Photo: @riseupsurfretreats//@salty_see
Catch more waves. This is the number one way to fly your way up surfing’s steep learning curve and the beauty of it is that no matter how many years you have under your belt, no matter how experienced you are (or aren’t), it will always be the best way to keep improving. Want to refine your noseriding? Catch more waves. Want to get more comfortable in bigger conditions? Catch more waves. Want more time in the barrel? Catch more waves.
Learning to navigate crowds safely and developing impeccable wave selection is something Kassia Meador has been helping surfers improve for years. From in-person retreats to building on her Definitive Guide to Longboarding for hundreds of students online, she’s compiled a library’s worth of lessons that get surfers of all levels into more waves. Some of her insights require practice and many are simple tips that can be applied your next time out. For example, when surfing beach break, Kassia advises surfers to…
Look for the Triangle
We’ve all heard about observing the conditions from land before we suit up and setting a landmark that we can line up with from the water. These are two common steps that will improve wave selection and positioning. But sometimes once we’re out in the lineup we can get lost pretty easily. When this happens, whether we’re getting pushed far out the back without realizing it or just being pushed down the beach far away from our original lineup, Kassia advises taking note of “white water that’s frothy and foamy.”
“Sometimes that line of white water after a wave breaks creates a triangle,” she explains in The Definitive Guide to Longboarding. “So you’ll know if you’re in the right spot if you’re kind of right within that triangle or that line of white water after a wave breaks. So if you start to slide out of space, be like, ‘Oh wait, that’s a set, that’s the wave I want.’ Watch it break and then look for that line.”
The point here isn’t to set yourself up inside the impact zone so that set waves can steamroll you. Her advice is meant to help set up boundaries for your lineup without relying entirely on a landmark.
“It’s not whitewash-like tumbling,” she elaborates. “It’s more like white water that’s frothy and foamy. And it’ll be in a shape because it’s outlining where the sandbar is under you.”
Recognizing that triangle should help you realign with your landmark as well as inform you where the better set waves are coming through most often.
“Watch from the beach, know your markers again when you get in the water, watch exactly the size waves you want and where they’re breaking and lineup right with that, right in that little white water zone,” Kassia says. “It’s so invaluable”
Learn more about kick outs from Kassia along with other tutorials on parallel stance, turning, fade take offs, and more in the Longboarding Level-Up 3.0. You can also check out Kassia’s 45-video lesson Definitive Guide to Longboarding 3.0 here. The Inertia readers save 10 percent by using code WELCOME10 at checkout.
