I always ask my students, " What is the first step you take when you want to get to the nose ?"
They always reply, " I take a step forward, of course !"
But that is wrong.
Please take a look at the above photos. All the surfers are on the nose. Of course they had to step ( cross step ) forward to get from the back of the board to the front.
But here is the strange rule for a lot of surfing techniques. Surfing has a lot of OPPOSITES.
So to go FORWARD, you FIRST have to go BACK. Do you see what she did above before getting to the nose ?
Before you walk forward, you need to push the tail down to bring up the nose. That allows the board to stall.
Notice the nose is up in the first photo, then slightly pointed down in the second photo.
Do you have to do a MASSIVE STOMP down on the tail ? No, sometimes all it takes is a lean back with your shoulder. Sometimes you have to take a light step BACK with your rear foot.
( sometimes you do not need to do anything, because a properly timed Bottom Turn, does the work for you )
Watch the best Noseriders at your local surf break. Watch noseriding videos. What do the best noseriders do before walking to the nose ?
They go BACK before going FORWARD.
Sounds Counter-Intuitive, but a lot of surfing techniques involve doing opposite of what you think.
( that's why it's so hard for beginners to noseride ).
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