning I would press and arch my back and never pop up since that was step 3 and I was too focused on Step 2 when I should have been focused like this: Step 1 - paddle, Step 2 - popup.

[RinkyDink]

My angle of takeoff, bottom turn, and first turn are now more like one single skill in my mind rather than 3 separate ones requiring adjustments.

When I try to do that the wave doesn't cooperate. I go for a clean take off and keep an open mind about the rest.

I hear you. I often perform my popup, drop down into the trough, stall there, and either watch the pocket of the wave move on without me or watch the section of the wave in front of me start to close out and have no speed to get around it. I did that consistently for about six months. I'd get some decent rides, but I couldn't consistently sustain any momentum on the wave. I'd always stall out. That is until the other day.

I finally realized that I had to get up higher on the wave face if I wanted to generate the speed I needed to get past stalling. Now when I take off I know that I have to make a really fast, sharp bottom turn and immediately use the momentum of my bottom turn to get up the face of the wave again. Once I'm back up on the top part of the wave, I snap my board back directing the nose of my board down the face of the wave again (like a second takeoff, but a hell of a lot easier). Rinse and repeat. It's basic top-to-bottom surfing, but I had to connect the three parts in my mind in order to make that process seamless. My problem before was that I'd drop down into the trough and start surfing along the trough of the wave expecting my board to just magically pick up speed. It never did. What goes up, will quickly come down. What goes sideways stalls. That's how I'm trying to connect my skills together. It's not easy though and your first trip up the face of a head high wave can be a little daunting, but like most things in surfing you have to commit to it. It's easier on a shorter board.

[oldmansurfer]

You can get and keep speed by picking a high line and staying there until you don't want to go fast but it requires some forward momentum to start off with and a steep wall. Depending on your board how high you can go may vary. Smaller boards are lighter and can hang higher up (with the right rails). The way I learn is by feeling. I do something I like and then repeat it by the way it felt to me. When I am on the shore I think about doing a maneuver and think about how it will feel and try to make my body go through the motions so it isn't unfamiliar when I am out in the ocean.

[RinkyDink]

You can get and keep speed by picking a high line and staying there until you don't want to go fast but it requires some forward momentum to start off with and a steep wall. Depending on your board how high you can go may vary. Smaller boards are lighter and can hang higher up (with the right rails). The way I learn is by feeling. I do something I like and then repeat it by the way it felt to me. When I am on the shore I think about doing a maneuver and think about how it will feel and try to make my body go through the motions so it isn't unfamiliar when I am out in the ocean.

Yep, you're absolutely right. One of the places I surf at has a lot of kelp, and it has screwed up more of my rides than I can count. It's also knocked out one of my fins and is generally a pain in the ass. It finally dawned on me that . . . herpa derpa derp . . . maybe I should stay higher on the wave so I bypass the kelp patch. I really don't want to destroy the fin box on my beloved board (I've fallen in love with my board ) by clunk clunk clunking through the damn kelp on every ride. It's either that or change surf spots.

[RinkyDink]

Kelly Slater talks about a carving 360 as "an extension of a bottom turn" and that's basically what I mean by chaining your skills together into thinking about the steps involved as one maneuver rather than three or four or however many are involved.

By the way, those white water 360 type kick-outs I used to do at the end of my white water waves during my early learning were actually helpful in getting me used to snapping my board around.

[oldmansurfer]

He says that but then goes on to say it is a two step turn

[RinkyDink]

He says that but then goes on to say it is a two step turn

Yeah, there are plenty of ways to break things apart and put them back together. Everybody has to figure out a way to think about their surfing. The only right way is to find the way that works for you.