This was a frustrating swell. Walled up at most places and hard to find a corner that didn't close out straight away.

Not sure it would have made much difference on the wave in the clip, but I noticed you were pointed straight at the beach. Angling the take off might help, idk. Might make you less inclined to grab the rails.

Also agree with Graham Marsden on positioning, but again, with this swell it was really hard to find a decent take off spot.

Nice. Definitely figure out a way to get some video footage. I feel like that ties everything else together.

I know you've mentioned a wave pool potentially being built in your area. Are you aiming to get to the new wave pool in Virginia Beach?

Michiel van Gerven I bought the basis paddle trainer in May, but I haven't used it much over the summer since I've been surfing regularly (albeit not great waves).

I am planning to use it more through the fall/winter/spring to maintain my paddle conditioning when the paddle outs are more challenging and my surf sessions are more spread out.  

My initial impression is that it does feel pretty similar to paddling in the water and it does get tiring pretty quickly.  Might give some more thoughts on it in a couple months after I've used it more.

I have benefited from the therapy band shoulder exercises he recommends as a pre-surf pre paddle warmup.

Looks like you carry a good amount of speed coming off the bottom of the wave and then try to change direction midface. I think your right arm is counter rotating/balancing like it would if you were going for a snap at the top of the wave.

I think it would smooth out a bit if you continued your line to the top of the wave.

Nice takeoff.

Nice looking turn, I'd be happy with that.

Thanks!

Emily Brooks Thanks! For some reason, this has been a battle for me. My initial focus was more on passing the coffee with my back arm, but my lead shoulder was still closed and in the way. I've recently made a point to focus on actively opening my shoulder while practicing on the surfskate and it's slowly starting to cross over to water. Slowly.

Comimg out of the first turn and on the speed pumps you were swinging your left hand in front of you as you were moving off the bottom of the wave. I think if you did a similar movement coming out of your takeoff you'd get a little more speed going into that first turn.

Nice style. Turn your head back to the foam on the cutbacks. Sometimes I forget to look back and sometimes I feel like something is blocking my head from rotating, but my turns feel more lively when I am able to get my head around. Board really follows.

Still struggling with getting my lead arm out of the way, but the biggest thing that has helped me with frontside turns is changing my line.

Go for the turn early in the wave even if it's a bit forced at times. It will increase the number of attempts per session, and it's a metric you can log in the journal.