New Jersey Surf and New York Surf Information - Surfing NY NJ! - NYNJSurf.com

This is the first in a series that taps into the collective knowledge base of the members of the NYNJSurf.com community, and are the result of questions and answers as originally posted in the forums.

Pumping
by Happy (now Jammycast), as published in the NYNJSurf.com forums September 16, 2005

I'm definitely ready to start pumping my board so i can actually make it around sections and i've tried it a little but it doesn't feel right. i've been watching other people and i can't quite figure out what they're doing. do you weight and unweight your front foot? how? or i've also been told its a kind of side to side thing. Help!

Responses:

Shacky McFloater:

Think lite and on your toes.

Surfdawg:

On open faces, think of it as more of a rolling motion, front foot to back foot, and one rail to the next rail. On faster sections, get up higher on the wave face, crouch down more, and do smaller, quicker pumps to keep up with the lip. Drop down into the open flats when it looks like a section is going to close in front and try to draw a long turn around the whitewater.

little_nasty:

I’ve got a few thoughts for you happy, since I was discussing how to get in the tube without getting left behind with berry. We kinda brushed on this topic since it has to do with speed though I’m definitely still a kook on the matter.

First, let’s me make the basic geeky physics observation that the wave’s energy is mostly transferred to you through the buoyancy and/or planning force of your board as Potential Energy in the term of height. As I am sure you know, all that one is doing by surfing (or snowboarding, etc) is translating Potential Energy into Kinetic Energy. The delicate skill of tube-riding is managing those two interchangeable bundles of energy, like pouring water from one jug to another. I gave B the example that a trained fighter pilot knows not only the spatial quality of altitude, but also the temporal translatable potential of altitude. In other words, altitude = speed (“in your backpocket” as I’ve heard said). (ie. PE = mgh, KE = 1/2mv^2, cancel things out and velocity increases with the root of the height).

Ramble, ramble… Sorry. Anyway, so the wave is always adding to your store of potential energy while friction from the bottom of your board and from your slashing mid-face gouges is draining your speed. You can be content taking what the wave is giving you and just manage it as most average or cruising longboarders do ie. the glide (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Or you can also add even more to your velocity or energy store by pumping.

Now here I would like to make a distinction to make mechanical point. I would say that 98% of pumping that I see is not adding any kinetic energy in the form of forward velocity. I am talking about the specific physical action of a single pump which is actually converting kinetic energy in the form of your muscles pushing up against gravity to lift your energy state to a higher plane on the wave. Once you are higher on the face, you can ride down the face thereby converting that added height to forward speed. This may or may not make sense, but from a biomechanical perspective, I believe this is what’s going on. So what I’m trying to say is: don’t think about adding speed, think about adding height.

So maybe that “jumping” up the face and riding down for more speed is where you are getting/why you are hearing the side to side thing, or weighting/unweighting thing. But I like to think of it more like shacky:

A heel to toe thing.. Ok, maybe not so much heel, but definitely toes. But it must be said that just making s-turns from rail to rail will not add anything to your speed without that pumping action up the face.

You’ll notice that some surfers really only pump the lower half of their body like a debutante walking down stairs, but really it’s just a modification using less mass and quicker upward action/velocity to add height and so forward velocity (good for a quick burst of speed on small waves).

You’ll notice that pros can pump for speed over whitewater without a nice clean face. You don’t need face. Just pump to add height and ride down the wash. This can often times look floaterish. I am not too good at this; I think I am too fat. But when it happens, it feels really good.

Finally, I want to make another distinction that I think is a big deal. To me, there are two kinds/styles of pumping. One type is more fin based and the other is more rail based.

The fin based pump was born out of the thruster revolution and is often used out of a big bottom turn especially at point-like breaks. The snappy lip attack that ostensibly grew out of this back-footed style of speed generation can’t be demonstrated more completely and eloquently than Tom Curren surfing a nice California point break. The freak master of speed off the bottom turn. Get a vid, slomo, and try to emulate. I think that type of speed opens up the entire wave to your creativity (if you’ve got those kind of waves).

The rail-based pump is more old-school. I see it more on bigger sectiony reef waves with bigger boards more often bigger surfers. It’s probably easier and I would argue more useful for the non-competing surfer. Ironically, the best example I can think of at the moment is not a big guy. Kalani Robb. Pick up a tape of him surfing G-land and watch how he creates sick sick speed to make the notorious sections. He’s really a very good technical surfer and has great footwork.

Obviously these two types of styles have big implications for board selection especially trailing rails, fins, and tail shapes. I draw the distinction because I think they are two different skills which becomes more apparent as you start working on it. I’m sure others will have thoughts on this as well.

The Lone Surfer:

My first thought when i read this was that the term "pumping" might be misleading. it is closer to subtle turning. As others have already pointed out you are really extending a bottom turn until you are at a higher point on the wave where you can now take advantage of the potential energy of gravity as you flow back down the face, repeat. especially on small waves this might take on a "pumping" look, where on larger waves you can get the same result with carving or even smaking top turns.

Three Fins Out: