Reader's question: " You talked about "Loading the rail" last week, so to do that, do I just walk along one side of the board ? "
Like with anything to do with surfing, and especially noseriding, it's not just that clear cut simple.
Here you can see the surfer is walking along the right side of her board, the side closer to the wave's face. Her back foot, with the leash cuff, is clearly off the center wood stringer running down the center of the board.
Here the surfer is cross stepping Frontside. Both her back and front foot are to the inside of the stringer.
"So all I need to do is walk to the inside of the stringer, right ?" Nope.....
Here the rider is loading the right inside rail going backside. Her toes are on the stringer and her heels are pressuring/ pushing down the inside rail. But there's some problems:
#1 She didn't wait for the Lock to form.
#2 She is not cross stepping.
#3 Her back hand is unconciously trying to "steer" and is stiff/rigid/bracing.
Here the surfer's back foot is off the stringer, but her front foot is still on it. The wave is quite steep and maybe she's using her front foot to counter-balance and act like a "clutch". Look closely to see how much of the rail is engaged and the amount of air under the board. Had she put both feet on the right side, it might have been too much and would've cause the rail to over power her weight and flip her over.
Rail loading the inside left rail with the front foot going backside.
( notice the straight front leg "giving" power to the back leg ? )
Still waiting for the wave to set up ( both knees soft to absorb the wave ) and for the Lock to form.
Then after the tail gets locked down, then he can Load and Un-Load the inside rail.
He can use his back foot heels to push down to get more pressure OR push on his toes to release pressure on the rail.
( he can also grab and twist the nose with his front foot toes to add or take away more tension too ).
Bottom turning with both feet ON the stringer.
( Hand stall to slow the board down and gauge the angle of the wave ).
Waits for the Lock to throw over the tail and then walks/cross steps along the left side of the deck.
Once she is on the nose, her front foot is now on the other side of the stringer, the right side, to counter balance and act like a "clutch".
Yes, so you are correct that "Loading the Rail" is when you walk/cross step along the side closer to the wave's face, off the center stringer line. But like in any move in surfing, there are many other movements to go along with that.
If you are just learning to nose ride and sort of got the cross stepping down, try loading the inside rail.
** WARNING **
But the worst thing you can do, is to look down to check to see if your feet are to the side of the stringer. If you do that the head/torso will thrust the weight bias forward, and make matter worse.
You need to go by feel. Trying feel the water rushing over your toes going front side or over your heels going back side.
Please check out Matsunosuke Kugenuma on FB and http://starb.on.coocan.jp/daily/daily0.html to see more.