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The surfing bottom turn is the first maneuver to learn once surfers begin riding real waves. It has many uses.

The Surfing Bottom Turn 

When I teach Surf Lessons in Oceanside USA we begin by riding foam waves to the beach. The next progression is riding bigger foam waves on the outside and smaller real waves. 

Once you can ride a real wave, you can start practicing the bottom turn. Coming off the face, you pressure your toes and heels whichever are on the side of the direction you are going to travel. Then you rotate your upper body as one piece in that direction. The fatter the rails of the board, the less pressure you can put on carving.

The surfing bottom turn takes the board into the pocket of the wave. You should then accelerate by pushing the nose of the board up and down the wave with your front foot. You are ready to begin a rip. You do a bottom turn up the face of the wave. Most surfers like to get a low center of gravity and drag the inside hand as they turn up the face.

At the top, you rotate your upper body back toward the bottom of the wave and pressure the toes or heels to reverse the turn. Most surfers can be seen throwing the arm that is the same as the front foot back down the wave to turn. Joel Parkinson, world champ, makes all his turns by smoothly rotating his upper body.

Use the Surfing Bottom Turn to Escape Close Out Waves

One of the most useful safety aspects of the surfing bottom turn is to get out of the pocket when a wave is closing out or heading toward a surfer coming from the opposite direction. When I was first in 10′ waves, I felt my bottom turn to escape close out waves had to be improved for safety reasons.

Sometimes the wave will close out sooner than expected and the bigger the wave, the more weight crashes on your body.

Use the Surfing Bottom Turn to Rip the Lip

The most popular technique in surfing is riding up the face and throwing the tail of the surf board over the lip and then heading down the face. This trick is initiated by accelerating in the pocket for speed and then doing a surfing bottom turn at the bottom of the face and heading up the face.

At the top, the direction is reversed by doing a cut back maneuver where the upper body is rotated and the torque leads to the feet and the surfboard. Many experts will say to throw the inside hand over the top and let it initiate the rotation. Observe surfers for real or on videos and the throw becomes more evident.

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To take Oceanside Surf Lessons, see the Home Page

This instructor gives a good overall video lesson on learning to surf

The real fun new aspirants to surfing think is what they see in films where experts ride the shorter surf boards.

Getting Started on Soft Top Surf Boards

Surfing is more difficult and tiring than experts make it appear. My new students always say the same things: this is more difficult and more tiring than I expected. And this is regardless of their fitness level or age.

One thing that makes surfing easier and less tiring is a high volume surf board. Shorter surf boards are harder to paddle, more difficult for catching waves, and more difficult to ride. The easiest wave to ride is the foam or broken wave that is close to shore. So new students need to learn the techniques on high volume boards near shore.

The techniques they learn are not amateurish. The same techniques used for beginners is what are used by experts. Because they are difficult on a short board, beginners need to learn them on a high volume board. This might be why snowboarders learn flips on a trampoline before they go off a 50′ jump.

The Process of Moving from High Volume to Low Volume Surf Boards

I start new students of all ages on a 9′ soft top board. When they have mastered balance, catching waves, and popping up on the board, I move them to an 8′ board. Unless they are skilled in the beginner techniques, the 8′ board will be too challenging to keep the sport fun. Fun is why we are in it, no?

On an 8′ board, new students can start to paddle out to ride bigger foam waves and start riding small real  waves that break near shore. The real wave as it arcs provides the necessary power for a low volume shorter surf board to move. Catching an arcing wave requires timing, judgment, technique, and courage. The new surfer needs each of these facets to move forward.

Experts will say that waves are not measured in feet, but increments of fear. Once students feel how much power a wave contains, they are immediately respectful of their vulnerability. The way to move through vulnerability to confidence is mastering the techniques. Progressing slowly gives students the time to build skills and confidence.

Moving to lower volume boards should include shortening the length 6″ at a time and maintaining the volume of width and thickness. The shorter surf board should still be 21″ wide and 2.75″ thick to allow reasonable progress and confidence development.

For Surf Lessons in Oceanside, see Home Page

Beginners learn to ride real waves after mastering foam wave riding. The essentials of riding foam waves are a first step for the more intricate timing of real waves. 

The timing for riding foam and real waves first involves positioning. On a foam wave, you get in front of the wave and start paddling easy. When it is close, you paddle hard three or four times until you are in front of the wave before putting your hands on the board 

On a real wave, you can paddle parallel to where you know the waves are breaking to help momentum. When you see it begin to form, you paddle out a little bit, in a little bit, or just parallel. When it starts to arc, you have to let the wave come under the board. Then three hard paddles and you should be in the wave. 

Angling for the wave is an important technique. Rather than just riding straight down the wave which can increase pearling on steep waves, you can push the board to the direction the wave is breaking before putting hands on the board to angle for the pocket. 

The pop up needs to be smooth, efficient, and quick on real waves. The body should wind up just as in a foam wave with weight distributed evenly over the center line of the board with hips and shoulders facing the front of the board. 

Beginners should learn to ride real waves that are only a few feet high. They can often be interspersed with foam waves or you can go to the outside on smaller days where all the surfers are lined up. Getting a wave in the line up is another topic.

Learn the basics and how to ride small foam waves in this video

Adults learn to surf almost as easily as teens. Adults seem to have one advantage is they understand and translates instructions to their bodies better than young adults, but have the disadvantage of flexibility.

Learning to surf has great parallels with how you are able to learn any new body movements, for example dance or yoga. The more new challenges you introduce to your body, the easier it is to learn.

The second aspect is the body’s ability to move. Adults fall into the trap of prioritizing careers over exercise (which may be necessary) and then lose the opportunity for many recreational outlets. Flexibility should be the first consideration, followed by movement and aerobics such as walking, biking, swimming, yoga, running, and hiking.

Strength training is important not only for new recreation activities, but to maintain lean muscle mass for health and daily activities. There are so many opportunities to develop strength that can occur with isometric and isotonic exercises (resistance without moving muscles and moving resistance by pushing, pulling, lifting, and raising.)

Surfing requires certain muscle groups. Paddling is the most energy demanding and the exercise that tires surfers and students first. I like pulleys to develop upper body strength. Pushing off the surf board for a pop up is developed by practicing pop ups and push ups or burpies are great.

Weight can become a detriment for adults that want to learn to surf. As we get more sedentary, we stop exercising, and therefore lose the power to weight battle that allows us to get our body off the board. Usually a big midriff increase is accompanied by a loss of strength in the upper body.

Surfing is a full body and mind/body coordination sport. It is great for conditioning or as a target for conditioning. Most adults are successful in their first lesson even if they realize they could use more body training.

For surf lessons in Oceanside, See the Home Page

The timing for surfing waves is a skill surfers need from beginning through catching the biggest waves on the planet. It is learned through practice.

The beginner catches foam waves which is good practice for real (green) waves. The idea for both is to anticipate when the wave will arrive to push the board, get momentum, paddle into it, and then pop up on it.

The foam wave has the biggest lead time for it can be seen approaching and the only requirement is to get in front of it, paddle for momentum, and then patience to paddle a few more times to get in front before popping up. (beginners lack patience to paddle in front of the wave)

In a real wave, you want the wave to arc lifting the board and when the board is at the top of the wave, the surfer paddles hard and maybe kicks to get the nose facing down. Once the board starts to slide down the wave, the surfer pops up smoothly.

The timing issue new intermediate surfers have with real waves is it takes courage to let the wave arc behind and over your head before paddling down the face. Most beginners feel more comfortable letting the wave pass and then catching it. Big mistake. A late entry usually means crashing down the face or losing the wave pocket and just riding foam.

Watch the timing of other surfers. When you know what to look for it becomes obvious. Notice that they line up where the waves arc. Then when they spot a wave they start paddling for momentum and position. They may have to compete with others in a line up, but in friendly line ups, surfers rotate.

Then as the wave approaches and the surfer is moving, never taking his eyes off the wave as he paddles, he patiently lets it rise under him, paddles hard three times and once it starts pushing, pops up.

A great trick for getting into the pocket is to push the nose of the board after catching the wave and before popping up into the direction of the pocket. This saves the need to drop down the face and bottom turn. If the wave is too big or is closing too fast, you may need to drop down the face first and then carve a bottom turn.

For surf lessons in Oceanside, see the Home Page

For a good video on catching real waves