Surf Tips

Power

Out of all the themes that come together to complete the jigsaw puzzle of surfing, power is perhaps the most prized piece. It oozes integrity and commands authority: it is applicable in any condition and relevant to any generation, past, present and future. It looks good and it feels good, but to get it takes some practice.

“Power is mainly technique,” even Tommy Carroll admits. That’s where we need to start. Without a good technique, your power will be prone to inconsistency and error. So we need to get the base right. Before we get specific with the action, we need to be really specific with exactly what power is: Think of power as the coming together of maximum speed, critical positioning and being able to hold a turn through this at maximum intensity with control. That’s a lot of adjectives so try and visualise what it looks and feels like. Power doesn’t look as good if you finish the turn sliding. Power is also undervalued the further out on the face you go. So practice the technique first. Put yourself into critical positions with as much speed as possible and try and control your board through different lengths and angles of turns. Play with it – get out of your normal way to surf and experiment. Good technique means lowering your centre of gravity, opening up your shoulders and rotating through the entirety of the turn. Don’t be scared to fall, don’t be scared to look like a kook. You will learn more from falling and if you’re not falling, you’re not getting far enough away from your comfort zone.

Once you start mastering this, add a little power each time. This means not only more pressure, but more body torque, which is essentially where power comes from. The more body torque you get, the more power you can apply. Coil your body for a massive rotation. Think of a tennis shot, the more back-swing and follow through, the more power. Likewise surfi ng: come from a really low position into full extension. This is where you get extra power. Think Mick Fanning, Taylor Knox and Occy. Think of their coil, that’s technical power. But there’s one more element…

Pancho Sullivan is the most powerful man in surfing. There is no argument. He has all the elements in his favour: technique, positioning, equipment… and size. At around 100kg, he moves water like a bulldozer would soil. He is also freakishly strong, even for his size. There are different ways to train for extra power. The best is in the surf because it is specific. The training you will do in the gym will give you more potential for power, that is all, the same way Pancho’s size gives him extra potential for power, but it is his technique that covers 80% of it. You need to achieve it in the water first and foremost. So we need to get specific with what you do in the gym as well. Because surfing is on an unstable surface, it is pointless to do static exercises. You need to enlist and exercise ball and do multi directional lunges (if your body is stable enough to do such exercises). Build your glutes, build your quads, teach them to work in conjunction with your core (Transverse abdominals), then apply it to the surf and what you are trying to achieve.

The other consideration is equipment. Pancho might be built like a brick shithouse, but it is no accident he is the world’s most powerful surfer. He has built his technique, equipment and focus around it. “I want to know I can trust my board when I turn my hardest, so I use bigger fins and rounded pins for anything with a bit of power because it gives me more control. I don’t mind losing a little speed. I don’t need to surf as fast as Mick or Taj, but when I get a section, I know I’ll be turning harder!” That’s integrity, that’s power. It looks good and it feels good. It’s applicable to every generation and it’s waiting for you.

Under The Lip Takeoff

As you experience more time in the barrel, you develop confidence, an innate feel for the barrel – and what most of us call, tube-sense. This means being comfortable in what is the most critical positioning in surfing. While what we are pulling in to now may be quite advanced, it should not be daunting. Think of it as a lot of simple things done well. As always, if you try and fifigure all the components of this skill, it’s too much to think about and you’ll probably fall. I’m going to break it up into fifive key points to simplify the skill into what’s most important. From there, we need to turn it into a feel. A good way to do this is to pick a word you can associate all these thoughts to. The word I would recommend is commitment.

1. Wave selection

First priority is selecting the right wave. Priority in wave selection is simple: it has to barrel. You don’t want to commit to an under the lip take off and have a white water mow you down. And this is where that word commitment comes into it. There is no half-measures here in wave selection, it has to be thick and obviously going to barrel. There can be no doubt. Remember what you probably already know: The scarier the wave looks, the more likely it will barrel – and the best barrels you’ve ever had were the ones you probably thought you weren’t going to make. So there is a certain amount of risktaking here. You have to trust yourself; you know what the wave looks like, pick it early and move into the right spot.

2. Positioning

If you have picked the right wave, you know it will barrel, so this should give you the faith in committing to what you are about to do. It usually takes a lot of barrel-time to develop this, but what we are looking for here, is the commitment to take off behind the peak and backdoor it. There is no point in enduring an incredibly difficult takeoff, and then not even get in the tube. Remember, when you position yourself in this part of the wave you move a lot faster than normal, so go even deeper than you’re used to and trust it. Go beyond your comfort zone here. If you go too deep and fall, you will learn more about the feel of the barrel and get it right next time. Look closely at the wave and you’ll notice that if you take off behind the thickest part of the wave, not only are you setting yourself up for a good backdoor barrel, but you are also making the takeoff easier on yourself.

3. Technique

It starts with paddling. You’ve picked the wave and positioned yourself behind the peak. Again… commit! Paddle your arse off and this will give you the luxury of getting into it earlier. If you’re really confident some people, very few, i.e. Bruce Irons, Jamie O’Brien, Kelly and Andy Irons like to take off very late. But it doesn’t stop the paddle speed. Paddle hard and it gives you the luxury of standing up when you want. After that, get up as quick as you can and stay connected to your board. There is an element of free-falling here, so stay as low as you can to stay in control of your board. You don’t want to do too much with your arms as it can pull you away from your centre of gravity, bring your front shoulder around, but keep your arms close to your body. Another good trick, which you can see has been done here, is grabbing the wave with your back arm. This helps you grip to the wave in that free-falling moment when there is not much rail in the water. Stay close to your board and stay close to the wall of the wave… and commit!

4. Visualisation

See yourself doing all the above before the attempt. Mental rehearsal is a very useful tool. Think it, feel it, do it. You can do this on flat days, even between waves. Visualise and stay connected to the feel so when you practise it, it doesn’t feel so foreign.


5. Faith

People in sports science talk a lot about building blocks and pyramids. Consider the above points the building blocks for what you have to do. The last block on top of the pyramid is faith. Trust yourself, have a go and enjoy the experience.

Pull a Floater

Back in the big 80’s pulling a floater was like, totally gnarly, and while today things have changed a bit in the rad department, you’ll still see all the top guys pulling them as both a functional way to go around a section and to score points. While it takes some practice to get those long, fast, projected ones and land them on heavier sections, forehand floaters are one of the first moves less experienced surfers can try, particularly at sectiony, semi-closeout beachies.

1: ‘Go for the lip with speed and with good timing. As soon as the lip starts to rise you have to go. Don’t draw your bottom turn too wide or go up the wave too vertical. Remember, it’s a totally different approach than a hack.’

2-3: ‘Get your board floating on the lip. You need to find the perfect spot, that place where the foam seems to flatten. Not too far behind, not too much in front; move your weight from the back foot, to both feet, trying to make it even. Get your balance and just let the board float. Try to be as light on your board as possible.’

4-5: ‘Bend your legs and keep your body close to the board to help balance. Use your torso and arm position to get even more balance and projection. Your shoulders have to aim at where you want to go. Use all that speed to project over that cascading lip as long as you can (a great feeling). But speed, although essential isn’t everything – you also have to think about landing. In this case, as you can see, I decided to use the lip movement to help me go down smoothly. In shot 5, I have my shoulders already turning to the beach and I’ve put my weight back to the back foot.’

6: ‘Time to get ready for landing. As soon as you feel the lip going down, you have to choose where you want to land. Turn your shoulders and start turning your body and board towards the beach. Put all the pressure on your back foot and get your board under control.’

7-11: ‘Prepare to deal with the impact of landing. Press your feet against the board, keep your legs stretched but loose, so that you won’t get hurt when the board hits the flats. Open your arms wide, and always think that you’re making it. You need to land with the lip, not before, and especially not after.’

Decide Which Peak to Surf

At wide beachbreaks with multitudinous peaks, sometimes it’s tricky to decide where exactly to get your shred on. Here’re a few helpful pointers:

1.Crowd. If you see a nice peak with crew already on it getting waves, don’t be a sheep. The worst person to surf with is the one that decides which peak is best by the number of crew already out there. Instead, live and let surf: keep walking down the beach until you find another. Conventional wisdom states that more fun is to be had on an empty 61/2 out of ten peak than a completely zoo’d-out 9.

2. Tide. In much of SW Britain for example, the tide will give vertical movement of a over metre of depth every hour. Particularly on springs, don’t chase the tides – you’ll always lose. Plan ahead, ideally choosing a bank that might be doing the do in just over an hour’s time, (the average tide position you’ll be surfing on, assuming the average sesh is 2 hours long and it takes you 15 mins to get your rubber on and get down the beach). By the same principal, a mid-tide bank should work much better on neaps.

3. Current. Try using the current to your advantage. If there’s a crowd on a good peak but everyone is going right with the current (as it’s taking them continuously too deep to go left), consider jumping in up-current from the peak, and surfing left against it. Most crew, particularly your average summer crowd won’t want to paddle continuously just to stay in position. Going the opposite way to the masses is one effective method of getting a little something on crowded days.

4. ‘Secret’ banks. Sometimes, quality secluded banks actually attract more decent surfers than the ones out the front. Sometimes, these are merely crowd aggregation devices, and you might well be better off out the front of the main car park with a dozen or so kooks than at the ‘hidden’ peak swarming with clued-in rippers.

5. Remember: If you and a friend can’t agree on which peak to surf, have a minor off on the beach and paddle away in different directions, the peak you surfed was always way better.