Learn to Noseride
One of the most satisfying sensations on a wave is to be firmly perched on the nose of a longboard, gliding through the section, confidently, and under control.
You want to learn to noseride this year, and we have advice to help make that happen.
Effectively riding the nose of your longboard means that several things have to be working together effectively:
- You must be riding the right equipment.
- Your board must be firmly planted in the right part of the wave.
- You must be able to efficiently get yourself from the middle of the board to the nose (and back again).
The Right Equipment
We wrote a whole Almond's Guide to Noseriders & Longboards to cover the myriad of topics that relate to longer surf equipment. But in short, an ideal noserider has:
- A full nose (wider than 18")
- A full tail (wider than 16")
- A low entry rocker with a little "flip" of tail rocker
- A nose concave (for generating lift)
- A wide enough tail for water to flow over and support your weight
- Enough surface area on the fin to hold the tail in place.
Our most popular noseriding models are:
- The Lumerjack (wide range of conditions)
- The Walks on Water (best in softer, mushier waves)
- The Logistic (best in steeper, punchier waves)
The Right Part of the Wave
This is the part you need to practice the most: finding the "pocket" of the wave and staying there for long stretches.
Any time you walk toward the nose of your board, your board is going to speed up. Therefore, you want to position yourself deep in the pocket of a wave, so when you walk forward and speed up, you are speeding up without out-running the wave you are riding.
The shoulder of a wave does not have the energy required to support noseriding, the pocket does.
Sometimes, you'll be surfing and you'll notice the wave is starting to kind of wall up a little bit in front of you, if you recognize this early enough, it can be a perfect time to cross-step forward to the nose... and will actually help you "beat" that section that is threatening to break in front of you and end your ride prematurely.
Other times, you will see surfers stall hard in the pocket, as a way of setting up for a noseride. This is a very common tactic for positioning yourself deep in the pocket, and allowing yourself the most runway for noseriding.
Fade takeoffs are another great way to set up for a noseride. This technique works best in softer waves (steep, pitching conditions don't do to well for this). The idea is: if you want to go left, you actually take off going right (fading the wrong direction) and then before the wave overtakes you, you swing the nose of the board back toward the left again... this results in very deep positioning which can have advantageous results for noseriding.
Getting to the Nose
Lastly, you can't learn to noseride until you can effectively cross-step from the middle of the board to the nose (and back again).
Cross-stepping is an art form in and of itself.
Keep your eyes on the stringer, and take small, light steps as you make your way to the nose.
