
Tom Curren
Fundamental To Advanced?
The goal was to try and arrange the maneuvers from fundamental to advanced. Like hey, you’d probably want to learn to do a snap pretty well before you advanced to sticking a tail waft….
With that mindset, there’d be questions like “is a 360 a fundamental maneuver?” And what about speed generation techniques besides pumping?
That’s all up for debate – but for now this list will do the trick.
Manuvers | Variations > | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Drops | Early / Late Takeoffs | Knifing In | Air Drops | Out w/ the Lip | |
Bottom Turns | Lateral | Mid-Face | Vertical | Broken Rythm | |
Fades | Fading the Takeoff | Pre/Post Move | Tube (Setup) | ||
Stalling | Tail Stomp | Lean Back | Tube Stall | Stillness | |
Pumping | The 'H' Hop | Tic - Tac | Rail in | ||
Setup Turns | Light (Steering) | Power / Arcs | To Combo | Tube Setup | |
Floaters | Lip Lines | Rock n Roll | Floater 360's | Power (On Top) | Variations... |
Carves | Setup Carves | Arcs | Power Carves | Bruce | Andy |
Tube Rides | (Too Complex | For This Table) | |||
Snaps | Standard Reo's | Layback | Fins Free | Vert Reverse | Wafts |
Cutbacks | Power Slides | Wraps | Shopping Cart | Roundhouse | Clayback |
Stabs | Windshield Wiper | Power Stabs | To Rock n Roll | ||
Climbs | Foam Climbs | Climb to Snap | Climbs to variation | ||
Lip Slides | Foam / Barrel | Section | Out w/ Lip to Flats | ||
Reverses | Cheese Wiz | Vertical | Fins Free | Club Sandwich | |
360's | Flat 360's | Vertical | Carving / Slater | Inwards / BS | |
Airs | Stock | 180 | Reverse & Full 3's | Oops | 540's |
Air Grabs | Double | Indy | Slob(FS) Mute(BS) | Lien | Stalefish |
Air Flips | Kerrupt | Gorkin | Rodeo | Spindle & 540 | BackFlip |
Air Board Tricks | Superman | Shuvit | Varials | Passion Pop | Big Spin |
Double The Fun
While it’s easy to list ‘Frontside(FS) & Backside(BS) Snap’ together as ‘Snaps’, they are two different moves.
Maximizing The Conditions
While checking the waves, a surfer can (should!?) take mental note of what maneuvers are possible for that session and mentally run through the key fundamental techniques to successfully perform those maneuvers.
Going Deeper Into The Playbook
Variety and unpredictability is an advantage in war, sport, and especially surfing. While it’s important to spend a significant amount of time to develop major maneuvers, being able to make spontaneous decisions/reactions to transform a standard maneuver into a variation can keep your performances feeling fresh.
Show Stoppers
To take that to another level, you could have a move up your sleeve that is a ‘show stopper’ for that session/conditions. Take note of the variety of maneuvers being performed that day and consciously select a move deeper in your playbook that nobody else is performing to standout.
So the next time you feel like you can do no wrong, push your levels up a notch. Some of the best moves a surfer learns happens from experimentation.
As Martin Potter says:
“With Speed, Anything’s Possible“
While this list is by no means complete, here’s over 100 moves and variations to consider when you get the opportunity to go ‘deeper into your playbook’.
What’s your favorite maneuver?
Add To The Conversation