Surf: 2.6 ft at 15.4 s from the S at 190°. Incoming to High tide. No wind.
Shortly after picking up my fish from Sunset Shapers, I started obsessing over longboards again. Before I get too wrapped up in shortboard-fishland, I want to learn more about longboarding. While I feel pretty competent on my Stewart, the one thing I don’t have is style. I shuffle instead of cross step. I can get up near the nose, but things don’t quite feel right. The board bogs and I fall on my face. More than one person had blamed this on my Stewart being a performance board rather than a traditional log. While it’s a really fun board for our inconsistent beach breaks (and a great all-arounder), the board hunter in me can’t help but look at more traditional boards. Wide noses, more traditional rails, pin tails, big ole fins. The works.
The problem is, there are so many amazing boards out there. I don’t even know where to start.
A couple of Ashley Lloyd’s boards showed up at Mollusk recently. They’re so beautiful. I highly recommend following her instagram for shots of boards like this one:
Source: Ashleylloyd on Instagram
While hemming and hawing over wether or not I wanted to buy one of her boards off the rack, Jake recommended meeting up with her for a surf lesson and talking customs.
The short of it, Ashley is great. Take lessons from her! Her site is: She’s a great teacher!
A few takeaways:
Cross stepping and muscle memory – I realized I’ve been going about this both too aggressively and not aggressively enough, if that makes any sense. I realized that I’ve either been forcing steps when the timing wasn’t right, or not taking steps when the timing was right.
Ashley pointed out that I can start with just one step when the timing is right. The important thing, she pointed out, is to build that muscle memory. Step up, step back. And bend your knees! I’m going about this all a little too stiff legged, which makes it harder to get that second step in.
I got quite a few toe touches in. That was pretty satisfying. When it came to more steps, I fell pretty spectacularly on my face except for one backwards fall onto the board. The toe touches alone are plenty to work with for the rest of the summer.
Timing and wave positioning – One thing I knew I was going to need to work on was my timing and wave positioning. Most of the waves up here have very little face before slamming closed, so I have the very kooky habit of outrunning my waves instead of being in the pocket.
Some things Ashley had me work on: left-go-rights and right-go-lefts to set me up in the pocket better than a regular old angle take off. These are pretty fun. It’s great to really swoop that bottom turn.
I’d borrowed her Bing Lightweight Pintail for this class. It made me realize how quickly my Stewart turns compared to something with more traditional rails. The first few turns felt like trying to turn a tanker, but once I get in the swing of it, it was really fun. Those left-go-rights are a blast.
Also in the timing and positioning camp, stalling and cutbacks. I have so many more options for staying in position than I think I do. I need to thing more than screaming down the line. Cutbacks brings me to the next item:
Arms and Shoulders – Ashley gave me a few pointers for how to engage my shoulders to flow into a cutback rather than my usual “stare at where I want to go till eventually I’ve over there” move. She also suggested I loosen up my arms. I’ve noticed in pictures my back arm looks like I’m going to punch someone. More relaxed arms = that extra subtlety for trim and balance.
She suggested a few closing moves to help reinforce what I’m learning. One is flowing over the top of a crumbling section with a big top turn, the other is using those shoulders again to make a more swooping kickout.
Ashley also said I paddle well, which might not seem like a huge complement, but I was stoked to be doing something well. 🙂
All those years of sprinting from the outside to get my waves was good for something.
Esther and Ashley both took a turn riding my board. While they looked beautiful and amazing on it, they both agreed that the board isn’t really helping my cause any. It’s overly sensitive and is not happy when it has more weight on the front. In short, a great beachbreak board.
For now, I think I can get away with practicing the toe taps and the left-go-rights on my board. Hopefully next class I’ll snag one of Ashley’s boards and give that a trial run.
BIG thanks to Ashley for a wonderful surf lesson!
