Wakesurfing Help with Video

[houstonshark]

Here's a quick video of my 2nd time out surfing. The vantage point is not the greatest for surfing but you can at least get an idea of where I am and how the wake is.

Here's the setup (not counting equipment, stereo, etc):

Surf Ballast
600lbs Port Rear Full
400lbs total in Stern for batteries and Pop Bags
200lbs Port Front Full (Still not sure how they do this with a single sac. Does anyone know? Does just the port ballast pump run?)
320lbs total in Bow with Pop Bags
525lbs in people weight (3 adults & 2 Kids)
10.8mph
TAPS 1

I haven't played with it that much but did try filling the bow sac completely, tried adjusting the speed and ran TAPS up to about 3. I don't think I was patient enough with any of these adjustments though.

The height of the wake seems OK but it is not very clean and seems really short. Any suggestions?

Now onto my surfing. I'll go ahead and say it first, I suck, but this was just my 2nd session so maybe my 8th time to be up on the surf board. We had a friend on the boat the 1st time who was telling me that I needed to be up closer to the boat (basically where I fell at the end) but that just doesn't feel right and doesn't look right after watching some other surfing videos.

Any constructive tips? My goal for now is just to get a good feel for riding wireless and how to stay in the pocket and be able to recover if I get out of shape. Right now my movements are a little too quick or drastic I think when trying to move forward or back.

[shawndoggy]

at about :45 in is where you should be surfing and where you looked the best for a split second. You need to have the board carving on the toe side rail (like you did at that point) and you need to have the board pointed in towards the middle of the boat (like you did at that point). Don't ride the board flat, and the bottom of the wave. Carving, a little up the face, it looked like you had plenty of push.

Can't comment on the wave as I'm not a tige guy, but it looked pretty good to me.

[neildorin]

First I'd say bend those knees a bit. The taller you stand the harder it is to make small adjustments to weight placement. Like Shawn said, you need the board to cut into the wake on the toeside edge the entire time. As you get more comfortable and stable on the board (that'll come by just doing it more), try shifting your center of gravity towards the nose of the board to move closer to the boat, or towards the tail to move away.

As far as the wave, I'm not an RZR expert (I'm sure someone with an RZR will chime in soon), but I'd say that:
a) more bow weight would lengthen that wave while slightly reducing the push
b) it looks like the swim platform is cutting into the wave causing that crease near the top. Not that big a deal, our 21V RE did that and it only bothered me occasionally on airs
c) I'm gonna say that a little more port list probably wouldn't hurt. Have everyone but the driver sit on the port side if you're already using all your ballast.

Boy seeing the color of that water reminds me why I traded the sludgy, silty, muddy waters of the south for the pristine, glacier fed, crystal clear waters of the northern Rockies

[Duncan]

I think you are doing great for only a few times out. Having watched many people learn to surf over a season, it seems to come down to just spending time on the board.

All suggestions above are good.

Athletic stance, bent knees, straight back, absorb through quads. Think of a rod through your head, down your back, and out your tail bone. Get low but do it with bent knees and flexed quads, not by sticking your a$$ out. If your quads do not burn, you are doing it wrong. Of course, with active riding, your core will be movign all over the place. But neutral position is athletic stance.

Keep your shoulders parallel to the board when cruising. Bringing that rear shoulder forward can increase rotation away from the wake. Once you are carving around, your shoulders are not static but the parallel stance should be your neutral position.

Keep toe edge engaged in the wake -- I almost always have to get a rider to move their front foot closer to the toe edge of the board. Similarly, a rider's rear foot usually needs to go back farther to the tail of the board (but stay relatively centered heel to toe).

Edit: on looking at the vid again, I think you would definitely benefit moving your front foot closer to the toe edge--makes it easier to engage toe edge rail and less likely to fall back on your heels.

Do not be in a hurry to drop the rope. The more you drill fading back and catching up, the smoother it will be. Practice climbing the vertical face of the wake on your toes while maintaining your front/back position. Then combine fade/catch-up with climbing the wave face. Without the rope, you mess up once and it is a several minute delay to go get you (time you should be using to surf more).

Time, time, time. Drill, drill, drill. Good athletic stance with square shoulders, engage toe edge. Fade back, catch up. Climb vertical face of wake. Combine. Keeping the rope means more time surfing, less time waiting for the boat.

[Vicseek]

You’re there! Just practice some more surfing with the rope loose and try not to depend on it so much! Get more aggressive on edging in the middle (ramp) part of the wave, this combined with a few surfing pumps will enable you to recover. The next hurdle now is the physiological effect after you toss in the rope. After a while you’ll get more comfortable, It’s always funny how a person will crash immediately after they lose the life line

[houstonshark]

I think you are doing great for only a few times out. Having watched many people learn to surf over a season, it seems to come down to just spending time on the board.

All suggestions above are good.

Athletic stance, bent knees, straight back, absorb through quads. Think of a rod through your head, down your back, and out your tail bone. Get low but do it with bent knees and flexed quads, not by sticking your a$$ out. If your quads do not burn, you are doing it wrong. Of course, with active riding, your core will be movign all over the place. But neutral position is athletic stance.

Keep your shoulders parallel to the board when cruising. Bringing that rear shoulder forward can increase rotation away from the wake. Once you are carving around, your shoulders are not static but the parallel stance should be your neutral position.

Keep toe edge engaged in the wake -- I almost always have to get a rider to move their front foot closer to the toe edge of the board. Similarly, a rider's rear foot usually needs to go back farther to the tail of the board (but stay relatively centered heel to toe).

Edit: on looking at the vid again, I think you would definitely benefit moving your front foot closer to the toe edge--makes it easier to engage toe edge rail and less likely to fall back on your heels.

Do not be in a hurry to drop the rope. The more you drill fading back and catching up, the smoother it will be. Practice climbing the vertical face of the wake on your toes while maintaining your front/back position. Then combine fade/catch-up with climbing the wave face. Without the rope, you mess up once and it is a several minute delay to go get you (time you should be using to surf more).

Time, time, time. Drill, drill, drill. Good athletic stance with square shoulders, engage toe edge. Fade back, catch up. Climb vertical face of wake. Combine. Keeping the rope means more time surfing, less time waiting for the boat.

Wow! Great input Duncan! I didn't realize you needed to try and keep a toe side edge but that really makes sense.

Thank you all for your input! It's hard because we wakeboard a lot so finding that good balance between wearing yourself out wakeboarding and then having enough time at the end of the day to surf. Hopefully soon we will take a day just for surfing. I think that will help a lot.

[NICKYPOO]

Just to add a couple cents...

Do you have an INDO board? They're really good for for wakesurf practice.

One thing I try to tell new surfers is to keep your knees together. Obviously they don't need to touch but, it'll keep you from using your legs independent of each other. They need to work together.

Another thing to keep in mind is to slide your hips. To speed up, slide your hips toward your front foot. To slow down, slide your hips toward your back foot. The INDO board will get you in that habit of keeping your shoulders square, your feet planted, your head over the balance point and make you use small hip adjustments to control your speed.

[shawndoggy]

Just to add a couple cents...

Do you have an INDO board? They're really good for for wakesurf practice.

One thing I try to tell new surfers is to keep your knees together. Obviously they don't need to touch but, it'll keep you from using your legs independent of each other. They need to work together.

Another thing to keep in mind is to slide your hips. To speed up, slide your hips toward your front foot. To slow down, slide your hips toward your back foot. The INDO board will get you in that habit of keeping your shoulders square, your feet planted, your head over the balance point and make you use small hip adjustments to control your speed.

I never thought of it that way but it's totally true.

Also agree with the advice above about not being in a rush to throw the rope. Hold on as long as you want. If it's droopy, you are surfing.

[Duncan]

Just to add a couple cents...

Do you have an INDO board? They're really good for for wakesurf practice.

One thing I try to tell new surfers is to keep your knees together. Obviously they don't need to touch but, it'll keep you from using your legs independent of each other. They need to work together.

Another thing to keep in mind is to slide your hips. To speed up, slide your hips toward your front foot. To slow down, slide your hips toward your back foot. The INDO board will get you in that habit of keeping your shoulders square, your feet planted, your head over the balance point and make you use small hip adjustments to control your speed.

Completely agree re Indo board. Avoid the smaller skateboard style boards though. The real Indo is a great surf trainer and perfect for developing neutral athletic stance and shoulder control.

Nickypoo, great detail re hips

Edit: I recall some Ragboy advice about learning to stay in the pocket and keep the toes engaged -- reach out your back hand and touch the wave. The effect of this is more toe edge. It is not a great technique for form (because it bends your back forward). But it has worked well on our boat as a temporary crutch for new riders not understanding "engage toe rail".

[Wakeman22]

In teaching a newbie today I used some of these techniques and it helped out a lot. Thanks guys. Always open to ideas on teaching.

[Gwyn]

if thats a few times out I think youre doing great, got my wife to go wireless for the first time this weekend.

Tips would be think about small less aggressive movements in any direction

try to keep your knees bent and hips lower
drop your weight into your front knee a little more

[majestic]

The biggest thing that will help is get your toes on your front foot closet to the edge of the board. You seem to have a lot of weight on your heels which is steering the board away from the wake.

[rca]

I gotta ask, is that the San Bernard River?

We live in Sugar Land and are out there almost every week. The color isn't great, but the water is glass just about every week. Love the San Bernard.

Ron

[NICKYPOO]

In teaching a newbie today I used some of these techniques and it helped out a lot. Thanks guys. Always open to ideas on teaching.

OK. Here's a good one. Keep it simple. It's really easy to overload a newbie. Telling them everything, all at once, will just confuse them. Then everybody starts throwing out random tips, telling stories, moving around, takin pics....

"Everybody shut up! One coach! It's gotta be that way."

This gets everybody quite but, more important, it clears your riders head. They are nervous and if they think they've got somebody there who is there for them, blah blah blah...doesn't matter. They are not thinking about what everybody was saying and what to do and that time Christy's top came off.

Now reset the goals.

Give the rider a quick, simple checklist on whatever they are trying to accomplish, be it first time up, dropping the rope or hanging in. Give them three things to do.

Ex- "Knees bent, hands in, eyes forward

Get one thing solved, add another. Soon they will start to build and off your new rider goes into a big new world. Sigh. They grow up so fast.


One coach! Gotta be that way.

[NICKYPOO]

If I were coaching you Houston I'd say,"Stand up straight, eyes forward, hands in."

Or, "Relax, stand up, look where you're going."

Or, "Head over your feet, look down the line, karate hands."

Karate hands is a good one. Use it.