Kook needs advice (video inside for your amusement)

[Skipp]

I've been surfing for a few years now (I use the word surfing loosely) and feel I am not making any progress at all. Nothing about it comes naturally to me but I enjoy it so much regardless and would/could never stop doing it. Recently inspired by my mates mediocre go pro footage , my mrs bought me a go pro as an anniversary gift. After using it I was able to confirm that I do indeed suck at surfing Any tips you could offer after viewing the footage would be great. I feel that my stance is all wrong and perhaps I don't put enough weight on my front foot but on the plus side my windmill impression is pretty good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DjKFfREKy4&context=C45a0a83ADvjVQa1PpcFPEm1YnrfAD_gTFHZTsTpweco_ELFncDlA=

[Poo Stance]

Try getting your knees further apart and your arse higher in the air. You should be aiming to get your head in between your knees really.

Other than that, can't see much wrong, looks like your surfing to me.

It's pretty hard to get a gauge from the angle the vid is shot from. Try getting some footage from the beach.

For me, good style is (as well as something I don't have) reading the wave well so it's surfed to the end. And done in a way which is fluid, economical and powerful. As you can't see the wave ahead of you in the video it's hard to see your approach to riding it and to see what you are doing in relation to it.

At the end of the day though, all that matters is how you feel. You know at the end of a wave if you've ridden it well or if you've had to fight the beast or wobble your way through sections. So if you think your stance feels wrong change it.

Don't get hung up on front/back foot. As long as you're reading the wave right your gonna need to weight each one on different parts of the wave. Generally though, weight your front foot to go faster and back foot to slow down/turn. Get your back foot over the fins.

The two bits of advice I always come back to are: get skating on a halfpipe/bowl. And surf a singlefin. As you can surf already, I'd say get a slightly longer, wider shape to what your riding now. Learning to ease it through turns and having to draw longer lines to make sections should iron out bad style.

Don't get disheartened though, like learning most things. The more you learn, the more you realise how much more there is to learn. This can sometimes make you feel like your stagnating more than you are. Ever so often you'll have a session where you nail something new. Watch videos and mind surf too. I think you do most of your learning going over you waves in your head and trying to imagine new approaches to the wave.

Good luck. Don't forget, arse up head down.

[Skipp]

Cheers for the advice, I'll give the 'arse up head down' a go next time I'm out. My mind always seems to go blank whenever I catch a wave though and I end up riding it in autopilot mode I've been thinking about getting a longer wider board for a while now, especially for the summer time. I think I'll hit my mate up and see if I can borrow one of his next time we go. For the most part I always feel as though I have no speed and am fighting to get through sections and I find I surf better on my backhand for some reason too. I just wish I could surf more often than I do now, living an hours drive from the beach is a pain for sure. Childcare and work also conspire against me too

[Poo Stance]

Try getting your knees further apart and your arse higher in the air. You should be aiming to get your head in between your knees really.
.... Don't forget, arse up head down.

ummm... sorry, I don't do sarcasm very well. Ignore this advice.

[Skipp]

It's alright man, I got it

[the lush]

You've got a better take off than a lot of other people I've seen so I wouldn't worry too much about that and you certainly don't appear to 'suck at surfing' as you say. Were other surfers making sections this particular day? A beach angle would be better to tell, but it appears it wasn't a particularly lined up wave with long sections to hit so it becomes more difficult to hold a high enough line to build up speed. If you can stay high on the wave (upper third) with a couple of pumps right from take off you should have enough speed to make it round a section but then it depends on the size of the wave, whitewater etc. Don't get disheartened whatever you do, as you seem to be doing alright to me.

Good luck and keep enjoying it!

[Jenkins]

It looked pretty good to me, don't think you could have done much more on those waves. Video from the beach would reveal alot more(i.e. are you surfing the right section of the wave, style,stance). Don't over think about your surfing and just enjoy it.

[Skipp]

Thanks for the comments guys, I've been trying to talk the Mrs into doing a spot of filming from the beach but with no success so far. I managed to get in for a surf yesterday for a bit and had an amazing day (for me at least). Came home feeling super stoked and feeling like my surfing progressed slightly In case your interested you can view my latest exploits here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMuR3R3sCho&feature=share Nothing out of the ordinary or particularly special but I thoroughly enjoyed them.