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Advice for finding "the pocket"


MustGoFast

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Did some surfing this weekend (total newbie) but had fun and found basic navigation and turns were pretty easy.  I wanted to go ropeless but couldnt find the sweet spot. Had Wedge at 2 clicks from full gate set and ballast filled wave looked large and clean.

Any advice?  I was running at 10.8 mph then 11.  Wondering if I was a touch fast as it felt my struggle was keeping up with the boat.

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Advise:

  1.  You are leaning to far back on your board. You need to be in a neutral stance,
    1. Front foot is accelerator, rear foot is brake... You got the brakes on ;)
  2. You are to far to the left...
    1. Don't worry about instantly finding the pocket, play with the wave (cut in and out, pull your self closer to boat then let out

about all I can say from a pic ;)

Only factory ballast or do you have some additional bags as well?

Edited by kerpluxal
  • Like 2
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3 hours ago, kerpluxal said:

Advise:

  1.  You are leaning to far back on your board. You need to be in a neutral stance,
    1. Front foot is accelerator, rear foot is brake... You got the brakes on ;)
  2. You are to far to the left...
    1. Don't worry about instantly finding the pocket, play with the wave (cut in and out, pull your self closer to boat then let out

about all I can say from a pic ;)

Only factory ballast or do you have some additional bags as well?

Thanks have a vid but can't post, I cut in &out but may have stayed to wide, moved forward and back but after burying the nose a few times stayed back probably too much tried moving back and forth but never found the spot,will try again tomorrow night 

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Also, a bad habit to break early is when you are riding with the rope slacked and you start to loose the wave, DONT LEAN BACK to brace yourself for the rope to tighten. Get those hips forward like shawndoggy said and try to surf your way back into the wave. You don't want to rely on the rope. It's there if you need it but try not to need it.

Not sure if someone mentioned it yet or not but another thing that throws people off is when they try to throw the rope back in the boat. You'll be doing fine surfing with the rope in hand but riding with slack, and then you throw the rope only to loose your balance for a split second and you loose the wave. Have someone in the boat be ready to pull the rope in when you hold your hands out and just drop it. Another thing you can do it lightly toss it to the opposite side of the wake. That will get you thinking about staying in (on) the wave instead of wanting to go away from the wave (ie: outside the wake). The less movement the better. You have to be thinking ahead to stay in the wave. 

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15 hours ago, shawndoggy said:

First thing... stand up.  hunching over with your butt out wont help you.  

weight on your toes, not your heels.  I often have my rear heel up, off of the board (in the air).  You could definitely inch your front foot over a little to the inside rail.  

surfing is all in your hips.  If you want to go forward, you rock your left hip to the boat.  If you want to slow down, the opposite.  People say it's front foot/back foot, but really it's your hips.

see how forward this guy's hips are (very exaggerated position), whereas you are sticking your butt out away from the boat?

0a2cb9c18f0fe4108dab0e686ce09536--longbo

As noted above, you need to stand "in" the wave, not below it.  The way surfing works, you have to have water going "up" under the board, that you can ride "down".  So you need to be on face of the wave not at the bottom.

One really GOOD thing I see in your pic is that you generally have the board pointed the right direction.  Think of trying to point the nose at the center of the swim platform.

 

you are correct with it is in the hips.. For some reason most that I teach don't get that, so I use feet as reference.

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yep best advice ever given to me act like you're giving it not taking it.  pull those hips in you're going to be able to feel the insanely good board control you get with hips in. 

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15 minutes ago, kerpluxal said:

you are correct with it is in the hips.. For some reason most that I teach don't get that, so I use feet as reference.

totally!  @MustGoFast to understand the hips thing you should consider getting a balance board.  https://www.amazon.com/Carrom-510-61-Balance-Board-Blue/dp/B00CXMNOSS/ref=asc_df_B00CXMNOSS/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167134995577&hvpos=1o5&hvnetw=g&hvrand=94275416696880041&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030897&hvtargid=pla-304455281660&psc=1

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16 hours ago, shawndoggy said:

First thing... stand up.  hunching over with your butt out wont help you.  

weight on your toes, not your heels.  I often have my rear heel up, off of the board (in the air).  You could definitely inch your front foot over a little to the inside rail.  

surfing is all in your hips.  If you want to go forward, you rock your left hip to the boat.  If you want to slow down, the opposite.  People say it's front foot/back foot, but really it's your hips.

see how forward this guy's hips are (very exaggerated position), whereas you are sticking your butt out away from the boat?

0a2cb9c18f0fe4108dab0e686ce09536--longbo

As noted above, you need to stand "in" the wave, not below it.  The way surfing works, you have to have water going "up" under the board, that you can ride "down".  So you need to be on face of the wave not at the bottom.

One really GOOD thing I see in your pic is that you generally have the board pointed the right direction.  Think of trying to point the nose at the center of the swim platform.

 

Perfect, one thing, recoveries from way back focus on the near corner using the base of the wave, learned the hard way everything you mentioned , but my recoveries took years cause I didn’t understand the base of wave to near corner is the power of the wave unlike off shore where it’s the top of wave

surf the curl hips in, recover in the base hips in back foot forward shuffle 

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People above have all the bad body positioning items in check. Your wave is a little flat too, rolled over too much. OK for a skim rider that knows what he is doing , but harder for a beginner and hard on a small surf style board.

Nick

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29 minutes ago, granddaddy55 said:

focus on the near corner using the base of the wave

What do you define as the near corner? You're saying when you get really far back, you need to be low on the wave pump your way back to the pocket?

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1 hour ago, Chaos said:

People above have all the bad body positioning items in check. Your wave is a little flat too, rolled over too much. OK for a skim rider that knows what he is doing , but harder for a beginner and hard on a small surf style board.

Nick

Still have not heard back on weight in boat.. agree with your observation of the wave...btw... thanks for judging us on saturday

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Lots of good advice thanks everyone.

Went out last night for a while tried to focus on hips forward, doesn't feel natural hey but BIG difference, I also stayed more up in the wave and had a much cleaner ride, lots of slack and was able to throw the rope in for a little bit a couple of times.  Eventually though each time I fell off the back of the wave as I tried to brace for a rope that wasn't there... Oops

Noticed when ropeless I was much closer to the boat like 2-3ft of the swim platform is that norm?

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17 hours ago, kerpluxal said:

Still have not heard back on weight in boat.. agree with your observation of the wave...btw... thanks for judging us on saturday

1500 rear 800center 2 passengers Wedge on 5.  Now my starboard rear is being a B so I'm going to have to figure that out.

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19 hours ago, jaciche said:

What do you define as the near corner? You're saying when you get really far back, you need to be low on the wave pump your way back to the pocket?

The far corner is the opposite of surfing side or down the curl.

The near side corner on same side your surfing is where you point your Board and lean forward and/or move your back foot forward (called shuffle ) and use base of wave off of the foam/lip/curl to move forward trying to recover while pumping or not .  The base of the wave off the curl is the actual power of s boat wave and a simple lean forward with or without some pumping will bring you back to the pocket you fell back from snd need to recover to . 

in other words a straight line(shortest route)  to back of boat 

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1 hour ago, MustGoFast said:

Lots of good advice thanks everyone.

Went out last night for a while tried to focus on hips forward, doesn't feel natural hey but BIG difference, I also stayed more up in the wave and had a much cleaner ride, lots of slack and was able to throw the rope in for a little bit a couple of times.  Eventually though each time I fell off the back of the wave as I tried to brace for a rope that wasn't there... Oops

Noticed when ropeless I was much closer to the boat like 2-3ft of the swim platform is that norm?

Ferrari brakes ( back hip stance ) Volkswagen gas(forward hip stance).  You must learn to only tap the Ferrari brakes and push through the floorboard the Volkswagen gas pedal . But this is discussing stopping forward movement or preventing backward movements( or recovering ).  

Maneuvers on the wave (Moving your tip or tail from side to side ) is a combination of brake and gas all in the right amount of pressure that keeps you in the wave.  So I Tell all my newbies to wiggle those hips knees and ankles leaving the upper body more quiet. focus on closing the front shoulder to the wave (ability to put your front hand over the wave) while wiggling your lower body and you will stay in curl.  Open shoulder and you will apply brakes more

last big clue is to NEVER look at near corner where all newbies are super focused out of fear of over accelerating into back of boat cause they can’t hold position and go from too close to too far back especially while holding the rope.

Instead, focus your eyes on the far corner of boat in good times and bad times (feeling out of control about to lose it and fall or maybe about to fall back). 

This body and head posture will keep you in the curl while your lower body goes to town

when you recover from far back about to lose the wave,  focus  then on the near corner and lean towards it stomping on the Volkswagen gas pedal (front hip/foot).  There is a second gas pedal when you shuffle your back foot forward on the board and bring it much nearer to the front foot .  Learn to be comfortable moving your feet for different situations. 

 

Edited by granddaddy55
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23 minutes ago, MustGoFast said:

Thanks I gassed  it to hard a few times and buried the nose as well

That burying the nose often comes from a front foot position to far forward on board that in the beginning you use to better apply gas or using skim boards which I do not recommend for beginners as you will limit your skill development.

Once you learn your technique you can move that foot back some which will make Board more free to maneuver and wiggle .  Also once you learn how to stomp brakes without falling off wave you can prevent that  nose dunking (pearling) that can occur at anytime you aggressively maneuver as well. You end up learning a brake and swoop maneuver to prevent or stop that from happening 

if you have a surf style quad consider removing back two fins moving those shorter fins (unless they are nub fins if so just remove them) to front fin beds. If hybrid you might have 3 small fins which is good for beginners .  If skim with one in center is not a good learning environment unless you have lots of Flowrider surf time under your belt.   

There will be many times you get as close as two or three feet but no eventually you lesrn to surf from 3-18 feet, at two and three feet you are usually  applying the brakes to move back , sounds like not much nose weight and tall  short wave we all start with cause it has lots of concentrated push in small area keeping us in the pocket in the base with wave face basically behind us being useless cause the power moving you is the base of wave at two to three feet

Edited by granddaddy55
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On 7/2/2018 at 7:29 PM, MustGoFast said:

Still pretty fun even being pretty bad.  Tried goofie a couple times but had a hard time staying up 

Thanks for the tips @shawndoggy @kerpluxal can't wait to get back out.  

Don’t stop trying to surf your weaknesses every time you go out.  If you do a long ropeless surf on regular  , immediately ride backside with your back to wave.  I tried/learned backside the same day I learned regular. Now I ride regular and goofy backside before I ride regular or goofy every weekend , I do all of the same maneuvers all four ways.  

Seems like your wasting your valuable time behind the boat trying what you can barely do or can’t do versus what you are already good at doing.  It pays off big time down the line. It’s like wakeboarding snd not being a heel side hero like most weekend riders 

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I won't the challenge was fun; got up and road goofie a couple times yesterday couldn't slack the rope well but was riding at least which was a big improvement from falling on Sunday 

Edited by MustGoFast
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On 7/4/2018 at 7:19 AM, MustGoFast said:

1500 rear 800center 2 passengers Wedge on 5.  Now my starboard rear is being a B so I'm going to have to figure that out.

1500 rear total or 1500 per side in rear? Wedge on 5 ( 5 clicks up from bottom?) seems kinda high. any front ballast?

My lsv is:

2300 rear (1150 per side, 250 factory sub floor and 900 piggy back)

500 center

900 front

Wedge 3 clicks up from bottom for regular, 1-2 for goofy

4 + people on board.. ( 3 or less I add additional ballast under coffin seats (300 per side).

Starboard "RIGHT" side (I am goofy but the button says I am right...lol) should be easier to setup and require less wedge due to prop rotation.

 

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