YUP YOU READ THAT RIGHT, GET THESE TECHNIQUES DIALLED AND YOU'LL TRIPLE YOUR WAVE COUNT!

It's a pretty bold claim I know, but seriously, the techniques that you're going to learn in this mini series literally have the potential to triple your wave count (if not more) once you get them dialled.

The techniques you'll learn in this series are nuanced, and one's you'll struggle to find elsewhere, but they sure do pack a punch.

It might take you a while to fully nail each method, but once you do, you'll be on a WHOLE new level!

Excited? Me too.

Let's go 💥

METHOD 1: THE SWIVEL

Being excellent at catching waves is all about making multiple micro adjustments in your positioning to place yourself in exactly the right place when catching a wave.

Just like a tennis player will bounce on their toes in anticipation of a serve and make multiple small steps before hitting the ball, in surfing we want to do the same.

We want to replace the 'IF THIS, THEN THAT' response of 'See Wave, Paddle Hard', to 'See wave, Now what?'

And just like the tennis begin making multiple micro adjustments to get in the absolute best position to catch the wave.

But, many of these micro adjustments just aren't possible if you're not able to manoeuvre your equipment quickly.

So it's vital that this gets addressed.

And one of the most important movements to speed up and refine is the swivelling of your board to catch waves.

THE SWIVEL, AND WHY IT MATTERS

Sure, you can likely swivel your board and catch waves to a degree already, and that's great.

But, there's a BIG difference between being able to turn your board 180 degrees in five seconds vs half a second.

Here's why.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

POSITIONING: The ability to swivel quickly gives you the flexibility to paddle out - left or right - to get yourself into position for waves, and still give you the time to turn and catch the wave.

ONSHORE WAVES: Surfing onshore waves is very different to surfing offshore waves. The waves are less uniform and much closer together, and as such, make them much more difficult to catch.  Surfing waves like this requires much quicker reflexes giving you much less time to prepare for each wave you catch.  The ability to swivel fast really helps in these scenarios.

COMPETING FOR WAVES: Lots of waves that people paddle for - they fail to catch, and if you're not able to swivel quickly and react in these situations you'll miss waves that could've been yours.

HOW TO SWIVEL ON A DIME IN UNDER 1 SECOND

So you probably know how to swivel your board around already: A bit of a wiggle of the legs, and a few paddles of the arms.

We want to now take that technique and rev up the whole process, so that you can turn your board in a split second 👊

The swivel - when done correctly - is more of a controlled fall than a steady pivot.  Done right, it's one fluid motion from sitting on your board looking out to sea, to full 180 swivel into paddle in one motion.

Here's another view below to help explain:

It'll take a lot of practice to get it right, but it's well worth the investment that's for sure.

Here's how it's done.

WRAPPING IT UP

There are a few techniques in surfing that aren't taught too often, and aren't that obvious to newcomers to the sport - and the swivel is definitely one of them.

But it's techniques like this that'll leap frog your progression way more than you think.

Why?

Well if you think about it, any technique that helps you to catch more waves is going to give you more time to practice your craft and more reference experiences as a result.

So my advice to you would be to not overlook this technique, work at it until you've mastered it, as this one little manoeuvre alone will increase your wave count dramatically, and do your surfing wonders.

*NEXT LESSON: THE POP & CORK METHOD. COMING YOUR WAY SOON*