Stalling my turns

[surfcowboy]

Ok, so the bad side of having a board that can turn is that you have to learn to do it better.

On my simmons, from time to time, I have done a backside bottom turn and just bogged the board down to where I slow down and just sort of fall over. It usually puts me on the back of the wave or right into the lip as I basically just find the wave sort of catching me.

I think it's coming from being too far forward on the board but I wondered if anyone else has run into this. This is definitely a case of rider, not board, as I can sometimes do backside turns just fine. I notice this more when I have smaller fins in, but that also may be that I'm not able to turn as hard with the bigger keels. I'm just not savvy enough to feel this one.

One board design note, I've read that round rails in the front can cause this and I must admit that I went pretty round up front and soft through the middle, hard at rear. I'm wondering if that's not causing a bit of drag when the nose isn't getting lifted out of the water. That's likely going to be one of my design tweaks if/when I build another one of these short boards, harder edges forward to see.

Anyone stall their board in a turn?

[banzai]

Surfcowboy,

I'm not real familiar with the Simmons shape, but I think it's made for more speed than turning. Straighter rail lines are usually harder to make quick turns, more for smoother drawn out turns instead. Are you trying to make a hard bottom turn and stalling? If so, you're probably too much on the tail. To stall the board on purpose I usually put more weight on the tail during the bottom turn. This helps keep me in the power pocket on a slower wave or setup for a barrel. You may try a little angle to the bottom instead of straight down and hard bottom turn. Also when going backside, you have more weight on your heels which makes the board rail dig in versus front side and your weight is spread out more under your foot. That's one of the theories in using an asymmetric tail.

Aloha

[stoneaxe]

Your board sounds a lot like my 8-4. I've been surprised at how easy it is to stall it. My backside turns are usually too soft to stall it but I do it frontside all the time....I see it as a feature though. I love stalling it at the bottom of a turn and letting the wave pick me back up to the peak for another drop. It's like I can feel the transfer of energy from the wave when it happens....I love that feeling...like stepping on the gas in a hot car.

[supthecreek]

Seems like the key statement here:
"It usually puts me on the back of the wave or right into the lip"

It sounds like you are drawing out your turn to long..... keeping your weight on your heels too long, and thus, turning off the back of the wave.
When you try to redirect, you have lost all your speed.

Before you begin your backside turn, you should be looking at the lip, as soon as your turn begins, your eyes and focus should shift to the bottom of the wave, down the line, where you want to be after your top turn. The eyes lead the head and shoulders, which turns the body, then the board. It's a process, so you need to have your head into the next turn, while your body completes the current turn.

Sitting in your chair, as you read this:
look over your left shoulder.... and up at the lip, with your "paddle" engaged in the turn
Right at the strongest part of the turn, look down an to the right, your paddle will automatically come with you... shift it quickly to the right side....
now your board is completing the turn, but your whole upper body is beginning the top turn, while you are only half way up the face.

I simplify this, because backside, a lot of times, I do not need my paddle on my "turn" side (my heels and ass do all the turning)
(I am reg footed, so I sometimes keep my paddle on my right side for most of the wave)
I find it much simpler to initiate a top turn, if I don't have to shift the paddle.... I simply look down and engage the paddle beneath me to get the proper head & shoulder turn

as always... I like pictures to help with the explanation
Here are a few different situations, but all show the move to top turn or cutback, in slightly different ways.

[PonoBill]

Nice sequence and great advice Creek. I suffered from turning out of the wave with my L41--just simply turning too much and not getting the board flat and running early enough in the turn. But I suspect board design is at work here as well though. I've noticed that rounded rails in the front tend to encourage stalling. I think it's because as you rotate through the turn you press more on the nose of the wave-side rail, and if it's not a little sharp, it stops turning and starts sliding sideways. I think that cuts the drive a lot.

Like Bob, I like the stalls, I've incorporated them into my "style" (OK, that's a joke, my style has a lot of arm-waving and random direction changes, but it's all mine). I like to hang under the lip a little, and then drop. I like the rush. But I know it's hardly efficient at using the wave.

On the Big Foote I can maintain some speed in the stall, with the L41 I can't. It feels like it stops dead. I've had to shorten my turns a lot, and get the board flat to make sections. Once I learned to do that there's nothing I own that's faster or more responsive.

[JimK]

Creek,

Nice pics and explaination

Great job!

JimK

[stoneaxe]

I've incorporated them into my "style" (OK, that's a joke, my style has a lot of arm-waving and random direction changes, but it's all mine). 

Wrong....something else we have in common.......

That was great Creek. Not sure why I haven't asked you this before but next time out together I want a lesson.

[stoneaxe]

I think the stalls do come to a complete stop on my Vec. Certainly feels that way anyway. I'm running Larry's big keel fins too. The power of those fins when you put your foot over them is something else. I let it pick me back up to the lip and then give a pump and paddle stroke as I'm leaning way forward. The second of free fall is awesome as the board catches up to you and you get that slingshot feeling. It's the same feeling I used to love water skiing when coming off a whip.....the second of calm as your speed exceeds the boat and there is slack anticipating the rocket back across the wake for some air.

[surfcowboy]

This all sounds right and creek, as usual, great shots. Thank you. The stall is as you say. Hey, I'm just stoked that I'm turning hard enough to do it after years of "wiggles" as Pono calls them.

I need to install a GoPro mount and get back to recording a bit and I'm sure I'll work this out. The stall is fun, I'm with the brothers. When I get it right another drop is really cool. Also, I agree on the speed, flatten these things out and they fly but I probably need to smooth out my style a bit and not hit the brakes so hard.