I now into week 6 of my re-learn to surf program. After 1 lesson a week and one 2 hr group surf skate session the cost is approaching that of a new surfboard.
I'm very happy with the instructor, I have a strong feeling that what he is telling me to do is good technique. It is taking some serious re-learning to adapt. Easiest to fix has been my frontside pop-up. I used to do the jump to the feet in one go, but have been instructed to get the back foot on the tailpad first with the back leg in a sort of grass hopper position. Alex Knost can make the the jump to the feet look cool on a mid-length, but for short boaring I can see that the two stage process is more practical. It takes less physical effort, the hands stay on the front of the board longer which helps press the nose nose down, particularly good in blustery offshore conditions and helps get the board down the wave in all situations. More stable and I am blowing less waves by not making the basic mistake of getting to my feet too soon.
Re-programming my surfing is a more difficult process. The smoothstar surfskate is always used at the start of each lesson to get the arm movements, body position and knee bend burnt into my reflexes. To help with this I have to go through choreographed sequences on the surskate. They have names such as Waitress->Elbow for the backhand lip approaches. Tiger->Superman for the frontside. Waitress->tiger for the full backhand cutback which I have been able to do just once.
Instructor is encouraging, but at the same time critical. "Look more over your shoulder", "you didn't follow through with your back arm", "your front arm swung across your body into superman, it needs to punch straight out" etc. He makes the lessons fun, so its not getting too serious. On two occasions just prior to padding out he has told me "remember to have fun". This was particularly good advice for the lesson which took place in epic open ocean conditions, there was about half a dozen longboarders on the perfectly formed peak and a grommet and couple of short boar riders ripping it up, so this relieved the pressure.
A difficulty with the new program is that I sometimes go into a wave with what looks like a waitress->elbow possibility, but it turns out to be more of a waitress->tiger situation.
Its all very tiring, the surf skate is very energetic stuff compared to my normal skateboard. Last week's lesson was with another student, a powerfully built soldier who was just getting back into it after 2 years in Afghanistan - he told me his legs were cramping up during our surf skate instruction. Now that I am crouching more and putting more torque into my turns surfing is burning more energy too.
This is soloshot from yesterday morning. I am going through the new motions on the 2 lefts, not timing the off the lip right, on the plus side I have learned to look over my shoulder and rotate my shoulders better. A rare for me right appeared and I got exited at the prospect of it lining up for multiple lip approaches that I forgot to say the cues to myself, but I think I did get the the sequence roughly right. I remind myself that there is a limit to what I can expect to achieve. I used my normal skateboard for recreation this morning in the skatepark, physically it is less demanding than the smooth star and surf boar. A much needed rest tomorrow.