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Why Is Heather Faster Than Me?
In this video I’m surfing with a great local surfer named Heather. What you’ll notice is that she’s much faster than I am on the same waves. That is, I’ll plod along near the pocket and not very high on the wave, while she’s usually near the top of the wave, getting ahead of the pocket and then cutting back. When I try that I usually just lose the wave.
Yes, she’s a better surfer than I am, but how is she accomplishing this? And does her board make a big difference in this regard (I’m on a 9’8″ Stewart Tipster. Not sure what she’s riding.)?
Any suggestions as to how to surf more like Heather would be appreciated.
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4 Replies
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Ok so from what I can see:
1. She generally was taking better waves that had more of a face to them. She often had to stay high to get tons of speed to get through the sections which gave her tons of speed. So first issue could be wave selection.
2. She does utilize the middle of the board well. She bottom turns to get the board traveling up the wave and then gets to the middle which flattens the board out and gives you tons of speed. Yes I did see you getting to the middle as well, but they seemed to be on the weaker shouldery sections. If I remember, one of your earlier waves seemed to be a good wave and you were gliding nicely which brings me to point number 3
3. the wave that starts around 0:16, you took off and trimmed nicely, seemingly in the middle of your baord, and you we’re gliding great. Which brings us to fin. What fin are you riding? She possibly could have been on more of a 4a while you had a pivot fin on. Let me know. I’m interested to hear what ben or tommy say about this.
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I agree.
I had the big pivot fin on the board that comes with the Tipster.
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Oh yea that thing will be slow as can be. Not necessarily a bad thing on those waves youre riding. These days tho, I like a 4a style because with speed comes more action in my mind and is teaching me quite a bit. I’m navigating the wave better overall
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Hey Al great question! And really good break down by Brian I 100% agree.
Key things we’re thinking about comparing speed is yes board position, typically (give or take depending on wide point of board) the middle is where we will generate most speed. Then you’re also correct in identifying that you’re using the bottom 3rd of the wave more so. Board positioning in the middle and wave positioning being in the middle to top 3rd of the wave are the two major levers to pull in order to generate more speed.
The other really important consideration however is angle across the wave. When the nose of the board is pointed even slightly more towards the beach the board will push significantly more water – and we will also being angled towards the slowest part of the wave. So having a board angle pointing right across the wave is really important as well.
Then we also need to take into account what to do when we’re going off towards the shoulder and we need to lose speed or cutback. For this, the better our transition into and out of turns are (beginning turn quickly and generating speed/power in turn without creating too much drag) the more speed we will carry between our trimming.
I think check out the ‘wave theory series’ which starts the intermediate level of Longboard Continuum which discusses some of this nicely!
https://longboardsessions.com/wave-theory-series/
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