Doing a roundhouse cutback

[zorro]

Hi Gentlemen and gentlewoman,

thanks for responding.

I should have underlined the fact that the idea of the post isn't to take away from the beauty of surfing by giving detailed instructions like dance steps. (I can't dance....).

You see, I've been surfing 30 years. I've posted what I've learnt in that 30 years so someone else migfht learn from it. I'm a slow learner. I belive that you learn the most in your surfing in the first four years. You spend the next millenium refining it and trying to discard the bad technique.

Of course there are the genuis genus like the simpsons and Sparrow...

Darcy's very right in looking where you are going, not where you have been.

I hope I haven't hurt anyones feelings by posting good and bad, and of course you are all correct that the pics aren't of roundhouse cutties. They are for illustraction of various points that I havn't got around to labelling. Of course they are just stills taken out of context. I forgot that they were of real people who exist and post on this forum

I'll go and edit the post a few times after I get some more feedback on technique.

More technique feedback please!
It can never hurt to try and think about our technique if we want to improve. And consider what a mind bank of excellence there is on this forum! Its a cruel irony if we keep our ideas to ourselves when we can spread them at the touch of a key.

As long as we remember the difference between practicing and performing - performing (for ourselves) is where we forget about technqiue. That's when we have the most enjoyment in our surfing.



Thanks for the excellent pictures.
Awaiting your post Darcy!

PS Andrew Heaton is a hot kneelo I've seen at a few of the NSW contests recently. He has a beauty of technique where one turn flows effortlessly into another. Its achieved because he uses his whole body (arms torso legs) together in a sinusoidal dance like movement.

[Steve Neal]

What makes a round house a round house
Is it just a cutback thats rebounded off the white water
and brought back around

To me it's a fully committed turn that cannot be flat
until your going back up the face

What I mean by this is that your turn should start as high
on the wave as possible and continue through the face of
the wave on your inside rail fully ingaged, hitting the bottom
as if you were doing another bottom turn and cranking it
back up the face as if you are going to rebound off a section

To do this move proper, as Bud said your arms should remain
below your shoulders and your outside shoulder and arm
should lead you all the way through this move

P.S. Just my 2 cent's

Steve

[albert]

Who is Andrew Heaton? Is he Andrew of Headwax fame?

Andrew Heaton is an excellent surfer from the newcastle area, always smiling, loves to draw on his boards, and always wears vegetarian shirts

[ShaunMurphy]

The key to doing a round house cutback is timing...I think.
Getting the speed, grabing your rail ( just feels natural for me )
carving hard and getting the rebound affect where u still have some speed and just flowing into the whitewash and getting boosted out. I think thats when you know you have the right timing is when that whitewash just boosts you out of the whitewash and you have just as much speed as you started with. Having glassed on fins as apposed to removable also gives a different feel when carving the first turn.
But everyone has their own preference, and as long as it looks cool thats all that matters.....Just kidding

Having fun is all that matters

P.S. - Bud that swallow tail with the glassed on fins is great, and widening my legs, makes that board turn on a dime !!!

[zorro]

Buds Pic



Bud, you need the real address of the pic. Unfortunately the tags here are just pointers to the pic and won't post unless you load it up elsewhere on the nettt.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7663/budspic9dc.jpg



If anyone wants to add to my original post (not delete) on cutback method, PPM me and i'll give you the password.

Conditions apply of course.

eg don't change my name to Butt head

I've changed some of the original post to reflect the feedback.

Thanks

[zorro]

Darcy's pic



Darcy, thanks for posting this sequence.
Now at the risk of sounding like more of a wanker than I already have .... to be brutally honest, I think it illustrates good and bad points in technique.

over to someone esle

[red]

The sequence admirably demonstrates that we surf like our boards need us to.
My guess is that the board in the pic has fins far back, wide tail, little rocker.

Hence the rider has to stall the board to initiate the turn (pics 2,3); unweight the inside rail heavily (pic 6); and slides sideways in the foam (pic 9). The board is also affecting his ability to access the lip on the cutback because of its limited ability to turn sharply with drive (although I'm sure it's great in other aspects of its performance).

This isn't a value judgement, merely a comment that the same person on a different board would turn differently. It's hard to compare technique on U.S. gear to Australian boards because the boards themselves are set up so differently. It's hard to even recommend a head down, ass up approach on boards that have little rocker and fins far back, since they have to be driven from the tail (like standup boards). And then there are the differences between 4 fins and 3...

[KAVA]

hmmm me thinks i should have come here 1st before sending in my order for the board i got a couple months ago lol but hey at least it floats me.....sometimes

[fooj]

Stubb Vectors are made for slop. That wave is too good for what the Stubb was designed for, wrong tool. Probly still fun though, in an unstable and fast kind of way. Red the fins are pretty far up on my Stubb, like an aussie placement, I think.

[Jack Beresford]

Love the hand-drag - if for no other reason than it just feels cool!

[kneecaps]

...a new forum called Techniques (or something) would be helpful and interseting.

[zorro]

Steve Lis ripping but....

Assuming Mr Lis has a flat rockered board? Twin keel fins set down near the tail.

I'd guess, he's grabbing the rail because he has to to get the board to turn. Dragging his hand for maybe the same reason.

Poignantly enough he is leaning forward (or trying to as far as the rail grab will let him).

Red:

It's hard to even recommend a head down, ass up approach on boards that have little rocker and fins far back, since they have to be driven from the tail

Oddly enough I have an old board, flat rockered, fins at the tail, which you can turn by leaning forward etc, because you focus the body torque energy on the tops of the feet, rather than the rails.

Not by leaning back, but by expanding the legs more.

[frankfqr]

You guess wrong Zorro. It's what Bud and a few others have reffered to as style. Look closer and you will probably note his arse firmly planted on his inside ankle, also a charistic of this type of style. It's low and hard driving. Hand is not touching the face that line is off the pin. You will never see someone from this school with there arms up or in full wingspan. We just don't ride like that. Within this realm we seem to be the minority. Keep your eyes open it really is something to see.

[W.G. Facenda]

You guess wrong Zorro. It's what Bud and a few others have reffered to as style. Look closer and you will probably note his arse firmly planted on his inside ankle, also a charistic of this type of style. It's low and hard driving. Hand is not touching the face that line is off the pin. You will never see someone from this school with there arms up or in full wingspan. We just don't ride like that. Within this realm we seem to be the minority. Keep your eyes open it really is something to see.

------Thank you for that.Glad to hear there are some still out there! Very good.

[zorro]

sorry guys, so stirring the pot with an american icon as the spoon is a dangerous occupation, no? Did it just for the response I'm afraid.
And, yes, I did notice his arse was firmly planted on his heels.

Please don't take my comments as criticism.

I take it from your comments that Lis is meaning to do these things - that he has a choice in the matter. That in fact he would still do them this way - or that he still does them this way.

That, in fact, there is another way of doing a roundhouse cutback than my verbose and seemingly ego driven description would suggest?

I'd love to hear your breakdown of the move (ments).

You see I want to learn how to improve my surfing.

On the other hand, I know some guys don't want to share their technique, or that some, when pressed, are unable to describe what they do.


Seriously, and with all respect.