Tips by David Ngiam
Video : Racel Yee
Photo : Racel Yee
Surfing frontside is when the front of your body is facing the wake. Most people find this is the easiest side to start learning how to wakesurf, but some people are more comfortable surfing backside. Either, its up to you.
The key to surfing the wake, whether it is frontside or backside is to relax your body and be nimble. This is unlike wakeboarding where most of the time you have to lock up on your approach and in the air.
When surfing frontside, ride up the wake by turning your upper body up towards the wake on your topside edge, shifting your weight to your back foot to keep the nose of the board light. At the top of the wake, open up your shoulders towards the boat and shift your weight to the front foot so that it helps your board drop downy he face as you turn on to your heelside edge. Once you come down the wake, repeat the same motion.
It sounds easier than it actually is, but the key is not to be stiff, especially at your knees and ankles. At times, you may have to squat a little lower for that extra push when pumping up the wake. Likewise, you have to smoothly shift your weight backwards and forwards as necessary. Its similar to pumping, but you want to ride up and down the wake more and you don’t have to be as aggressive since you should be within the sweet spot.
It helps to learn this with the rope first, so you can pull yourself back into the sweet spot if you fall back too much. It will take some time to learn how to get the rhythm particularly if you’ve never surfed before. But once you get it, the feeling of surfing without a rope is really something else.