Surfing Categories

Currently surfing competition is primarily based on:

research, design and materials from engineers in aeronautics, surfers looking for a hydrodynamic optimization of the boards, current Aussie style developments (large and energetic movements), and in recent years included influences from the movements of skateboarding and snowboarding, sports based upon surfing.

Surfers were already apparent in the ’60s in many countries on different continents. Today surfing is practiced by almost everyone, although most industries for buoyant boards and accessories are based in Australia, Europe and South America.

Among the most sought after destinations for traveling practitioners are Australia and Southeast Asia. Surfing is also a sport in Latin America, thriving in parts of Chile such as Pichilemu (Punta de Lobos) and Iquique. Surfing is also popular in Peru, where beaches like Mancora and Chicama (with the world’s largest wave) are ideal for this sport.

Variants and techniques of surfing and boards

Within the surf “table”, or surf itself, there are two basic categories depending on the size and type of board:
the shortboard, or short board surfing (between 1.50 and 2.10 meters), and longboard, with boards of length equal to or greater than 2.75 meters. This is the classic style of surfing (practiced in the decades of the ’50s and ’60s), and is the one that initiated today’s longboards.

Categories are also defined in the type of waves. The term
surfing generically refers to the widest range of styles and competitions. Big wave surfing is when the surfer specially and/or repeatedly rides on waves up to two meters high. (The wave is measured by the size of the pipe, not by the wall of the wave)

There are a number of basic movements in surfing, which are:

Take Off: The first move made by surfers, it’s the time that one is left lying on the board, rowing and moving to the upright position, preparing to slip over the wave. One takes off on a wave, mostly for wind power.

Bottom Turn: As its name indicates (in English, ‘bottom’ = down, ‘turn’ = turn), this maneuver is the first turn after “take off”. Once driving into the fall of the tide, the surfer must turn to escape from the wave that is breaking. In the bottom of the wave, the force of the wave ceases to push the surfer, and he must manipulate the inertia of the drop to rise again. Otherwise, he would go directly to the shore; he could not go through the wall of the wave and the foam of the wave rotates and quickly overtakes him. It is the opposite of Cut Back.

Cut Back: is, once the surfer slides down the wall of the wave, escaping from the surf, he does a turn of almost 180 degrees to return to this approach.

Reentry: is going up to the crest of the wave and make a sharp 180 degrees turn, returning to lower it.

Floater: is to navigate on the foam of a breaking wave.

Tube: consists of sliding on the tube that creates the breaking wave. This is considered the Queen of the Surf maneuver because of its difficulty and impressiveness. It’s the perfect wave for all dream surfers.

Air (or Aerial): is the name of a maneuver involving a water takeoff and being in the air. Different airs are distinguished by the “grabs” (ways to hold the board such as with one hand in the air in front, behind, with both hands at once, etc.,) or the movement that causes the surfer to air. One of the most spectacular is the “Air-360″ in which the surfer makes a 360 degree rotation in the air.

“360″: It starts as a re-entry, but it continues to rotate in the same direction 360 degrees.

“Snap” is a kind of Cut-back made more abruptly, with a smaller radius in the rotation.

Longboard maneuvers:
“Hang Five”: This is walking around the board until one foot is on the front of it (called the nose).

“Hang ten”: Placing both feet on the board nose. This requires great skill and a high speed wave because if not, the surfer collapses and falls into the water table.

“Drop Knee”: This is the classic longboard turn. It’s like a cut back but the back leg has the knee flexed to touch the board.