Graham

Portsmouth, United Kingdom

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26 Jul 06:18

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.

Reply

Posted

21 Jul 17:56

Clayton Nienaber Just wondering, are there going to be any more video clip reviews or Live chats any time soon?

2

18 Jul 18:19

Giulio Bamonte Glad to see you're getting the take off nailed 👍

I was just thinking that you needed to lift the elbow, but I see you know that 🙂 (also, of course, it would help you twist at the end instead of leaning which made you fall 😉)

It's all just a matter of practice and getting the muscle memory...

18 Jul 08:46

Yew! 🤙

Emily Brooks Unfortunately the waves were so small I was in chest deep water at most and there wasn't anything *to* duck dive ☹️

17 Jul 09:29

1752708614165_Screenshot_20250717_002434_OMBE Surf~2.1752708612.jpg

Two (linked) things I'd suggest working on:

1) Lift your front arm and, as Clay says, "put your elbow in your back pocket" which will help you to do...

2) Don't just stare down the line, look back at the foam 👍

You look pretty relaxed, though, which is good 🙂

Maria Molè I drove home and went back to sleep 😴

Reply

Posted

17 Jul 03:54

And then there are days why you wonder why you bothered to get out of bed... 🙁

So the forecast for Bracklesham was 2-3 ft at 7 seconds with a reasonable amount of push. Not great, but should have been ok and about the best you can generally expect on the south coast of the UK in summer.

There was also a forecast for cross/ onshore winds, but not blowing a hooley.

I looked at the webcams when I woke up early and decided it seemed worth it and headed down there with my 6'11. 

Two mistakes 🙁

The conditions were really messy, almost no decent sets (when there was one, I got caught inside and missed it!) and the rest of the time any semi-good wave ended up with a lump in front of it, spoiling the take off. 

Also I should have gone for the 7'6 or 8'2 board. I did think of taking one of the others, but didn't bother in the end. 

All in all, a totally frustrating experience as I had wanted to practice my shortboard walk-up, but I barely caught any waves in about 90 minutes.

The ones I did went nowhere, even if I managed to get up on them which most of the time I didn't. 

Not a great day of surfing.

7

15 Jul 18:47

Mark Hind A good explanation and it's great to hear you managed to overcome your confidence issues and get some nice waves 👍

Your video looks good, I'd suggest lifting your elbows and extending more as you appear to be staying compressed most of the time 🙂