So in this time of quarantine and Stay-At-Home orders, are you Laid Back on the couch, just chilling in your house ?
Or would you rather be doing LAY BACKS in the ocean !
Describing what a Layback is simple. You layback during your cutback. So far that you back touches the surface of the water. But it doesn't me just LEAN back.
The rider has no speed and up too high, way out of the power zone of the wave. So when he tries to turn .......
only HE turns and the board really doesn't.
Well maybe it's too hard to Lay Back on a long(er) board ? With the right Technique, Speed, Power and Angle of attack, it is definitely possible ( and fun ).
The process of the Lay Back happens way before you back comes even near the water. It all in the set up. The transition for INSIDE rail ( green ) to FLAT bottom ( yellow ) to OUTSIDE rail ( magenta ) determines what type of cutback you'll end up doing.
"X" marks the spot. Do you draw out the turn for a round house ? Do you angle in hard for a snap ? The main thing is to be able to get the board fully on rail to really slice into the wave. "Is that for a bigger spray ?" No, that's actually so the wave can support and push back against you to hold you up thru the turn.
Surfer cuts back off the lip (but it's kinda a soft wave ).
He sanps it back, but not enough power from the wave and maybe a bit too flat, not enough rail.
So that sends him into a Lay back. He may make it back up, but I think the boards on the backside of the lip already.
( But how many times have we seen Kelly Slater pop back up from this position ? )
Layback can sometime hurt if you tweak out your arm or shoulder. And you need good core muscles to bring you whole body back over the deck. ( So work on them crunches in your living room )
Because you can not always count on the wave to support you and pop you back up after you do a Lay back.
Please check out Jeremy aerial photography, Cijin surf, Eason's photography, Matsunosuke Kugenuma, Philippine surf report on FB to see more.