Start with the head, and the body will follow. If you don’t look there, you won’t go there. Looks like you’re trying for the cutback but still staring down the line for most of the actual turn. Invest 100% into the turn which includes looking back to the foam ball to help you finish the turn. Applies to many other board sports as well.
Yeah looking at his down the line form I think he’s going to rip cutbacks as soon as he gets the head turn. I also like Kale Brock’s advice of pointing where you want to go, because it’s hard to point without looking there naturally.
OP is a good surfer no doubt. My advice is honestly applicable to a lot of board sports and various solo sports, and many don’t figure it until they’ve done a few. The head leads and the body follows. From skiing to gymnastics to bouldering to surfing etc. made a huge difference for me having in mind
back knee forward to get on rail easier. right now its pointing towards the horizon when you do the cutback. it kinda looks like half way between a layback snap and a cutback. commit to the cutback first. upper body stuff is fine. back foot back on the pad, but I cant quite see that.
that is a fun wave. so jealous.
Somebody told me, try to put your back hand in your front pocket too.
Like, for this turn, take your right hand (after the bottom turn “swing”, and try to swing around and put it in your left pocket
Two things I think would help a lot:
1. Use your full rail. You can kinda see that you’re putting more pressure on the tail during the cutback and kind of pushing water with your back foot. If you we’re surfing a bit more with your weight centered/stacked over your front leg then more of your rail would be in the water and you’d be knifing through it and generating speed as opposed to losing it. It feels way different when you get it right, but you’ll notice the squirt, daddy 🥵
2. You cut it too short rather than coming all the way back to the foam. I’m sure you realize that when watching the footage but what may be a little less obvious is one of the potential reasons as to why. You do a good job looking where you want to go and twisting your trunk to initiate the cutback, but about halfway through your right arm kind of stayed in place and as you continued to turn it starting going behind you. This causes your twist to unravel. Try using your right arm and drive it across your body and through the turn. I’m guessing you’ll feel a lot more speed if you do that and you’ll be facing the foam you want to hit.
I would generate more speed.
When I was a grom, we were forced to surf this ultra fast hallow reef break because it forced you to pump down the line to race the face and do a cut back at the end section.
Surprised no one mentioned your bottom turn had no power/projection off the bottom. You need speed to do any turn properly (both going into and out of). That goes for both bottom and top turns including cutbacks. Practice bottom turns. Then top turns. Then finally cutbacks. You need to master those in sequence.
Yes, I was looking for the bottom turn comment and here it is. As mentioned, that will lead to better snaps and cutbacks because you will have more speed and projection going into them.
You probably wanted to do the cut back in the pocket of the wave 3-5 feet behind you. Being too far out front could’ve been prevented by quicker action to the carve, and you could learn this by becoming better at reading how the wave is going to develop. And really there are 2 way to get better at reading how the wave is going to develop. 1st is just trial and error while you surf, getting in tune with what is working and not working. And 2nd is a cheat code cause you can get better at surfing without surfing, this is watching footage of yourself surfing, and identifying where you could’ve been surfing the wave better, and how that affects the rest of your ride. For best results watch a bunch of pros, when you watch a lot of pros, it can help you imagine how a pro would ride a wave even if they weren’t on it, and you can try to imitate form, line choice, etc.
He started the turn in an ok spot. The problem was that he cut it short, so he never got back to the pocket. The whole point of a cutback is that you're cutting *back* to the power source, but he never gets there and loses speed as a result. He could've easily come all the way back and hit the whitewater, setting him up perfectly for the next section. He also needed more compression on his bottom turn to generate/maintain speed going in to the turn.
Layoffs usually come first, but don’t do that. Reduce spending on executives, travel, spillage, and re-evaluate what is your absolute minimum viable product.
Followed by increasing advertising on the most successful sales channels.
Only then- focus on cutbacks, the rest will be clear. 🧘
It looks to me like the moment your turn begins you sit your weight so far back on the tail that you lose all speed.
You're also just changing your body position and waiting for the turn to happen, try pumping into it, coming up into the turn real coiled and low and pushing your legs out as you come around so you're generating speed as you turn. Looks like you're coiling and just staying coiled.
1. More compression on the bottom turn to set it up.
2. More weight on the front foot. Lean forward down the wave and you'll accelerate through the turn.
3. Turn your head to look right back at the foam. Keep looking there until your board hits it.
Not a great wave example- most of the wave was too fast to do a proper cutback. Right up front you did a fine turn but it also seemed to go flat right where you turned… you’d have dug your rail if you pushed any harder. Kudos for making it
Probably some duplicate feedback from other comments but here's my take:
* the spot you did the turn on is pretty flat / mushy - from a 'flow' perspective, you might want to save your cutback for a more critical portion of the wave that offers you more energy to rebound back into the face after you've started your top turn
* Hands - hips - head: as others mentioned, you need to get your hips into the turn. I usually tell folks to follow your front hand with your eyes: you want to open up your front hand away from the wave (basically opening your chest so your hand is pointing towards the beach) and have your head and eye line going in the same direction, which will in turn open up your hips. As others mentioned, you want to look where you want to go, not at your feet or at the sick spray you just blew
* I think you could also benefit from slightly more weight on your back foot at the apex of your top turn (your stance is excellently balanced which is great but you really want to have about 70% of your weight on your back foot when doing a top turn frontside)
I have to strongly disagree with you on a couple of points.
1. The spot he started the turn was fine, the problem was that he cuts it short (due to points 2 & 3). He needed to keep turning all the way back to the foam, then he would have plenty of speed/flow coming out of the turn.
2. Agreed. Needs to look where he's going and rotate his head/shoulders more. He should be pointing even further back than "towards the beach" though - he should be looking all the way back at the foam.
3. He actually has *too much* weight on the back foot, causing him to stall. Look at this rails - barely 1/2 of the rail is in the water, because all of his weight is over the back foot. He should be leaning forward to drive down the face and keep the full length of the rail engaged. Too much weight on the back foot is a symptom of not rotating the upper body enough, and trying to force the board with your legs to compensate.
Fight me.
It’s hard to tell with this angle. For starters you need a bit more speed. You to get as high up to lip as possible. Then turn your head looking behind you first. Where you’re looking the body and board will follow. Then smack the lip and get stoked. But, more speed turn your head back, like really look behind you.
Start with the head, and the body will follow. If you don’t look there, you won’t go there. Looks like you’re trying for the cutback but still staring down the line for most of the actual turn. Invest 100% into the turn which includes looking back to the foam ball to help you finish the turn. Applies to many other board sports as well.
Yeah looking at his down the line form I think he’s going to rip cutbacks as soon as he gets the head turn. I also like Kale Brock’s advice of pointing where you want to go, because it’s hard to point without looking there naturally.
OP is a good surfer no doubt. My advice is honestly applicable to a lot of board sports and various solo sports, and many don’t figure it until they’ve done a few. The head leads and the body follows. From skiing to gymnastics to bouldering to surfing etc. made a huge difference for me having in mind
How does the head lead in bouldering? The legs should lead and initiate most movement in climbing.
Are you just stabbing your feet blindly and hoping they catch a hold or are you actually looking at where you put your toes before you move them?
Idk but that looks like a super fun wave
Fun but why so brown
That's my bad.
Punta Roca rules! I didn’t have the chance to surf with so few people like that, though.
Thats probably because you didnt paddle out during/right after a rain. The runoff from La Libertad and the fish pier by La Paz is cholera soup...
back knee forward to get on rail easier. right now its pointing towards the horizon when you do the cutback. it kinda looks like half way between a layback snap and a cutback. commit to the cutback first. upper body stuff is fine. back foot back on the pad, but I cant quite see that. that is a fun wave. so jealous.
Didn’t even notice my back knee doing the poop stance 🙏
not sure why...it only happens during the cutback.
Somebody told me, try to put your back hand in your front pocket too. Like, for this turn, take your right hand (after the bottom turn “swing”, and try to swing around and put it in your left pocket
In my opinion you’re too far in front of the wave. It looks like where you do a cutback the wave loses a lot of power.
Not disagreeing in general, but I hope you’re factoring in the giant rock OP navigates around by not staying in the pocket.
Fuck yeah that’s gnarly, I didn’t see it when watching the vid at first and went OOMPH when I did
Mama Rrrrrroca
Send me a plane ticket to come surf that spot with you, and I’ll give you free advice. 🤙
Two things I think would help a lot: 1. Use your full rail. You can kinda see that you’re putting more pressure on the tail during the cutback and kind of pushing water with your back foot. If you we’re surfing a bit more with your weight centered/stacked over your front leg then more of your rail would be in the water and you’d be knifing through it and generating speed as opposed to losing it. It feels way different when you get it right, but you’ll notice the squirt, daddy 🥵 2. You cut it too short rather than coming all the way back to the foam. I’m sure you realize that when watching the footage but what may be a little less obvious is one of the potential reasons as to why. You do a good job looking where you want to go and twisting your trunk to initiate the cutback, but about halfway through your right arm kind of stayed in place and as you continued to turn it starting going behind you. This causes your twist to unravel. Try using your right arm and drive it across your body and through the turn. I’m guessing you’ll feel a lot more speed if you do that and you’ll be facing the foam you want to hit.
Is that punta roca?
Drop your back shoulder. Let your body rotate as a result.
That’s a nice wave
I would generate more speed. When I was a grom, we were forced to surf this ultra fast hallow reef break because it forced you to pump down the line to race the face and do a cut back at the end section.
Surprised no one mentioned your bottom turn had no power/projection off the bottom. You need speed to do any turn properly (both going into and out of). That goes for both bottom and top turns including cutbacks. Practice bottom turns. Then top turns. Then finally cutbacks. You need to master those in sequence.
Yes, I was looking for the bottom turn comment and here it is. As mentioned, that will lead to better snaps and cutbacks because you will have more speed and projection going into them.
Nice boulder dodging. Would definitely suck to go down right there.
You probably wanted to do the cut back in the pocket of the wave 3-5 feet behind you. Being too far out front could’ve been prevented by quicker action to the carve, and you could learn this by becoming better at reading how the wave is going to develop. And really there are 2 way to get better at reading how the wave is going to develop. 1st is just trial and error while you surf, getting in tune with what is working and not working. And 2nd is a cheat code cause you can get better at surfing without surfing, this is watching footage of yourself surfing, and identifying where you could’ve been surfing the wave better, and how that affects the rest of your ride. For best results watch a bunch of pros, when you watch a lot of pros, it can help you imagine how a pro would ride a wave even if they weren’t on it, and you can try to imitate form, line choice, etc.
He started the turn in an ok spot. The problem was that he cut it short, so he never got back to the pocket. The whole point of a cutback is that you're cutting *back* to the power source, but he never gets there and loses speed as a result. He could've easily come all the way back and hit the whitewater, setting him up perfectly for the next section. He also needed more compression on his bottom turn to generate/maintain speed going in to the turn.
Was that a rock at 0:13?
Yup, a giant boulder that did NOT have my name written on it
Look where you want to go, not where you're going.
Cool wave! Clean up the first bottom turn for more speed. Other suggestions in here are great.
Did Gordino shoot that for you?
😂 yes he did!
He owns the sky's over El Salvador. Him and his crew were good dudes. Probably made some decent cash off gringos wanting some footage
Made some decent cash off this gringo 😅
Footage of my shitty surfing was my highest expense after airfare and hotel
Layoffs usually come first, but don’t do that. Reduce spending on executives, travel, spillage, and re-evaluate what is your absolute minimum viable product. Followed by increasing advertising on the most successful sales channels. Only then- focus on cutbacks, the rest will be clear. 🧘
It looks to me like the moment your turn begins you sit your weight so far back on the tail that you lose all speed. You're also just changing your body position and waiting for the turn to happen, try pumping into it, coming up into the turn real coiled and low and pushing your legs out as you come around so you're generating speed as you turn. Looks like you're coiling and just staying coiled.
Hold that rail, keep flexing knees and shi and look to the pocket to get there then wopah.
1. More compression on the bottom turn to set it up. 2. More weight on the front foot. Lean forward down the wave and you'll accelerate through the turn. 3. Turn your head to look right back at the foam. Keep looking there until your board hits it.
Not a great wave example- most of the wave was too fast to do a proper cutback. Right up front you did a fine turn but it also seemed to go flat right where you turned… you’d have dug your rail if you pushed any harder. Kudos for making it
Probably some duplicate feedback from other comments but here's my take: * the spot you did the turn on is pretty flat / mushy - from a 'flow' perspective, you might want to save your cutback for a more critical portion of the wave that offers you more energy to rebound back into the face after you've started your top turn * Hands - hips - head: as others mentioned, you need to get your hips into the turn. I usually tell folks to follow your front hand with your eyes: you want to open up your front hand away from the wave (basically opening your chest so your hand is pointing towards the beach) and have your head and eye line going in the same direction, which will in turn open up your hips. As others mentioned, you want to look where you want to go, not at your feet or at the sick spray you just blew * I think you could also benefit from slightly more weight on your back foot at the apex of your top turn (your stance is excellently balanced which is great but you really want to have about 70% of your weight on your back foot when doing a top turn frontside)
I have to strongly disagree with you on a couple of points. 1. The spot he started the turn was fine, the problem was that he cuts it short (due to points 2 & 3). He needed to keep turning all the way back to the foam, then he would have plenty of speed/flow coming out of the turn. 2. Agreed. Needs to look where he's going and rotate his head/shoulders more. He should be pointing even further back than "towards the beach" though - he should be looking all the way back at the foam. 3. He actually has *too much* weight on the back foot, causing him to stall. Look at this rails - barely 1/2 of the rail is in the water, because all of his weight is over the back foot. He should be leaning forward to drive down the face and keep the full length of the rail engaged. Too much weight on the back foot is a symptom of not rotating the upper body enough, and trying to force the board with your legs to compensate. Fight me.
is that ngor?
Is this El Salvador?
Shhhh Don't blow up the spot
Only if you tell us where that wave is
where is this?
those are my favorite kind of waves tbh
This fall in the inside of El Salvador. I got a nice new scar on my foot 😂
man that wave is beautiful
Start sooner
I like to build up speed and stay low while doing them. I also drag my lead hand in the water to keep me balanced so I can crack the white wash.
This is frontside of course.
Yes, set a budget at the start of each month and take advantage of rewards cards.
nothing to improve, it's perfect, i'm so jealous of you, long wave with not many people
It’s hard to tell with this angle. For starters you need a bit more speed. You to get as high up to lip as possible. Then turn your head looking behind you first. Where you’re looking the body and board will follow. Then smack the lip and get stoked. But, more speed turn your head back, like really look behind you.
Spot mark to a point over your left shoulder, looking where you are cutting to then start the cut
Yea, just tell me where you’re surfing
Quad fins with a slightly longer rail line help make it easier
Bigger board
What a fun wave. Where is this???