CARVING

Carving is a manoeuvre performed at speed whereby the surfer engages the rail of the board into the wave face, driving through the turn and changing direction from the top to the bottom of the wave - maintaining speed throughout.

Yes it's an advanced manoeuvre that we're teaching you here and we don't expect you to get it straight away, but the foundations of this manoeuvre are something we think you'll be able to grasp over time.

Right now though, what we're really hoping for you is to get the absolute basics of this manoeuvre down, and then build up from there.

WHY IS CARVING IMPORTANT?

Going like a bat out of hell along a wave is super fun, it really is.

But, overtime comes the desire to want to push yourself, stretch your skills and put all of that speed to good work.

And that's where the carve comes in, as a practical manoeuvre that maintains your speed throughout, keeping you closer to the power source of the wave in the process.

The carve can be used as a stand-alone manoeuvre in its own right, and oftentimes will be used as a set-up transition turn, re-positioning the surfer in the right parts of the wave to commit a turn.

FOREHAND OR BACKHAND: CAN YOU CARVE BOTH WAYS?

The short answer is yes, for sure the carve can be performed on both the forehand and backhand.

However, it's a manoeuvre that's more often utilised on the forehand.

For that reason, we'll be focusing exclusively on the forehand technique in this course.

BREAKING IT DOWN: HOW TO CARVE

Carving is a manoeuvre that must be performed at speed, as without speed it's impossible to engage the rail of your surfboard into the water without tipping over.

Speed is needed to counteract the tipping, using the oceans surface tension as support.

Here's how it's done

Pop to your feet, look down the line of the wave and do a shallow bottom turn to maintain down the line speed.
Drive through your bottom turn holding all of your speed in your knees and upper body.
Hold this drive without releasing until you reach the top 1/3 of the wave.
As you approach the top 1/3 of the wave, begin opening up your shoulders, and extending your legs, releasing the stored speed as you go. *Note: It's very important not to release all of the stored drive at this stage. Speed must be held until the end of the manoeuvre.
Begin transitioning your weight from your toes and the balls of your feet to your heels.
Direct your eyes and head over your outside shoulder in the direction you want to travel.
Engaging your rail and your fins, hold your line through the turn until your board is pointing towards the beach.
Keep releasing speed gradually as you go through the entire process until you reach the bottom 1/3 of the wave.

COMMON MISTAKES

RELEASING SPEED TO EARLY: It's common for surfers to extend out of the bottom turn too early, releasing all of the drive before the manoeuvre is complete. To compensate for this, be sure to stay low throughout the whole process, only extending fully in the final moments.

FALLING OVER YOUR OUTSIDE RAIL: This is easily done as the margin for error when transitioning weight onto your heels and the outside rail is slim. There's no quick fix for this, just time and practice in the water.

TOO MUCH RAIL, NOT ENOUGH SPEED: The amount of drive and rail that you can commit to this manoeuvre will all depend on the amount of speed you have going into it. The more speed you have, the more you'll be able to utilise your rails. The less speed you have the more you'll have to rely on your fins. The balance and the sweet spot will take time to find, but practice makes perfect right?

WRAPPING IT UP

There's a lot of technical jargon in this lesson and a lot to digest. Plus, it's understandable if the notion of drive, and rail surfing seem a little far fetched at this point.

But that's all ok.

As with everything it all just starts with the baby steps, and that's what we're doing here.

Setting the initial foundations, understanding the process, starting small and building from there.

CARVING

YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN TO ACCESS THIS COURSE

LEVEL 1 BEGINNER

GOTTA HAVE POP!

SPEED

TURNING

THE SUBTLE ART OF NEGOTIATING WAVES

PADDLING

NEXT STEPS...

LEVEL 2 PROGRESSOR

IT'S TIME TO PROGRESS...

POP-UP LIKE THE PRO'S

READING WAVES

CATCHING UNBROKEN WAVES

TURN BABY TURN

TRIMMING

NEXT STEPS...

LEVEL 3 IMPROVER

THE QUICKENING

ANGLED TAKE OFF

SPEED

BOTTOM TURNS

CARVING

CUTBACKS

NEXT STEPS...