Big guy learning to surf needs help

[ST3]

I’m not a coach and still a novice, and a fellow big heavy guy, however, it looks like your back foot needs to be back further on the board. You should be able to do a wheele when you back off the throttle approaching the boat. Also don’t hesitate to tilt/move that back foot by bending your knee or even getting up on those back toes in order to stay in the pocket at the back of the wave. Looks like you are progressing nicely.


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[markj]

You just need more practice and time learning to be comfortable. It takes awhile for that to happen. With more exposure, you'll get it. I notice you're a little slow to adjust your foot positions and/or reaction time as conditions change. I saw a few times where if you made little micro-adjustments in time (like leaning forward in time), you wouldn't fall out the back and need the rope. I also think your board may be a little small for your skill level. Maybe not.

[greggmck]

George,

I presume the top video labeled June 13th is the most recent. I looks like you are making great progress.

First, please shorten that rope. You should never coil the rope, especially with your back hand. Most falls are forward and holding the rope behind you greatly increases the chance it wraps around a limb or finger when you fall.

Here is guy that lost a thumb surfing from a rope injury.
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...3&share_type=t

Your feet placement look good in the recent video but your weight is still on your heels. Shift your weight to the balls of your feet and you will stay on the wave.

Set NSS to 0, and NCRS to 5 to give yourself the strongest push to help to as you learn to stay on the wave.

Good luck!

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[Gschofield62]

George,

I presume the top video labeled June 13th is the most recent. I looks like you are making great progress.

First, please shorten that rope. You should never coil the rope, especially with your back hand. Most falls are forward and holding the rope behind you greatly increases the chance it wraps around a limb or finger when you fall.

Here is guy that lost a thumb surfing from a rope injury.
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...3&share_type=t

Your feet placement look good in the recent video but your weight is still on your heels. Shift your weight to the balls of your feet and you will stay on the wave.

Set NSS to 0, and NCRS to 5 to give yourself the strongest push to help to as you learn to stay on the wave.

Good luck!

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I did shorten the rope, quite a bit, to do so even more seemed too short but I will definitely try that. I really don't need a nasty injury. Here are a couple of videos of the same day but a little lower from the go pro mount. I will try to get on the ball of my feet tomorrow. I just can't seem to get the feeling that I can go fast enough to keep up with the boat. It's probably just a feeling I have to overcome and get my technique right.

https://youtu.be/TsFY6bThAdY
https://youtu.be/INMK3uA7Ef0
https://youtu.be/dztJ1xtITjc

[Last Mango]

GSchofield62 - Good videos, and great job. I just began surfing 3 weeks ago, and am hooked. 5 outings so far. It's a great feeling when the line goes slack, you toss it in the boat and are pushed by the wave for 5 minutes. Kinda makes me want a beer. I'm 50, and 265 lbs, so not a small young guy, and all of my trips have been behind 20' boats, which cannot generate the wave your boat is capable of doing.

Given my nominal experience, take this with a grain of salt, but I think you need more weight on your front leg, smooth and consistent. Bend your front knee, not your back. You are seeking more push. Leaning forward is the gas pedal, and leaning back applies the brakes. It's a very different feeling.

In the 2nd video you got slack line and the board moving forward several times, then worried you were too close to the boat and shifted your weight back. Don't worry about the boat.

I've unintentionally surfed with the board tip over top of the platform several times trying to get the feel. Once I even landed the tip on the platform, leaned forward and rode on the platform laughing and wondering what to do for 30 seconds. Someone said "lean back", which I did, and I gently slid back onto the wave. Not planned, but it was pretty cool.

As I said, take this with a grain of salt, as I'm no grizzled veteran to surfing. Most of all, enjoy, which you are already doing.

Cheers,
James

[greggmck]

George,

You are very close to mastering this. Learning to surf is like riding a bike. People can explain it to you but you need to develop the "feeling and muscle memory" so that your reactions become instinctive. The key to learning this is to put more weight on the balls of your feet, especially your front foot. However, I think some people may not really understand this. Another way to think about it is to bend your knees so that your knees completely cover your feet when you look down. This position will shift your weight from your heels to the balls of your feet. This puts more weight on the toe side edge of your board. This is especially important for your front foot.

I took a screen shot of your front foot and it shows how you have more weight on your front heel which places weight on the heel-side edge of your board. This causes the board to turn away from the wave and lose push. You want your board constantly edging INTO the wave to gain push.

To help you accelerate your learning, move your ankle bone of your front foot from the red line to about where the green line is. This will place your toes right at the the black/white edge on the board. You may not need to ride in this position after you learn how to keep the wave but riding in this position now will accelerate your progress.

Another thing. ALWAYS hold the rope with your front arm (your left) only. When you hold the rope with your back arm, it opens up your shoulders. You see how your shoulders are turned into the boat? You want your shoulders to FACE THE WAVE. This also helps keep toe-side pressure on your board. So shorten up that rope and hold it ONLY with your front arm. As you hit the sweet spot the rope should go slack but not so slack you have to coil up the rope. As you get better and more comfortable riding the wave you can lengthen the rope to have more wave to play with.

Finally, several others have stated this but I will reiterate. Front foot pressure (weight) moves the board forward into the boat. Back foot pressure slows down the board. The trick to staying on the wave (like riding a bike) is to find the delicate balance between front foot pressure and back foot pressure. Too much back foot pressure will be your challenge, because you are a big guy and your size gives you significant inertia. Slow down too much and there is not enough wave push to re-accelerate you back to speed. So you will lose the wave. Finding the balance of slowing down enough but not too much will be your ticket to surfing the wave with confidence.

Good luck.

Gregg

[greggmck]

George, here is the rope length you are going for...Gregg

[Gschofield62]

George,

You are very close to mastering this. Learning to surf is like riding a bike. People can explain it to you but you need to develop the "feeling and muscle memory" so that your reactions become instinctive. The key to learning this is to put more weight on the balls of your feet, especially your front foot. However, I think some people may not really understand this. Another way to think about it is to bend your knees so that your knees completely cover your feet when you look down. This position will shift your weight from your heels to the balls of your feet. This puts more weight on the toe side edge of your board. This is especially important for your front foot.

I took a screen shot of your front foot and it shows how you have more weight on your front heel which places weight on the heel-side edge of your board. This causes the board to turn away from the wave and lose push. You want your board constantly edging INTO the wave to gain push.

To help you accelerate your learning, move your ankle bone of your front foot from the red line to about where the green line is. This will place your toes right at the the black/white edge on the board. You may not need to ride in this position after you learn how to keep the wave but riding in this position now will accelerate your progress.

Another thing. ALWAYS hold the rope with your front arm (your left) only. When you hold the rope with your back arm, it opens up your shoulders. You see how your shoulders are turned into the boat? You want your shoulders to FACE THE WAVE. This also helps keep toe-side pressure on your board. So shorten up that rope and hold it ONLY with your front arm. As you hit the sweet spot the rope should go slack but not so slack you have to coil up the rope. As you get better and more comfortable riding the wave you can lengthen the rope to have more wave to play with.

Finally, several others have stated this but I will reiterate. Front foot pressure (weight) moves the board forward into the boat. Back foot pressure slows down the board. The trick to staying on the wave (like riding a bike) is to find the delicate balance between front foot pressure and back foot pressure. Too much back foot pressure will be your challenge, because you are a big guy and your size gives you significant inertia. Slow down too much and there is not enough wave push to re-accelerate you back to speed. So you will lose the wave. Finding the balance of slowing down enough but not too much will be your ticket to surfing the wave with confidence.

Good luck.

Gregg

Went out again tonight. Really tried to focus on getting my toes closer to the right edge. I know I keep coiling the rope, which is bad. It's developed into a bad habit that i'm trying to break. I did as suggested and let the rope go in the water while getting to surf speed. I shortened it to where I thought the sweet spot would be. I'm still having a really hard time getting enough push to stay going. I can lean forward or move around to get going fast enough to almost hit the boat, then I slow down and I can't recover enough to stay going. And I have to use the rope. I am posting one link to one video now while the others load onto youtube. I'll post the rest after. Thanks again for the help.

https://youtu.be/lvXQ-WyJcMM

[lucky7t]

Lean into the wave . Squat the knees a little and lean into that wave . Cut the board into it . Use your hands and arms to lean into the wave . Small increments . Looks like your leaning back too much as well. Put a tiny bit of weight on front of board and lean into wave

Pm me anytime for help


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[greggmck]

Went out again tonight. Really tried to focus on getting my toes closer to the right edge. I know I keep coiling the rope, which is bad. It's developed into a bad habit that i'm trying to break. I did as suggested and let the rope go in the water while getting to surf speed. I shortened it to where I thought the sweet spot would be. I'm still having a really hard time getting enough push to stay going. I can lean forward or move around to get going fast enough to almost hit the boat, then I slow down and I can't recover enough to stay going. And I have to use the rope. I am posting one link to one video now while the others load onto youtube. I'll post the rest after. Thanks again for the help.

https://youtu.be/lvXQ-WyJcMM

Holding that rope with your back hand is teaching you to face the boat. This is rotating your shoulders open to the boat, putting your weight on the heel of your front foot. Watch the video. When your shoulders open to the boat you put your left shoulder behind your front heel. Where does this place your weight? ...on your front heel. Doing this will cause you to lose the wave.

To master this you must face the wave and KEEP your weight over your toes by bending BOTH knees. Hold the rope with ONLY your front hand. Only then you will feel more push and be in a position to drop the rope.

Here is a pic from the Tricky Wake Surf School teaching a big guy to surf. Try to achieve this position and you will progress much faster.

[XBIGPUN66]

I would move your stance forward slightly on the board. Then knees over toes

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[nohlan_4]

Went out again tonight. Really tried to focus on getting my toes closer to the right edge. I know I keep coiling the rope, which is bad. It's developed into a bad habit that i'm trying to break. I did as suggested and let the rope go in the water while getting to surf speed. I shortened it to where I thought the sweet spot would be. I'm still having a really hard time getting enough push to stay going. I can lean forward or move around to get going fast enough to almost hit the boat, then I slow down and I can't recover enough to stay going. And I have to use the rope. I am posting one link to one video now while the others load onto youtube. I'll post the rest after. Thanks again for the help.

https://youtu.be/lvXQ-WyJcMM

Yup for some of that video you had decent slack in the rope. But holding with your back hand isn't helping you. I always tell people to point their front hip at the middle of the boat and it helps to square there shoulders up to the wave a lot. Your getting closer though.

[Gschofield62]

Went out again tonight. I don't have any video this time but the issues still persist. I actually hadn't read the latest posts on here and the weather was getting bad so I didn't have much time. I will try some of th esuggestions you all have given tomorrow. I still feel I lose all my speed when I get close to the boat. I get the feeling like I'm going to hit the swim deck so I lean back to slow down then I can't regain enough speed to keep my forward momentum so I sink. Anyways, question...is it possible I"m too big for this boat without some extra lead or sacks in the back for ballast? Like I said before I'm 300 lbs. I know these are the best of the best for wakesurfing but maybe I'm too big to be able to let go.

[SkiTower]

I’m closely watching this post because I’m in the same boat (pun intended). I frequently have the same question but then I see videos of people riding double (on shoulders). I want to believe I just don’t have enough boat (211 w/1300 lbs ballast) but have a glimmer of hope it’s still technique. I keep telling myself I’m going to buy an ocean surf board and see what it does.

[MTRBTR]

A 211 with that much weight should surf just fine with a wake shaper.