Power surfing for the skinny guys

General Discussion
1

Today I surfed some really fun waves. I got one of the “waves of the day” maybe a ten foot face. I felt I had to just kind of cruise because when I leaned to turn I felt a skittery feeling coming on and I didn’t want to blow it on the best wave of the morning. I’ve had this feeling before.

I’m kind of tall and skinny- 5’-11" and 150 lbs.

I was talking to a guy the other day who only longboards and he told me he realized that what he really likes best is speed and trim and that’s why he longboards. He made me think about what I like best and I realized what I like best is hard, on the rail turns, whether it be bottom turn, off the top or cutback (I don’t “get off” watching the pros do airs or tail slides…but when they do their big carves…yes).

So what design elements would facilitate a skinny 150 weakling do big carves? Without totally sacraficing paddling ability…remember I’m a weakling. Thin rails? Narrow board/tail? Fin set up set up more for drive?

What say the experts?

2

Squats, calf raises…

3

he was about 155 to 160 when most of this was shot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4UKe_P68oc

Probably thinner rails would be right, but narrow so you don’t get

bucked around- so maybe thick in the middle? Maybe keep the

board normal with at the wide point, but narrow it up in the tail

a bit…

As Tenover says, muscles go a long way when power surfing

4

great stuff

searching for tom curren['s style , power , finesse !]

crouching ,

staying centred

I notice with guys like catto [about 6’2 and all of maybe ? 75kgs?] , he needs to crouch to stay on the thin thrusters he rides.

I am around 5’10 and 70kgs [about 11 stone ie: 154lbs] , and have the same skitterish feeling in head high and bigger waves .

I find that crouching , and , also , widening my stance , moving my feet , and using bigger fins , can all help me at times . [our headhigh and bigger winter waves are often pretty bumpy , as well as hollow …]

this , however , was a few days ago …a freak summer swell ?! [our summer banks are always VERY shallow !]

… okay , I hope this helps ?

cheers !

ben
5

Chipfish has it…

Quote:

widening my stance, and using bigger fins.

It also depends on how you weight your turns. Watch Curren closely.

D.R. at 147 lbs.

6

anyone can power surf! its got little to do with how much you weigh.

For you i’d suggest riding a few single fins for a while (if you havent before) and learning how to really lay the board on the rail. Then stick some bigger and fibreglass fins in your board. and watch the “time for school” section of Searching for Tom Curren.

… for what its worth, i can throw a lot of spray now. Riding a fish in pointbreak waves helped a lot. as well as my previous time on a single fin. also on the weight thing, out at my local break there is a 13 year old grom who can throw as much power and spray as any of the bigger guys. he i’d guess would be 50 kilos, max.

7

I think there will have to be a balance between your leg musclepower (so you don’t buckle), your speed and turn radius (which determine the force you’ll have to exert) and the area of the board (which with whatever speed you have, determines how much the board will push the water away, rather than plane through it).

The last may need some explanation, but think of an extremely narrow board, which will “understeer” through a turn, versus a wide board, which will hold the initial radius.

8

for bigger wave boards, I prefer narrower tails (pin or swallow) and make sure you foil them down thin too… what I like is to be able to really lay it over hard on the rail at speed…

9

First, you need a board that can handle the turn and not spin out. So the tail has to have the right combination of width to fins, but it doesn’t need to be a narrow tail.

Keep your back foot perpendicular to the board for more power. I like to get in a low crouch by bending my knees more, then when I hit the turn I push up straightening my legs. This adds pressure into the turn. Be sure that your back foot is set firmly and apply more pressure on the back foot. This works with both bottom turns and top turns. For killer cutbacks, make a turn up the face then unweight yourself and jam the board into the wave about 90 degrees (so the board is completely on the rail) really pushing hard on the back foot.

This can be really hard on the fins and rails sometime cave in. But you’ll instantly change directions and throw a huge wall of water. Watch Occy making those extreme cutbacks. He just jams the board into the wave.

This is a great move to do when your on a smaller wave and want to do a cutback and get covered up right away. The board pretty much stops going forward, and if you can pull it around quickly you’ll be right in the curl for a nice cover up.


10

im 6ft 3 and 85 kg

i found my boards with the old plastic fcs were shite if the waves were over four foot and had any power

i had to baby the board through bottom turns

now i can lay them right over

try some Sunny Garcia fcs

thicker stiffer fins for a start

i found softening the hard edge back to the leading fins gives it a bit more bite as well

rounded pin instead of a squash

thinner rails

maybe set the fins back 1/4 to 1/2 inch

these are things that work for me

the fins and rounded pin seemed to make more difference then anything for me personally

11

If nothing else, thanks for that Curren video. If I could surf like anybody in the world…

Of course Curren was a little more compact. I saw him at Rincon way back in the day, before fame and fortune. I saw this kid just flying down the point from second and rounding the corner to first. No one else was making it through except this kid…

Any idea who shaped that swallow tail that he shows to the camera?

I think Machado is the classic tall skinny power surfer, but whenever I read the dims of his boards I shake my head and figure I wouldn’t get a single wave on a crowded day on that size board.

As far as doing cross training…squats and what not, I could never get into calisthenics and weights and all that. I get bored out of my skull in two minutes. I will be riding a bike alot once the weather warms up.

My next board will be a bonzer 5 but I’m still ruminating the details of construction and design.

Thanks for the feedback and keep it coming…

12

I’m about 6 feet now and 180 pounds, but it wasn’t too long ago I was skinny 5’ 10 160lbs. What helped me is definatley learning your stance. I’m known for having a very low stance, probably from many years of lacrosse, with a coach who beat that stance into me. Get low and bend your knees, almost like you’re sitting on a chair, but keep you’re head over your feet at all times. Sounds like a simple concept, but it helps me with whatever I’m riding whether it’s wakeboarding, surfing, snowboarding ect. I always check my self mentally and make sure my head is always over my feet. It will helps tons with retaining balance. For a board, it really all depends on what you’re style is what the waves are ect. that whole speech. What I loved, and still do are K-boards…I know I’m going to get some shit for saying that I rode the generic K-boards for awhile. However, it’s really a great, refiined outline. Just make sure you can paddle it.

13

One more thing, regarding fins…The occy template or Sunnys template are both great for power surfing and big carves. Thats if you’re using FCS?

14

pau…aloha and mahalo!

15

I’m 6’5" and 185 soaking wet…in a full suit. Anyway, my first impression was to say something about technique. Bend the knees, project out, solid foot positioning. Second, was propper fin area, rake, toe, cant positioning verses tail area, rocker and shape. And, then I just thought back to what works. Get those details covered in the prep. But, you’ve got to have the confidence and not be thinking about anything other than getting you as a whole totally committed. If your thinking about anything else, it aint going to work.

16

A few things I forgot to mention. I like boards with less curve in the tail and a hard corner for making harder turns. Swallow tails, fish, diamond tails fit that type of board.

I never would have thought that a 6’ fish would be able to turn as hard as my 7’ 2" BK semi-gun, but it does. But the fish also has 5 fins. I think the straighter tail curve and all those fins are what make it work. It also helps that for my size I can sink the board in when I push down. I also like to completely lift my weight off the board at the very end of a hard bottom turn. I think it adds just a little bit more speed.

No matter what you ride, you need to be able to push hard and your legs have to stay solid. If they wobble, you’ll end up on you face. You know it’s time to go in when your legs get tired and they can’t hold on a hard turn.

I do enjoy the feeling of taking off a little bit further back, making a really hard bottom turn and flying down the line.

I added a couple of photos to my earlier post. One shows me getting low before the turn, in the second shot I’m standing taller coming out of the turn.

17
Quote:
Reno taking that drop at Waimea when he won the Smirnoff that year is the classic example of a light weight driving hard and coming off the bottom with speed.

1974… still the gnarliest Wiamea contest waves. Even though other guys wanted to call the contest because the waves were too big, Reno said he had no fear. He came to make some much needed cash. His only fear was not winning the contest.

I spent a couple weeks with Reno in Kauai a few months ago. He still doesn’t weight that much, and he still RIPS. We mostly rode Hanalei, Waikoko, and Middles on longboards, but Halikiwai was going off for a couple days - solid double-O+ at a critical spot. He borrowed one of my old boards - a 6’1" Steve Rex double-wing thruster. I think it’s around 18" wide and 2-1/4" thick. I can’t ride it anymore because I sink it up to my nipples. It sure worked for Reno. He sat outside and caught the bombs. Even though Bruce, Andy, and their gaggle of groms were out… I kept hearing guys saying “wow… that’s Reno!”

Reno proves you can be light and power-surf. It’s about commitment, focus, and timing. You can’t hesitate or doubt… ever. Speed, momentum, cranking turns at max velocity in critical areas of the wave. All the way to the bottom… all the way to the top. Refocus the energy of the wave, and the weight of you and the board.

I’m 5’8" and 185lbs.

18
Quote:

Today I surfed some really fun waves. I got one of the “waves of the day” maybe a ten foot face. I felt I had to just kind of cruise because when I leaned to turn I felt a skittery feeling coming on and I didn’t want to blow it on the best wave of the morning. I’ve had this feeling before.

Some good suggestions here, but you cant beat basic physics.

First, there’s nothing wrong with a skittery feeling on a 10ft wave…I’d say this is pretty normal for an everyday surfer, meaning your not a pro.

Second, it sounds like your also pushing a certain type of board to or past its comfortable limits (again, nothing wrong with that either, free surfing is not precise). I’d be stoked on catching the wave of the day!

You didnt say anything about the board youre using, particularly its weight and fin setup. In larger or more powerful faster surf, heavier boards offer better control - the more control, the easier it is for you to do what you want to do, including laying down a poweful bottom turn or top turn. Youre not gonna be able to do that of your feeling “skittery”. IMO, board weight is a definite control element in a surfboard, just like rails and fins are. If you can ride a board that no matter how hard you try, wont spin out of control on the most hardest railings, then you can power surf.

Its interesting how many powersurfers have won world championships (Slater being one in a relative sense), and just how few world champions there have been in the last 15 years. Its think its only been about 4 guys or so? I’ll give you one guess why Burrow hasnt won one…and many have predicted he’d win a couple by now.

Point being, the surfing world appreciates powersurfers, but very few have the right combination of skill, weight, strength, equipment and waves. The vast majority of surfers are NOT powersurfers. Powersurfers are an exclusive club.

Personally, I prefer powersurfing to trick/air surfing. Guys that can do both are very rare IMO…Slater being the defining surfer in that respect. Every one else are still catching up to him.

You can fake a bit, and it may not look very powerful from some elses’ perspective, but it can certainly FEEL like it from your own perspective. In the end, that’s all that really matters.

(its like the difference between watching a NASCAR race and driving one of the cars - watching is totally boring, driving one and your shitting bricks!)

19

llilibel,

Shark Country hit’s it on the head. When the waves get bigger you need to get lower in your stance. Look at how Curren draws out his bottom turns in a curled up ball, then just push and extends up through the unweight zone. Yes the board has to match, but I’ve seen a lot of guys on longboards do the same thing. Aipa comes to mind doing this.

You just can’t flop the board over on it’s rail on a big wave and expect it to perform, there’s way to much resistance wanting to make the board go straight. So it’s more like a practice thing. like last 2005 run of big west swell we got, the first 1 1/2 week it was a freek show, everybody eating it, going over the falls, seeing ghosts at the bottom of there bottom turns etc. But after week 2 everybody got in a comfort zone, and started to push there boards. Crouching low, sinking rails, pushing a little harder for the top of the wave.

On one of my first trips to Sunset my buddy who lives in town saw my surfing, and said…your’e in for a world of hurt if you surf this wave like Pickleweed point (homebreak). I said yeah right old man, and proceeded to surf it like my home break…I got so fricking spanked on the bottom turn. I think the wave dragged me 50 yards, and tombstoned me for 30 seconds. Lower center of gravity fixes a lot of surfing sins, also a little hand dragging doesn’t hurt either. Get low, and use the power

my 10 cents from a 44 year old.

-Jay

20

Geez guys, I got you all beat. I’m 5’10" and I weigh 125. You heard me right 125lbs. This is due to an emotional breakup with a girl and not being able to eat for a while. I’m pretty sure this is unhealthy to be this skinny (i’ve never been over 135) so I am trying to gain weight. If anybody has any help on this subject let me know. And I know, eat eat eat. But I seriously can’t force food down my stomach, it makes me want to puke. I also don’t want to gain weight in an unhealthy manner ie. grease. Any help would be great. Thanks