doing airs and landing them

When pros do airs, they hit the lip as it is just starting to crest and that pushes them out away from the wave. Turning your shoulders will help and make sure to stay compressed to your front leg. As I said in another thread, surfline trick tips are on youtube.

Frontside air- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCAIx1sfCmE

Air reverse- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAGKfjWtw3E

 

Sounds to me like your approach to the lip is slightly off. Along with the critical down the line speed component, make sure you're not burning a lot of that speed off approaching the lip too vertically at the last second. You can be going really fast, but if you take your turn up the face too vertically, you slow down a lot don't get as high as you should, and end up behind the wave. Remember you're ramping up the wave face. That maintains speed and allows you to project up and away from the lip and stay with the wave. Also... the angle of the deck of your board should be facing the beach, not the sky. Have somebody take a vid of you and compare those critical angles of your board to somebody who pulls them off consistently. You'll see what I mean.

 

Good point. Try going more horizontal than vertical, start with small airs and once it feels good and the conditions permit then try something bigger. The other thing is more than likely if your rail game is not up to par you probably won't have an easy time pulling an air.

I have a few friends that do a little sketchy tic-tac down the line then throw their board and act like they just almost pulled off something amazing. Put it on rail then go for airs. It's like trying to eat your pudding before you eat your meat. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

 

Can you do an ollie on a skateboard? C. Lopez has a good description in the frontside air vid above, you are basically doing an ollie at the lip and letting the lip project you above the wave. You don't want to hit the lip super hard like a frontside hack (your weight will be too far back) and blast through the lip into the air.

It's more of a finesse move. You are using your speed to project upward and using the lip to determine the direction of travel and to stick the board to your feet while airborne. Also, you need to have your board basically flat to the wave where you are hitting the lip.

It's kind of hard to explain because you have to have your weight over your front foot at the same time as you are unweighting the same foot. Just as the nose of your board gets to the lip begin to bend your front knee to unweight the nose of the board. This will get the nose out of the water more and allow the wave to lift the tail of the board instead of it digging into the lip.

Good luck. Work calls. Maybe someone else can add some insight.

 

it's not really an ollie like you would do on a skateboard. Surfers call the "ollies" but the mechanic are quite different. If you try to ollie a surfboard like you would a skateboard you will end up with the nose of the board in your face and the board vertical.
It's closer to a bunny hop on a BMX bike, compression downward and popping up and out.

 

Listen to this man.

 

You're right. If you stomp on the tail to lift the nose free of the lip you will stall the board and get nose to nose w/ your board real quick. Like I said, it's hard to describe in words without pictures and arrows. I was trying to describe the way you unweight your front foot while keeping your center of gravity mostly over your front foot. I also figured someone that surfs probably is more likely to know how to ollie a skateboard than pull a proper bmx bunny hop. I like the analogy though.

 

you can do little ollie moves, but only really center on the board in the right spot. Simple frontside airs are not really like any other boards sports elevation moves. The easiest way to start landing them solid is to just do them off of closeout section..... take a really horizontal line, then a simple ankle tweek down the face slightly and then go right off the incoming closeout's curling lip, this will give you a natural catapult kind of effect that will get you up and over. Doing it on closeouts allow you to perform the air pretty much the same way you would perform a non-power top turn... just imagine the wave/lip being a foot or so higher than it really is and angle up the face slightly, you will bounce right off and keep the follow through angling back down... As for a backside air, for me its all about body torque... thats more of a coiled up topside hack, so stay corked up and release right as your tail gets up on the top. But look for a few pumps and that nice approaching closeout section and angle it right and you will get the slingshot, just dont project out to far into the flats... thats how ankle injuries and broken boards happen...

another tip might be to try initiating a grab before your tail releases out of the wave (while your fins are still enguaged but most of your board is up and over the top), get low and centered and grab that rail as it gets up over the lip... im goofy so I use the left arm and it naturally swings that board back on plane into your landing area.

 

What these dudes are saying! If you skate and can do an Ollie on trany like a quarter pipe, it's pretty similar. It's like in different languages... Just translate it! Very similar, and once you figure it out, you'll know when and where to do it. Trail and error brotha! What helps me is once you get the speed and see where on the waves you wanna do it, slide your back foot all the way back on the traction pad(if you have one) a split second before you go airborne.

 

Film yourself. then compare yourself with pros. make sure your not slowing down right before you hit the lip. Its natural to want to hit it when its too late. you want to be going up for it before the wave starts throwing out.