048: CC#3 - Reading Waves with Clayton Nienaber.
SHOW NOTES
Are you misreading waves and blowing sections—either too early, too late, or just completely off?
Most surfers fixate on the lip to decide their next move, but Clayton Nienaber reveals that the true key to flow, power, and top-to-bottom surfing is actually found in reading the bottom of the wave. This short episode gives you one concept to transform your next session.
Learn how to anticipate the wave’s behavior seconds before it unfolds.
Discover the exact part of the wave that tells you when and how to move.
Tap into better flow and calm by shifting where—and how—you focus.
Play this episode now to change where you look, and instantly level up your wave-reading instincts.
Clayton talks about the importance of reading the bottom of the wave, how water moves and where the power of the wave is.
https://train.ombe.co/?via=surfmastery
Key Points
The episode focuses on the concept of reading waves, specifically emphasizing the importance of observing the bottom of the wave to anticipate its behavior.
Clayton highlights the common mistake of surfers looking at the top half of the wave and misreading it, leading to poor outcomes.
Looking at the bottom of the wave allows surfers to anticipate the wave's future behavior and make better decisions, such as avoiding falls.
Clayton explains that the bottom of the wave provides crucial information about the wave's speed and power, which can be used to predict the top half's behavior.
Surfing down to the bottom of the wave allows surfers to tap into the wave's maximum speed and power, enhancing their performance.
Reading the bottom of the wave helps surfers predict and react to the wave's behavior, leading to a more relaxed and efficient surfing style.
Anticipating the wave's behavior by reading the bottom allows surfers to react more quickly and with better coordination.
Curran's surfing style exemplifies the benefits of reading the bottom of the wave, allowing him to react in the moment and appear timeless.
Outline
Introduction to Coaching Concepts Episode
This episode is the third installment of the 'Coaching Concepts' series, abbreviated as CC in the podcast feed.
The show format consists of short episodes under 10 minutes, designed to provide listeners with one concept to consider during their next surf session.
The focus of this episode is on reading waves, specifically examining the bottom of the wave.
The intro and outro music for the show is created by John Swift.
Importance of Reading the Bottom of the Wave
Clayton introduces the concept, noting that it requires some experience and is more suitable for intermediate surfers.
Common scenarios where surfers misread waves by focusing on the top half are presented.
In one scenario, surfers expect to perform a top turn, but the wave flattens out unexpectedly.
In another scenario, surfers anticipate a smooth ride off the top, but the wave pitches, causing them to be thrown over.
A situation where surfers correctly read a powerful wave by looking at the bottom leads them to pull out safely.
Surfers can anticipate wave behavior three seconds into the future by observing the bottom of the wave.
Technique for Reading Waves from the Bottom
Most surfers tend to surf mid-face and do not go to the bottom, which limits their ability to read the wave accurately.
Observing how much water is being drawn off the bottom and where this is occurring is advised.
This observation helps pinpoint the ideal location for performing a top turn.
Beyond visual observation, feeling the wave face with one's hand to gauge energy and lift is suggested.
Tactile information provides clear indications of whether the lip will barrel, if it is soft enough for a re-entry, or if a roundhouse cutback is appropriate.
Scientific Breakdown of Wave Dynamics
The top half of the wave is where speed originates, with speed increasing as one moves down the face.
Dropping halfway down the wave face only accesses half of the wave's potential speed.
The bottom of the wave, close to the foam, is where the wave draws water back up the face and has the most power.
Ideal surfing technique involves dropping into the speed, fitting the board into the wave's curve, and moving in a straight line to the most powerful part of the wave.
A proper bottom turn taps into the power drawing up the face, making the surfer nearly weightless.
Coordinating a lift movement with hand positioning can effortlessly draw the surfer to the top half of the wave.
The goal is to join speed and power zones as closely as possible, creating a figure-8 motion for effortless, flowing surfing.
Benefits of Reading the Bottom of the Wave
This technique allows surfers to anticipate sections and determine the appropriate speed for each section.
Improved anticipation leads to relaxation, which in turn enhances reaction time and body coordination.
Reading the bottom of the wave centers the surfer in the present moment, rather than trying to surf in the future.
This approach results in surfing that looks timeless and fluid, as exemplified by professional surfer Tom Curren.
Curren focuses on the area immediately in front of their surfboard rather than looking down the line, allowing them to process and react to the immediate moment.
Transcription
Michael Frampton
Or back surfers. This is the third installment of the new format of the show, Coaching Concepts, which you see as CC in your feed. So these are short episodes under 10 minutes designed to give you one thing to think about during your next surf. And this one is on reading waves. In particular, during your next surf, think about reading the bottom of the wave. I'll let Clayton explain why. Intro outro music is by John Swift.
Clayton Nienaber
So Michael, this is something that takes a bit of experience. So I often ask people, and this is more geared towards, I'd say, intermediates for now. Have you ever had a wave where you've done a bottom turn, you're looking up the lip, and you're expecting to do a real nice top turn, and as you get to the wave, it just peters out and goes flat, like pfft? Or the reverse, you're anticipating a real nice up off the top, and as you get to the top, the wave just pitches and you get flung over the falls and absolutely obliterated. Blown up. So where were they looking both times? So they were looking at the top half of the wave, yet they read it incorrectly. So then I asked them this question. Have you ever paddled into a wave and you look down and that wave is just drawing hard off the bottom? It's going, and there's a lot of water moving quickly up the face, and they just get nervous. They put the brakes on, they pull out, like and the wave just goes. Where did they look that time?
Michael Frampton
And they didn't go over the falls, you mean. They did the right thing.
Clayton Nienaber
Correct. Yeah. So they looked down. So without even looking at the top half of the wave, they could anticipate what that wave was going to do three seconds in the future. So you can take off in a wave and look at the bottom of it and read how much draw is sucking off the bottom and where that's about to happen, and if you get that correct, you'll be able to pinpoint where you should be doing your top turn. But most people surf mid-face and they don't go to the bottom. So they're not looking there. So they must read the top half of the wave as to what turn you should do and when you should do it. Now, you know visually if you look at something, you can read into, but if you feel something, you'll understand it way better. So one step better than even looking at the bottom is to go down and actually to lean over and try to get your hand on the wave face and feel how much energy and how much lift and draw that wave has pulling up the face. And that there will give you a clear indication of whether that lip's going to barrel, whether it's soft enough that you can go up and actually connect with a re-entry, or if it's going to be soft and perhaps go for a roundhouse cutback. So yeah, read a wave from the bottom. Okay.
Michael Frampton
So when you look at the bottom of the wave, there's enough information there to tell you what's going to happen when that water gets to the top.
Clayton Nienaber
Yeah, so let's break a wave down into more, let's call it scientific, but just simple stuff. So the top half of the wave, where you drop in, that's the point where your speed originates from, and the further down you go, the faster you go. So if you only drop halfway down, you're only going to get half the amount of speed, but if you go all the way down to the bottom, that's where you're going to get the most amount of speed from. And the shortest distance between the two points determines how quickly you get your speed. So if you're going halfway, facing mid-face down the line, you're only going to tap into half that wave's potential speed. Now, what happens at the bottom, as close to the foam as possible, that's where the wave is actually drawing water back up the face, and that's where the wave has the most amount of power. So what we do when we surf, when we drop into the speed, if our board is able to fit into the curve of the wave, we want to go in a straight line right down to the most powerful part of the wave, lean over in a bottom turn and try tap into all that power that's drawing up the face, and the leaning over makes us weightless, and tapping into that power almost lifts us up to the top half of the wave. And if we just add a little bit of technique into that and actually throw both our hands and coordinate a lift movement, we will effortlessly get drawn up to the top half of the wave and reconnect with that speed power zone off the top. Now, what we want to do, we want to try to join the speed and power as close above each other as possible. So the more turning we're doing in a figure 8 motion, the more effortlessly we are surfing. So in other words, the more flow we have, and we're tapping into speed and power with flow, hence we're surfing to our judging criteria of speed, power, and rail to rail, top to bottom surfing.
Michael Frampton
Flow. And that's top to bottom surfing, which is what we want to do? Okay, by reading the bottom of the wave, you're predicting—not even predicting—you're learning what's going to happen at the top of the wave, right?
Clayton Nienaber
Yeah, 100%. Yeah. So what it does, and this is what's so fantastic about it, it calms you down, because now I can anticipate sections and the bottom is telling me how fast or how slow to move.
Michael Frampton
So by learning, by getting better at it, you're not going to learn to read the bottom of the wave unless you start looking there.
Clayton Nienaber
As soon as I can anticipate what's going to happen, I can start to relax. And the more I relax, the faster my body reacts to situations. So not only do I have more time, but I've got more energy and coordination in doing the movements that I need to do.
Michael Frampton
I mean, Curran a great example, isn't he? When he's going, when he's dropping down into a wave, he's not looking down the line to see what the lip's doing on the next section, he's reading the bottom of the wave. He's looking in front of his surfboard. And.
Clayton Nienaber
What that's doing is it's centering him in the moment that he's in. He's not looking down the line and trying to surf in the future and then trying to anticipate what's going to happen in that future. He's actually feeling and processing the movement in the moment, and he's reacting to that moment, which makes his surfing look timeless.
48 Coaching Concept #3 - Reading Waves w Clayton Nienaber
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