This is the last of a four part series on front surfing. When you watch boaters trying to get on a surf wave that is on their off side, one of the most common mistakes is that last stroke taken to get on the wave.  Usually, the boat is all lined up and ready to slide on the wave and then the boater’s last stroke is too hard and turns the boat, giving the boat too much angle, and thus the wave is missed.

This gets back to the basics of one stroke acceleration.  The best explanation and demonstration of this stroke is on Kent Ford’s video, Drill Time.  I will not go into detail on this stroke, just the importance of why it needs to be done when getting on a wave.

When getting on a wave, we need to keep the approach angle.  If our last forward stroke turns us off this angle, we go out with too much angle and thus we miss the wave.  This gets back to the previous tip (Part 3) and paying attention to the journey.  Start off surfing the nearest piece of the wave and then moving out little by little.  In the one video, you can see the wrong angle and too hard a forward stroke. On the second video, you can see a good one-stroke acceleration and the boat goes forward and does not change angle.

Clip 1Correct  1.73 MB


Clip 2 Incorrect  1.18 MB

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