Hope it heals up Scott! Glad you are getting some learning even out of the water (even if you wish you could go in!!)

Good question! To add to Clayton and Graham-

OMBE training says look where you want to go- with looking where you want to go, if I’m bottom turning, I try look at the lip not the shoulder- is it foaming and curving on you or a section to hit? often, it’s flatter down the line on the shoulder. Same on the turn- as you turn off the top, you can glance back to see what the foam is doing (help to work on cut backs too!).

I find spent in the ocean and watching waves helps too- personally, I enjoy watching waves even if I myself am not riding them! Finally, I find riding crap conditions as well as good ones to help build this skill- outstanding breaks often peel like machines, crappy beach breaks are inpredictable and force you to learn to adapt! 

Happy birthday Clayton!! Hope you have an excellent year ahead!

Oh no way! I didn’t ride K59, or many breaks there, as I was only there for 4 days passing through, but my stormriders surf guide describes K59 “allowing experts a racetrack and intermediate a fun wall to shoulder on the wide sets”. Not an easy sounding description! 😂

El Salvador was amazing - seems they have loads of great waves- hope you have a great time!

Interesting question! curious to here others thoughts too!

From my experience, I find it varies highly between breaks (and even how that break works at different swell direction/size/tide)- some waves jack up quick, break fast, or barrel, and my timing of paddling and positioning feels like needs to be just right (thinking like Keremas, Bali) in order to glide in, while others, even when bigger may have a slower crumbling wave that feels like you have a bigger window of time and positioning to play with and still make it, even if big (thinking El Suzal in El Salvador).

Worth also baring in mind, the more powerful and bigger the wave, the harder it is to paddle to match that power to catch it, and the more that gravity (aka steepness!) becomes your friend, esp on a short board! If a wave gets steep very quickly rather than gradually, I find I feel like my window of positioning and paddle timing is tighter to get to glide.

There’s definately a mental element for sure too (been there myself many times too 🙂!)- sometimes it looks too steep and unmakable, but you can glide into that steep face and catch it. The crux here is you may want a short enough board, or one with enough rocker (or both!) to fit the wave or there’s higher nose dive risk. Some waves really aren’t friendly to bigger boards!

My suggestion would be to body surf or body board to get a feel for what that wave is actually doing with lower stakes 🙂

Hahaha Coryn Daniel the song is great- I’m going to use this too!

Oh no Hadyn Wood that sounds aweful! Hope you get some good rehab and heal up soon!

First, I props for the humility! Agreed with Scott Wagenblast that surfing is humbling for most of us!

Also agree with Graham on the boats- seems like your knee isn’t totally up on the pop up, then it throws you off for the wave with being off balance. I feel you, focusing on lots of things at once is a challenge, so maybe starting with one! 🙂

The turn does look smooth in terms of speed maintence though Scott Wagenblast! Working on that myself! It’s great seeing your progress on cut backs on here!

Nothing to add on tips form Clayton and Graham! I find it hard to not stand on my board during turns without lots of speed to really lean into it!

I’m getting overly keen here! 😂

Sign of an enticing series! That makes sense and look forward to it when it comes out!