Making a Steep Drop

[doug]

@justin Met up with me to discuss some of his waves at Cloudbreak.

Here’s some advice for @justin:

1. Look down the line. @justin, you should be looking at the two surfers down the line. That will initiate your board going down the line.
2. It’s good that the board is facing the direction that it is to get into the wave.
3. @justin should be looking over his left shoulder. That will get the board turning to the left, which will mitigate the steepness of the wave, getting him into a better position

1

2

3

4

5: Right arm should should be in front of the body, and down. When the right arm is flying up into the air, that’s going to make the board want to turn to the right.

6: At this point, it’s tough. Maybe some more weight on the tail could have taken the board out of perling.

Here’s a comparison:

7

8

9

10

11

12

[doug]

Here’s another sequence.

1: 7:34:09

@justin should have called me before dropping into this double overhead or he should have deeply etched this image of me looking down the line when taking off.

2: 7:34:09

3: 7:34:09

Here’s me. Similar position, but the Justin’s head is focused in front of the board, rather than the down the line.

4: 7:34:09

5: 7:34:09

6: 7:34:10: Once the right arm goes up and the right leg goes straight, it’s going to be hard to recover.

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

And this is where Justin almost ended up:

[Igor]

Thanks for the clear explanation and tips, Rob. This is really helpful advice. Looking at photos of myself missing drops like this it’s clear my head and arm position is also not correct. Also it seems like a good idea to mention that it’s not a good idea to fall head first when blowing a wave like this one.

[doug]

Wonderful illustration…
Yes right arm and across the front of your body just above the knees…I will look into this theory more tomorrow as this swell is looking very promising.