Ocean is better, but pool has guaranteed good waves!

If you're near a reliable Ocean break, that's great, but if not, get in the pool to brush up your skills.

You will have to twist more than engage the rail if your board has a lot of volume and you may have to do back foot pivot turns, but I have an 8'2 Torq V+ for small waves and I can do a lot of the regular OMBE techniques on a long board, eg the Oreo Biscuit take off, walk up etc.

Look under Browse/ Surf Start programme.

Get a wax crayon and write "Look up!" on the nose of your board!

Seriously, it reminds you of what you need to do in a stressful situation and then you can start to break the habit 👍

A smaller board with less volume will make your take off positioning more critical, so you may miss more waves.

However it will be more manoeuvrable which would help with turning.

Of course it will also probably be more twitchy and less stable, so you'd need to have your stance right too...

Try chatting with other people in the line up who are of similar or slightly better skill level than you and ask about their boards and maybe try swapping for a few waves if they're amenable and see how you get on.

Clayton Nienaber

Darren DeMatas It's a bit dependent on the size of the wave, the bigger and slower the wave, the more time you have to catch it, glide and set the rail as you look down the line before you walk up.

On a small or steep wave, you're probably going to have to be quicker before the board nose dives.