Not so cool, calm or collected :P

[Tommy.TenToes]

Here’s a few things that could help:

Have 1 or 2 warm up waves where your goal is to just trim and look stylish (no turns no cross stepping no, nothing) – Check out the video on trim stance in the intermediate longboard stance section of continuum

I’ve found that when I’m taking off in barrelling surf if I smile as I’m paddling and taking off then I loose (pun-intended) a lot of the tension in my body

Another thing you could try is reminding yourself to breathe as you surf

https://longboardsessions.com/intermediate-longboard-stance-series-2/

longboardsessions.com

Intermediate Longboard Stance Series – LongboardSessions

Intermediate Longboard Stance Series – LongboardSessions

[Andrea Williams]

Thanks Tommy! They’re all great tips! I definitely hold my breath so I’ll work on that. Plus taking a few chill waves first sounds like a good idea. Thanks!👍

[BenConsidine]

Hey Andrea!! Such a good question – and I love Tommy’s take there!

I usually find shortboarders coming to longboards have the problem of working on overdrive to get their board to respond the way they’re used to, where the shortboard was so quick to respond the longboard is heavy and cumbersome to move.. if you try and move it the same way.

Moving to a longboard I like to get people to imagine drawing a series of S movements across the wave, slowly and steadily changing direction, relying on rail engagement with the water to draw longer lines rather than short fast pivot turns from the tail. If you imagine you’re an artist painting your lines on the wave as a series of ‘S’ shapes without sharp angles – this helps us to understand the board and approach is different to a shorty, slowing us down and looking more relaxed – then of course later down the track we can add in some more acute/sharper angled turns 🙂

[Andrea Williams]

Thanks so much for the reply Ben! Breathe, draw an S, smile. I can do that! 😁

[BenConsidine]

Absolutely!!!