Know How: Cutbacks
Hi girls,
I’m sure your paddling has improved since last issues (for previous “How Tos” check out previous magazine issues) paddling tips and you’ve been catching plenty of waves out in the line-up. Remember, if you’re not catching waves, you can’t practice the manoeuvres that I will be covering in upcoming issues.
Firstly I need to mention some extremely important things to remember when attempting any surfing manoeuvre.
- Always bend your knees. Your bent knees are your suspension giving you balance and control. Bending your knees also allows you to push and extend your legs throughout a turn creating power and throwing spray. Think of your knees like the suspension in a car smoothing the bumps and softening the ride.
- Straight legs can cause you to lose speed and power, bog or catch a rail and lose your balance.
- However, it is just as important not to bend your knees or crouch so low that you’re almost sitting on your board.
- Slightly tilt your body forward at the waist when you bend your knees. This will allow you to find your centre of gravity. Your back shouldn’t be straight up and down when your knees are bent.
- Look in the direction you want your board to go. Where you look is where you go. For example if you want to hit the lip, look at the lip as you set up the manoeuvre.
- Use your arms to help guide and rotate your shoulders. This combined with twisting through your trunk (body) will guide you and your board through the directional change.
- Always compress with bent knees and keep yourself centered over the stringer of your board to successfully recover from a manoeuvre.
CUTBACK
What is a cutback?
The cutback is an essential component of a surfer’s repertoire and is the first manoeuvre we are going to focus on for this issue. A cutback allows a surfer to re-enter the powerful section (curl/pocket), of the wave when it slows. Placing yourself back close to the curl enables you to gain speed and power from the steeper, more powerful section of the wave.
How to perform a cutback:
1. Begin the cutback from out on the shoulder or flatter face of the wave.
2. Lower into a crouched body position. In this crouched position, it is extremely important to ensure you are bending sufficiently through your knees and waist.
3. For a forehand cutback, lean backwards towards the white water in the pocket. For a backhand cutback, lean forwards towards the white water in the pocket. The reason for leaning is to put the board onto its rail and thus reducing drag.
4. As you transition onto your rail you will need to simultaneously:
-look in the direction you want your board to go;
-rotate your shoulders by guiding them with your arms; and
-twist your torso back towards the pocket.
5. Hold your crouched body position throughout this part of the manoeuvre until you and your board are back into the more powerful pocket of the wave.
6. When you are deep enough back in the pocket you can then straighten out of the turn by easing off your rail.
7. Now that you are back in the pocket, you need to redirect your board back down the line again. To do this you will need to simultaneously:
-look in the direction you want your board to go;
-rotate your shoulders by guiding them with your arms; and
-twist your torso back down the line.
Your board should now be facing down the line in the direction you were heading before you began the cutback.
8. Crouch down for balance and keep centered over the string of your board to successfully complete your cutback.
Helpful things you can do out of the water to better understand and practice a manoeuvre.
1. Read through the tips while watching a good surfer execute the manoeuvre out in the surf or on a surfing DVD. Relate these tips to each stage of the manoeuvre as you watch.
2. Visualise a wave and physically practice manoeuvring your body on that wave. I’ve always done this where people can’t see me as you can look pretty silly, but hey, it works, so give it a go!!
3. Video footage is fantastic! We often look a lot different to what we think we do when surfing, AHH!!! Video doesn’t lie. You can watch yourself surf and analyse your manoeuvres by comparing yourself to my tips and other surfing DVD’s.
Just remember, practice is the key to improving your surfing. You may find new challenges difficult at first but if you put time in the water to practice good technique, you’ll find yourself improving and loving your surfing even more than you do already.
Get out there and have fun girls.
Know How: Roundhouse Cutback
What is a roundhouse cutback?
How to with Jenny Boggis
A well-executed roundhouse cutback is a complex manoeuvre and is often referred to as two manoeuvres in one:
· A cutback to get close to the curl; and
· A re-entry to complete the manoeuvre.
The roundhouse cutback should be performed in one complete movement. Once the manoeuvre has begun there should be no stoppages in the manoeuvre.
Firstly you need to start with the cutback
1. Begin the cutback from out on the shoulder or flatter face of the wave.
2. Lower into a crouched body position. In this crouched position, it is extremely important to ensure you are bending sufficiently through your knees and waist.
3. For a forehand cutback lean backwards towards the white water in the pocket. For a backhand cutback, lean forwards towards the white water in the pocket. The reason for leaning is to put the board onto its rail thus reducing drag.
4. As you transition onto your rail you will need to simultaneously:
-look in the direction you want your board to go;
-rotate your shoulders by guiding them with your arms; and
-twist your torso back towards the pocket.
5. Hold your crouched body position throughout this part of the manoeuvre until you and your board are back into the more powerful pocket of the wave.
6. Once you see the impact point of the wave (lip or white water), you can straighten out of the turn.
7. This is the stage at which the roundhouse cutback is different from the standard cutback as you are adding in the second manoeuvre (re-entry). Just before hitting the white water, you throw your board up higher on the lip or white water whilst twisting your bodies’ trunk in the opposite direction (re-entry or rebound). You should maintain speed and power and flow throughout the manoeuvre.
8. Your board should now be facing back down the line in the direction you were heading before you began the roundhouse cutback.
9. Crouch to absorb the force of the impact.
10. Finally, centre over the string of the board in a crouched stance to successfully complete the manoeuvre.
TIP- to help you better understand the roundhouse cutback, try watching some surfing footage in slow motion whilst applying the sequences above.
Once you’ve mastered the roundhouse cutback you will experience the extra power, speed and dynamics the manoeuvre has to offer to your surfing repertoire.
Surf hard and catch you all next issue for more surfing technique tips.
Know How: Surf Etiquette
I used to find it so strange that there were rules surrounding surfing. With surfing being all about “freedom” it seemed incongruous to have rules. However, the more I became involved in surfing the more I realised the need for some basic codes of conduct to keep everyone safe in the water. Each issue we’ll provide you with a few basic rules to help keep you and your fellow surfer’s safe in the water this summer….
Body positioning for paddling
You can often tell a beginner surfer before they even begin to paddle simply by the way they lay on their board. A real beginner will be unsteady and unbalanced on their board. Here’s a quick tip to help you find your sweet spot for paddling.
Make sure you are not too far forward or too far back. The nose of your board should be just above the surface of the water, (no more than 5cm) and your legs in line with the centre line. When starting out, take the time to learn your correct paddle position as it will make paddling that much easier.
Who has right of way when paddling out?
The person paddling out or the surfer?
Paddling out can be a bit of a challenge at a busy break and with a surfer flying down the line towards you you need to know what to do.
The basic rule of thumb is to paddle wide of the break if you can. By that we mean paddle out away from where everyone is surfing and then once out the back paddle into the lineup. If that’s not possible (often when there is a beach break) then make sure you paddle around behind the surfer heading your way. For example, if you are paddling out and you see a surfer coming towards you, start paddling towards the tail of their board. This may mean you get pummelled by the white water yourself but it is your responsibility to get out of the way.
If you are at a break where there are a large number of beginner surfers then you will find that most of them surf straight into the beach, rather than along the wave. In this case simply make sure you do your best to get out of their way, whether that means holding your ground or simply paddling straight out. The most important thing to remember is that it is your responsibility to get out of the way. You can not assume the person riding the wave will manoeuvre (or even be capable of manoeuvring) away from you, so make sure you stay clear.
If you do find yourself in the impact zone or about to be pummelled or collide with another surfer, whatever you do hold onto your board; flying board will do even more damage.
Know How: Small Wave Surfing
By Jenny Boggis
It’s finally the weekend and you’re amped to get into the water for a hard earned surf. You rock up to your local break only to find that only 1-2ft waves are on offer! What would your reaction be? Disappointment perhaps?
Most of us would cringe at the thought of this scenario but surfing small waves shouldn’t be associated with negativity or disappointment. In fact, learning to surf small waves well, can be a lot of fun and helps create a surfing style that is energetic and fast and appreciated by all those who watch your surfing. Surfing small conditions can help you develop and improve all aspects of your surfing performances.
The reason for this is that in order to surf small waves well, the surfer needs to create speed and acceleration. This is done by correctly moving their body, source the limited power from the waves caught by making correct manoeuvre decisions and reacting quicker than may be necessary in larger surf conditions. These three skills; correct body movements, correct manoeuvre decisions, and faster reaction times are all skills that will enhance performance in all other surfing situations.
When surfing small waves we must create speed and maintain that speed for the wave’s duration.
Here are five simple strategies that can help you achieve this aim:
1. Attack the takeoff: When you decide to paddle for a wave, paddle fast and kick your feet to create maximum entry speed onto the wave. Too often surfers paddle for small waves at the same intensity as they would for a larger wave. This is a mistake as small wave surfing requires a different approach into the entry of the wave. Full commitment is the go!
2. Lift your arms at takeoff: As maximum horizontal speed is required to set up the first major manoeuvre of the wave, you should forcefully lift both arms forward as you takeoff. This lifting motion takes weight off the board and allows the board to accelerate more rapidly. Once the speed has been created, it is important to follow through with step 3.
3. Perform speed moves: Choose manoeuvres that will maintain the speed that you have created at takeoff, e.g. floaters, head turn snaps and cutbacks where there is a rebound off the foam are all manoeuvres that maintain speed. Poor manoeuvre options include half cutbacks with no rebound, layback snaps, no head turn snaps. These manoeuvres cause the surfer to stop at the end of the manoeuvre creating a stop start style of surfing where there is little flow occurring between manoeuvres.
4. Surf rail to rail: When surfing through flat sections on waves, maintain your speed by surfing rail to rail. This approach is more efficient and looks so much better than the commonly used approach of bouncing or hopping through sections. Bouncing through flat sections should be the last approach used – never the first.
5. Hit the lip hard: When hitting the lip or foam, which also enables maximum control. Your goal should be to hit the lip or foam with enough speed and height so that your front foot reaches above the ‘lip line’ or top of the wave. Simply having the intension to hit the section hard improves a surfer’s commitment and success.
In addition to these strategies you can enhance your small wave performances by having a positive and focused mindset. Set goals or targets before entering the ocean like seeing how vertical you can get while surfing along the wave or see how many manoeuvres you are able to perform. Try to surf the waves you catch for the full functional length and maintain speed for the waves duration.
Achieving the goals that you set will help you improve at a faster rate. Approach surfing small waves using the above strategies and you will be blown away with the way your overall surfing will improve. You’ll find that these approaches will transfer to other parts of your surfing performances and make you keen to go surfing no matter what the size of the surf. So next time you find only small waves on offer, get out there and have fun!!
Know How: Surf Fitness
Surf Fitness with John Velez and Joe Gernetzke from AmpedSurf
As winter and colder weather quickly approach , many of you will not make it into the water as much as you’d like. Now is the perfect time to get that workout routine up and running. John and Joe from AmpedSurf™ have four exercises to help keep you fit and riding more waves.
arm circles
This exercise is an excellent upper body warm-up and will help build the flexibility and range of movement you need for efficient paddling. Begin in board stance with arms at your side. Lift both arms straight in front of you as you point forward, roll them up toward the sky, and eventually back down toward your side as you complete a backward circle. Keep your hands as far from your body as possible during entire circle. Reverse direction.
15 REPS x 3 SETS
REST 10 SEC
prone lat pull
(Stability Ball and Resistance Bands)
This exercise will help develop the lat and shoulder muscles you need to paddle longer and stronger. Lie face down on stability ball so it supports your ribcage with legs straight and feet shoulder width apart. Hold resistance bands handles with palms facing the floor, arms extended towards the resistance bands’ attachment point, and head tilted back. While keeping abs tight, pull in resistance bands handles to outside chest and squeeze shoulder blades together as you pull. Return to original position and repeat.
8 REPS x 3 SETS
REST 30 SEC *
reverse hyper
(stability Ball)
This exercise will help strengthen your hamstrings and lower back, crucial for surviving steep drop-ins and powering through big turns. Lie face down on stability ball so it supports your stomach. Place your forearms flat on the ground in front of you and relax you legs as your toes touch the ground. Keep your abs tight and bodyweight supported by your forearms as you lift your legs to straighten your full torso. Keep your legs straight throughout the movement, return to original position, and repeat.
6 REPS x 3 SETS
REST 30 SEC
sitting balance
(stability Ball)
This exercise will help develop your core and improve your balance, both essential for all aspects of surfing. Sit on stability ball with both feet flat on floor and legs bent 90 degrees. Sit up tall with chest out, shoulders back, and abs tight. Slowly lift both feet off the ground and keep abs tight. Keep your hands at your sides on the stability ball to help stabilize your body.
30 SEC x 3 SETS
REST 30 SEC
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