FLOATER DRILL

AIM: 

To perform the best quality floaters a surfer can produce.


PREPARATION: 

Explain the importance of performing quality floaters. Demonstrate how to perform a quality floater and ask the surfers to simulate the action on the beach. Explain how the scoring for this drill is allocated.


DRILL:

  • Send the surfers out into the surf for 20 minutes. Ask them to perform the best quality floaters they can do on the waves they catch.
  • Score the floaters - 1, 2, or 3 points depending on the quality of the manoeuvre. Take into consideration the length of the floater, speed, control shown and how heavy the section was where the floater was performed.
  • Add the best 4 wave scores for a total. The highest total is the winner of the drill.

NOTES TO THE COACH

Floaters are great linking manoeuvres between sections. The key aspects of a quality floater include:

  • Enter into the manoeuvre with a relatively flat entry.
  • The surfer’s head should come to a position over their front knee to
    maintain balance and lateral speed.
  • Before dropping, the surfer must turn their head and shoulders towards
    the beach to apply a torque force to the surfboard. This is turn straightens the surfboard for landing, so that the surfboard’s nose points directly to the beach on landing.
  • The surfer should centre over the stringer of the surfboard on landing by assuming a chest over front knee body position.
 Mark lesson complete