Riding Clean Waves - The Best Feeling in the World

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07. Riding Clean Waves

clean waveNo matter how good you become at surfing riding your first Clean or Green faced wave is likely to be your most memorable moment and best feeling you have ever had!!
A clean or green faced wave is a wave that has yet to break so there is no white water on it. Show upto your local spot and you will see guys going along unbroken smooth looking waves and doing turns, well that is a clean faced wave.
Before entering out the back make sure you are comfortable with lesson 5 (standing up in the white water) once you have the knowledge of how to get to your feet its time to take these new found skills out back where the real fun takes place!
Use your new found techniques of paddling and Duckdiving from lessons 4 and 6 to make your way to a place that is known as “out the back” or “the lineup” This is where the clean faced waves start to break and offer the best rides.
When you learnt in the white water you had as much time as you wished to get to your feet, but with the green waves you have to nail your pop up with perfect timing to get onto the wave correctly.
When you see a wave coming that you want to catch, paddle towards shore like you would for a white water takeoff. Make sure there is no one on your inside (SEE RULES OF THE OCEAN) and start your paddle. Timing is the key for this and you will most likely miss (paddling for a wave to late or with not enough speed) or get hit by the lip (paddling to early or setting off to fast) Like with everything the more you do it the better understanding you will have of being in the right position and when to paddle for a wave.
So you want to paddle into the wave with as much speed as you can, this will make it easier for the wave to pick you up and allow you to execute the pop up so you can stand. As your paddling for the wave occasionally look over your shoulder so you know when the wave does pick u up the timing is going to be right. When the wave does pick you up take a couple of extra hard strokes and jump to your feet. It doesn’t matter if you stand slightly too early and the wave goes off without you because its better to do that than coast down the wave on your body and try and stand up at the bottom, if this happens you wont have a chance of standing. If you bodyboard down the wave you will nosedive before you even have a chance to get to your feet. If there is someone in front of you who isn’t able to get out the way then don’t go on that wave, it will only end in tears.clean wave
When you start getting picked up by unbroken waves and getting to your feet just ride them straight and enjoy that feeling of dropping into a clean wave! One of the best, simplest feelings in surfing is getting to your feet and dropping in. Once your ready to push yourself a little bit more its time to try and go along a green wave! To do this, do exactly what you have been doing except this time as soon as you get to your feet and start going down the wave lean into the wave with your toes or heels depending on which way you are going. If you are facing the wave with your stomach then you are going on your forehand and you lean into the wave on your toe edge of your surfboard. If you are wanting to go along a wave so that your back is facing the wave then you are going on your backhand and you need to use the heel edge of your board to turn into it. Generally learning on your forehand is a lot easier than learning on your backhand because the initial turn into the wave is much easier to make on your toe edge.
Nail this & go along a wave and you will achieve the best feeling you have ever had from surfing!!