EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DIFFERENT SURFING STYLES

Surfing is a complete sport as it engages every muscle in your body. You are immersed into it from neck-up i.e. with your mind focusing on the ever changing wave patterns and the waist down i.e. your legs and feet hoisted firmly over the surfboard. Every surfer learns the art of surfing slowly and in a consistent manner and in doing so they might develop certain styles of surfing. 
These styles of surfing are a personal preference of the surfer and might be different in principle and in execution from surfer to the surfer. Without further ado following are some of the most popular surfing styles even in Sri Lanka surf camp;

Down the line

It is a specific style of surfing that involves the surfer putting their back into gaining momentum with the approaching wave and then kind of surfing along with its outlines. This style of surfing involves rapid movement of the body, taking quite a few turns and twists as the pattern of the wave changes. With that being said you need to take on the wave as it is breaking or is about to break to nail this surfing style.

Tube riding

It is associated with surfing well within the curve or barrel of a finely shaped wave that is breaking around the seams. The surfer doing this specific style of surfing seems to be almost engulfed by the wave encompassing the back of the surfer while he seems to be coming out of its mouth. The waveforms a moving tube or cylinder and continues to remain intact around that configuration ranging from a few seconds to even a minute.

Nose riding

It is the art of maneuvering your surfboard from the front side. When you catch a wave you simply angle your nose into the direction you plan on riding, you would also have to paddle a little into the wave to be able to promote this turn. This style is better performed over surfboards that are more than 9ft in length.

Front foot

This is a type of surfing style where most of the weight is on the front foot which means that the surfer’s chest and toes are going to be facing the wave. These surfers prefer to ride a relatively smaller and wide fish-type board. You typically stand with your back foot one-palm length away from the board’s tail and the front foot might be slightly ahead of the surf board’s midsection. Hold onto this pattern when approaching a wave to ride on it.

Back foot

This is yet another surfing style taken on by many professional surfers where most of the weight is on the back foot. The front foot only works to maintain balance on the board and has no role in the turning process while it is the back foot that you use to accelerate or decelerate your speed onto the surfboard. Many surfing camps in Sri Lanka are already educating the surfers with back foot surfing style as it is more in demand in highly aggressive wave encountering areas.