Braces
I do lots of brace practice… Nowadays I do it when practicing freestyle. But I spent alot of time just pushing the boat to it’s limits and doing braces to stop myself. The hardest part seems to be stopping people from grabbing the rails.
PK
Hey Vic …
– Last Updated: Jun-30-04 11:28 AM EST –
What you do is give em something that is basically worthless (such as my advice) for free; then when they're hooked on the concept of "free", you start running up a bill on em! I think it's called "bait & switch".
So now your Guide has some "character" eh? You know, it's possible that a day out in the hot sun will help pop out some of that "character". Especially if you can jury rig something to apply steady outward pressure on the spot in question.
BOB
Don’t stop paddling short of the hole…
The number one problem that I see just about every new paddler do when learning to surf is that they stop paddling before the boat really gets into the hole or on the wave. Then they either just catch the back end of retaining spot or paddle like heck and still get flushed off of it. Find a nice surf spot with a pool below it and dive right in. Don’t be afraid to swim; in my opinion, if you’re not swimming at all then you’re not pushing yourself enough and you’re not going to learn what you could.
p.s. Do you have any idea what kind of an addiction you could be creating for yourself?:>)
Too late.
I’ve already got the addiction; now how to “feed my habit…” ???
feed your habit by paddling.
Practicing braces
Find yourself a nice freindly sidesurfing hole. It will be almost as long as your boat or longer. In light water as you decsribed there will likely be a good sized rock barely submerged upsteam so wear your hardhat!
Drop in with your paddle and your lean downstream and see how long you can stay without filling up your boat. Do that for a while and your brace will become a reflex.
Now do the same but work on paddling in and out of the hole. You will be combining your forward and bracing strokes to support and move you.
When that becomes second nature try it all on your offside.
As somebody else said, don’t be afraid to swim!
Tommy
Thanks, that’s good…
That’s the only way I’ve ever heard of for an individual to practice bracing in a systematic way; thanks!