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How to get beyond a Plateau


Lance B. Johnson

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This discussion started with a fellow crew member on FB but it started me thinking:

How do you improve beyond a plateau?  I think the obvious answer is ride with someone better then you....but if you are the boat owner, chances are you are the most advanced rider on your crew......making it difficult to improve.

Videos?  Repetition? 

How have you worked through your plateau?

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15 minutes ago, Lance B. Johnson said:

 

How do you improve beyond a plateau?  I think the obvious answer is ride with someone better then you....but if you are the boat owner, chances are you are the most advanced rider on your crew......making it difficult to improve.

I suffer from the same problem.  I found that youtube instructional videos with drills help.  Once I have the techniques broken down, it makes the trick more manageable.

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I have been able to take my slalom skiing well past my old best reading watching video understanding equipment and working on the basics. For a slalom skier Ball of spray is a gold mine!  I will say that we lost our course years ago so it's difficult to measure but I know my skill level and skiing ability has improved significantly. Put me back into a course and I will be a beginner again as timing is everything for a skier.   

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ahopkins22LSV

Anyway to take a lesson? For skiing a lot pros do traveling clinics, your site, your boat and their instruction. It helps a ton for me. Not sure if that’s an option with surfing, but highly recommended if it is. 

Youtube can definitely help too but sometimes hard to translate onto the water without having the instruction in the moment. 

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59 minutes ago, Lance B. Johnson said:

This discussion started with a fellow crew member on FB but it started me thinking:

How do you improve beyond a plateau?  I think the obvious answer is ride with someone better then you....but if you are the boat owner, chances are you are the most advanced rider on your crew......making it difficult to improve.

Videos?  Repetition? 

How have you worked through your plateau?

What water sport?

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Pro instruction really is the best. I went to the World Barefoot Center this spring and it was amazing how easy they made some of the tricks I've been doing for quite some time. They know the little tweaks that really matter. I typicaly learnt off of you tube or analizing video. But it really is the little things that don't get mentioned in a video. That a pro can pick up on watching you.

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1 hour ago, Lance B. Johnson said:

For me it is surfing.

Man... If we were closer we could get together and help each other! What tricks do you have and what are you trying to learn?

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9 minutes ago, CBray4 said:

Man... If we were closer we could get together and help each other! What tricks do you have and what are you trying to learn?

I am on trying to get my 3s consistent.  I ride surf style so they can be a little tougher to get to spin....I think I did learn something the other day though....

More air ^^^^

Better 3s

360 no hands ( Is it called a stall 360?)  I got this once but haven't been able to do it since.

I've got backside/ frontside boardslides down

When the boat is set up goofy, I have started to ride heelside.

Thanks about it for now I think.

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8 minutes ago, Lance B. Johnson said:

I am on trying to get my 3s consistent.  I ride surf style so they can be a little tougher to get to spin....I think I did learn something the other day though....

More air ^^^^

Better 3s

360 no hands ( Is it called a stall 360?)  I got this once but haven't been able to do it since.

I've got backside/ frontside boardslides down

When the boat is set up goofy, I have started to ride heelside.

Thanks about it for now I think.

I'm pretty much right at the same skill level but I ride skim. Would be alot of fun to ride together. I have 360, 720, and 1080 pretty consistent. I have shuv-its pretty consistent. Trying to learn to ride switch, trying to learn to ride heelside. Trying to figure out bigspins and 360 shuvs....

I agree tho man. I have kind of found a plateau here. These tricks we are getting into now are high risk, high reward! I don't even know how to start trying bigspins. 

You are welcome to come ride here in Oklahoma with me anytime! 

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2 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

Yeah I'd love to have some people with skills to sesh with.  But then again, boating for us is a way to keep and maintain friendships with other families.  It's about spending time with people.  So getting a bunch of great surfers on board wouldn't necessarily be a great day on the water for my wife, and boating has become something we really like to do together.

Our boating / lake life is much like this as well.  The only exception is that my better half would welcome a bunch of good riders.  She's pretty decent and loves it, so having more like minded people would be welcome for her.  Plus, if we have a big crew, we take the pontoon out as a "landing spot" for those not interested in riding........we do have a few of those that would rather watch their kids learn, or simply just hang out and have a drink or 2.

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24 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

Yeah I'd love to have some people with skills to sesh with.  But then again, boating for us is a way to keep and maintain friendships with other families.  It's about spending time with people.  So getting a bunch of great surfers on board wouldn't necessarily be a great day on the water for my wife, and boating has become something we really like to do together.

Ya I get it....for us it is much the same but it doesn't stop us from wanting to progress.  My wife is on her 3rd season and is a complete addict.  She will drop anything/ everything to get on the water and surf.  She is getting much better and isn't far off learning some tricks...her board control is good and can take some pretty big turns now.

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I am lucky to have a couple friends who are dedicated to progression like me, we all have similar intermediate skills and push each other to progress and go out together every week switching off boats. This was our 3rd summer riding together. Also have a buddy who is a pro and several other very good surfers who come with us occasionally and watching them ride always helps my progression and gives ideas of another trick to start learning.

When I first started surfing, I watched a lot of utube videos

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  • 2 weeks later...

Competitions seem to provide best progression for me.  Spend a weekend at one of the comps that have seminars, demos, and coaching sessions (I ran into the gal that is putting on the one at Lake Berryessa in Oct, sounds like a lot of fun). 

A few other things that have helped me progress in various other sports.  Focus on improving the fundamentals, film yourself and compare it to a pro doing the same trick.  What is he doing differently? Another is get outside your comfort zone.  Try doing the same tricks on a water logged board, or a slow POS, or take ballast out of your wake and see if you can improve on a smaller weaker wave.  

 

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