The Global Paddling Community

Tired of old moves surfing on ocean waves? Want to have more fun? Here are some freestyle moves the guys are doing in Portugal (great ocean waves year round). The descriptions come with some really cool animated pictures by Rui Calado. Rui's comment: "I don't know if some of these moves already exist but I never read about them anywhere…". Have you? Please use the comment system for questions and feedback.

Flash Back - a radical cut back made when the wave is breaking. We gain some speed against the coming wave as if we want to pass it, but when we reach it and it begins to break, we make a 180 turn (sometimes almost in the air and upside down) on the lip, ending up surfing the foam head up… eventually. For this move, we need good speed and a perfect momentum.

Trash Loop - the loop made easier on the waves. We need a good wall of foam coming. We position the boat 90 degrees from the foam (parallel to it), and make a double pump right before the foam hits us. This way we are vertical and standing on our footrests when the coming water hits the hull. This allows us to jump into the air and forward, perform a very nice loop, and continue our way doing some other stuff.

Shock Wheel - Again we are paddling out against the foam with moderate speed. We make a double pump to put the kayak vertical just before the foam hits us, and use this "shock" on the front of the hull to rotate the boat and make a kind of a cartwheel. That is, during the first rotation, the second one will be after the foam like in a flatwheel.

Air Wave - Think about a wave wheel but made too early. We double pump in the very wall of the coming wave. This allows being vertical when we reach the peak. Now all we need to do is to throw our body into a rotation to the back of the wave, and land vertical on the stern, ready to make the second rotation to finish the wheel. If the wave is tall enough we make this turn in the air, which feels very very good…