Turning

Now that I'm mostly getting up, there is a whole new challenge: what to do when I'm up.

Today I had a couple of perfect rides, where I stayed on the wave the whole time. And a lot that weren't so perfect.

I've been asking questions about turning, trying to figure out how to do it. Some advice: look where you want to go. Turn your shoulders in that direction. And I've been told what to do with my feet ("use them as rudders") though I have yet to be able to do it on a board. I am using the advice as to what to do with the upper body, but it's not enough.

When I get it perfect, I'm not really sure what I do. When I don't, I'm not sure either. And it's so hard to even find words to describe what happens in a split second.

I have tried bending down lower when I sense that the wave is about to close on me, but that doesn't seem to work---or maybe it would if I bent from the knees rather than the butt, but the knees don't work. Hell, even to bend that way off a surfboard is a struggle.

Let me try to describe what happened today:

I was up, in perfect equilibrium it seemed, and then the board got away from me. It started moving faster than my body. I fell (backwards, I think, though who knows).

Yes, it's the feeling that my body and board are moving in different directions. Or is it we're moving in different directions from the wave?

When the board gets going too fast, what should I do? It's a feeling like being thrown back. And it can happen so fast, right after I felt like I was in perfect balance. My intuition is to lean forward, but not necessarily bend down. If that is correct, how would it affect what I should do with my feet?

Could using my arms to balance help?

When I didn't fall, it seemed like it was because I was putting more weight on my feet. That sounds stupid, of course you always have weight on your feet. But the truth is, I am not thinking about my feet at all when surfing, except sometimes to move to what seems a better position as I'm riding, but not at all about where my weight is.

If I had to think about what I do with my feet, I'd say I put more weight on the front foot as the wave is slowing down or closing (if I make it that far).

Someone yelled at me the other day: "Go with the wave!" Hey, I take whatever advice I can get very seriously. She meant that I wasn't turning, that I was going straight when the wave was going left. I got that. But what I don't know is what to do about it.

I think that is why, after a certain point, I see the wave closing out on me to the left of my nose (on a left) and I fall. If I could turn, as I see other people do, I could ride the wave all the way. At that point, I think there is no alternative besides turning or falling.

Surfing is like sex in that it's one of the hardest things to describe in a way other people can understand.