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Exciting Changes Ahead! ๐ŸŒŠWeโ€™ve restructured our footage review process to make it more beneficial for everyone. While live sessions will be on pause as we adapt to new dynamics with our two candidates, weโ€™re thrilled to announce a fresh approach: your submissions will now be reviewed and shared here in the community!Hereโ€™s why weโ€™re embracing this new method:โœ”๏ธMore Engagement: Posting reviews here encourages interaction and brings our quieter members into the conversation. Lives were limiting, as only those free at the time could participate.โœ”๏ธFlexibility for Clay: With a packed schedule of retreats next year, this setup allows Clay to review submissions remotely during his downtimeโ€”ensuring faster and more consistent feedback.โœ”๏ธEasier Access: Every review and takeaway will be visible to everyone, making it simpler to learn and improve without sifting through past live sessions.โœ”๏ธFocused Feedback: This organized system will help you concentrate on specific areas to improve.๐Ÿ”” A few reminders: โ€ข Submit one video at a time to give everyone a fair chance for feedback. โ€ข Avoid submitting distant or surf-cam footageโ€”Clay needs clear visuals to provide effective, actionable advice.We canโ€™t thank you enough for your support, patience, and understanding as we work through these changes together. Your willingness to adapt and grow with us means the world, and weโ€™re so appreciative of this amazing community. ๐Ÿ™P.S. Iโ€™ve added a Google sheet in the comments for tracking your submissions. If youโ€™d like your older footage skipped, simply select โ€œYโ€ in column F. This will indicate youโ€™re uploading newer training footage. If you select โ€œN,โ€ Clay will proceed with reviewing your current submission. Let us know if you have any questions!
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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
September 03
00:36

Day 8:

Another pre work bowl session...just working on all the things, but mostly focusing on the compression extension and listening/feeling the rhythm of the transition. Also, a small 7 sec clip of me from this weekend, as a tiny spec in the ocean, trying to apply that bowl practice to what we consider a wave here in South Carolina.

Don't expect any feedback on the surfing cause unless you zoom in, which I'm not sure you can do, can't even see me and it's a Short clip on a little closeout so nothing great to see. Only included it to show that I am attempting to take my dry land practice into the ocean with me when I go.

Every day just gonna keep grinding...

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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
September 04
00:09

Graham Marsden Been focusing on getting my front arm out of the way on frontside top turns. I've read your "put your elbow in your back pocket" comment enough times that it's finally starting to carry over into the water.

I think I still need to open that shoulder sooner, but at least my arms were both pointing in the direction I wanted them to go.

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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
September 02
00:16

Hey All! Went to the wave in Bristol last week and did a few advanced lefts - definitely happy with my progress but the start of the wave always looks a bit slow! Any tips would be great! Thank you!!

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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
September 02

I found this on YouTube and I think it will get a few wry chuckles (and winces!) from peopleย ๐Ÿค”

5 Things Surfers Donโ€™t Tell You About Paddling Out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYSzPF0T7S0

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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
August 26

Month of Surf Training in September:

Decided I am going to dedicate myself to 1 month of surfing/ surf training everyday for at least 30 mins a day.

If there are waves ill surf even if it is just catching white water on a foamie. I'll practice my pop ups and weight shifting and how that effects board movement.

If no waves I will paddle up and down the beach for 30 mins. Work on paddle endurance and low back strength.

If it's inclement weather and I can't get in the water I will surf skate, weight train, stretch, bosu mind surf while watching a John john video.

30 days of training or working towards my goal of improving every day.

I'll come back on October 1st and let every one know how I progressed.

My current baseline: I can pop up with little to no issues. I'm comfortable in the ocean regardless of wave size. I can get down the line with minor compression and extension.

Goals:

Paddle endurance

Working towards line 3 surfing (compression/ extension, arm control, utilizing more than the bottom of the wave.)

Doing a turn! Any turn will do to start....

Really want to get cutbacks down.

Let's see how it goes!

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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
September 01
00:29

Although I got improvements on my back side, still there is a lot more to improve. First time I could keep up with the wave this time and go up a bit. Think me back hand have to come more to the front. How can I go more up to 12 oโ€™clock? Please tell me what I can do to improve more.

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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
August 31
โ€ข Edited (Aug 31, 2025)

Excuse the length of this, but, for 21 years (yes, twenty one bl**dy years!), I've been surfing and, in all that time, getting to my feet has been an issue.

I could kneel on my back leg and stand up, I recently worked out how to push up on the front knee, get my back foot under me, step the front foot through and stand up and, of course, I can do a completely ungainly "scramble to my feet and hope I can keep my balance and not fall off...!"ย ๐Ÿ˜•

But, in all that time, I've only ever done multi-stage moves and, despite watching lots of videos and practising different techniques etc, I've never been able to do that smooth, single movement onto my feet and up.ย 

Recently, following my surfing holiday at Croyde where (once again) my back started acting up during sessions, I've been doing more back raises, pikes and knee-to-chest tucks on my Swiss Ball etc to try to get a bit more strength in my back and core.

Also, during the recent session at Bracklesham, I kept missing waves when trying to do the "front knee, back foot" walk up, because I ended up pushing down on the back of the board too much, so it was making the nose pitch up meaning I couldn't get the front foot through and the board would stall.ย 

So I was watching one of the old Zoom Lives today (and fell asleep half way through!) but when I woke up, I was thinking about the Bracklesham session again and wondering how I could get more forward to keep the nose down as I walked up, to let me get my foot through and stop me losing the wave.

I experimented with a few things, then tried just pushing up on my toes and lifting my hips, when something like this happened:

ย https://youtu.be/MdRlbwrM8FAย 

Ok, that's actually after already having done a few tries, but somehow I finally found out that I could actually Walk Up as a Pop Up, getting the back foot to land first, followed by the front, and get upright!!!ย ๐Ÿ‘ย 

It's not perfect in the video (I know my head is moving around too much and drops at one point instead of staying looking up and forward) but I was concentrating more on just getting the basic feel of the technique and I'll work on the details later.

I don't know why I've never been able to get that before and I'm only currently doing it off my toes as I can't yet do it from my knees as if I was on a short board, but, hell, after 21 years, I'll take any win I can get!

So, take it from me, if you think you can't do something, just keep doing what you can and, one day, you might just surprise yourself!ย ๐Ÿค™

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  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
August 30
00:22

Need more twist in my life, right? Iโ€™m fully platued, help.. haha

11
  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
August 27

The remains of Hurricane Erin were throwing some big swells towards the UK today, which looked promising.

Unfortunately it was also sending 20mph+ winds across too, meaning the big swells were turning into blown-out, close-out mush :(ย 

But I decided to go down to Bracklesham to get back on the Ombe Ambassador 6'11 board that Clay shaped for me a year or three ago and which I hadn't ridden for a while.

Firstly, in a fit of enthusiasm when I got there, I decided to try to get out the back, but the conditions were just hectic for me, however I did manage to (sort of) achieve a few duck dives (Yay!) but...

... Important technique note: If you lose control of the board in a duck dive, it's a really good idea not to try to catch it in your teeth!

Ouch :(ย 

One slightly split lip (but no damaged teeth later), I decided to stay on the inside in the foam.

I was hoping that my recent experience with doing a short-board walk-up on my 8'2 Torq would help, except I was having great difficulties even catching anything.

Despite my best attempts to do the Oreo technique, so often either I was too far back so the wave just didn't push me, or I was too far forward and nose-diving.

Even when I did catch something, I wasn't managing the walk-up because as I was pushing down with my front knee, the nose of the board would pitch up, causing me to either lose the wave or not be able to get the front foot through.ย 

I did catch a few eventually and was actually in the right position for the webcam, so I could do a video I've wanted to do for a while.

Ok, the walk up wasn't great on this one either, but I was getting stacked on the front foot and being a lot more relaxed and stable.ย 

https://youtu.be/hZbAJzT-RXk

So it wasn't a great day, but at least there were some positive benefits from it.

7
  in  ๐Ÿ„ ombe-community
August 21

Recently I got back from from 10 days holiday at Croyde in North Devon, although I actually spent a fair amount of it surfing at Saunton (the next beach along) because it has a more mellow wave.

I have to say that this was the best surfing I've had in over 20 years, the conditions were generally clean and with easy breaking waves which gave me the opportunity to practice without having to worry about wind chop or close outs.

Not only was I getting my shortboard walk-up working (I was using it for practice even though I mostly rode my 8'2!), but I was getting more stacked on the front foot and managed to compress and extend along the wave face.

Frustratingly, on the day I did my best surfing, I had forgotten to take my GoPro with me and I wasn't in the right place to get footage from the surf camera, but Hadyn Woodย was there and witnessed it!

I also got to try out a better skate park than my usual one, which I did get some video of (will follow up with this in a later message), but it was depressing when I watched it back, thinking I was getting up the banking with my head low, only to see that the reality was a lot less impressive...ย ๐Ÿ™

Oh well, it's an improvement anyway, so I'll take what wins I can get!


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