Lessons
25.Throwing the fins out
26.Chop Hop
27.Grab Rail Turns
28.Carving Reverse
29.Off the lip Reverse
30.Backside Reverse
31.Backside Tuberiding
32.Frontside Air
33.Backside Air
34.Air Grabs
35.Alley Oop
36.Frontside Air Reverse
37.Backside Air Reverse
38.Superman Air
39.Rodeo Flip

27. Grab Rail Turns

One of the rarest turns that you are likely to do in surfing but when you get a chance to do one, and do it right the feeling of your rail slicing through the water is unmatched to any other rail turn.

The are a few occasions when its great to chuck a grab rail turn in the mix:

1. When the wave is really steep
2. When you are going super fast
3. And when you want to chuck a turn in which doesn’t make you cutback towards the white wash.

You do see some guys like Taylor Knox who lay down huge grab rail roundhouse cutbacks but we are going to concentrate more on doing a grab rail carve. Once you have got these down you should be able to feel how to incorporate a grab rail into a roundhouse.

So what we are going to teach you here is more of a grab rail carve where you end up just cutting down the face rather than back towards the white water.
Essential for nailing this kind of turn is heaps of speed and a nice steep wave.
If you try and do this kind of carve going fast and on a steep wave without grabbing the rail chances are your rail isn’t going to stick to the wave, your fins will skip out and your board is going to fly away from you leaving you flat on your back!
When you do sink your rail in and do the grab in just the right place the turn will feel very solid and super powerful.

So lets go through the steps of how to nail one of these puppies.
Like we have discussed you need a nice steep wave and be travelling with quite a lot of speed, if you try it on a fat wave it just isn’t going to work or have the effect you are after, fat waves equal slow nasty looking grab rail cuttys. You want to pick your spot at the top of the wave where you are going to do the turn and come off the bottom at about a 45 degree angle, you don’t need to head vertical towards the lip for this turn. As you start your carve off the top you need to grab that rail early, you cant grab it halfway through the turn because this is a speed move so you need to get that grab right from the start. If you aim to high on the top of the wave there is a good chance your fins will skip out so its all about finding that magic spot that is high enough to sling shot you into the turn but not be so high on the wave you are going to spin out. Once you have locked that grab on, set your rail in the wave and started your carve look down the wave towards the bottom because that is where you want to go, you don’t need to look over your shoulder because we are not going to head back towards the white water so just look down to the bottom of the wave. Once you have got the first half of the turn in you don’t need to keep your hand on the rail, the first half of the turn is the most important and crucial, its where you will skip out and fall if you haven’t set the turn right so once you have got past the first half your cruising.
As you get to the bottom make sure you release the grab if you haven’t already, come off your heel edge rail to stop the turn so that your ready to set up for your next move.