How to pass the Coffee Cup

Right, so the last guide was all about the coffee cup and now we take it one step further to.....a stick... I'm serious about this one and stick with me for a bit....pun intended. The Coffee cup gets your back arm forward and driving, but now you need to use that arm and stance to properly turn the board.

Like riding a bike on water

By holding a stick, it's like holding the handle bars of a bike, as you turn, both arms and your body follow and turn to the left or right. Your body is now working together to go one direction and not fighting in two different directions. This will aid your turns and twisting action and directly translate to a better turn, style, balance and co-ordination. Instead of, arms flailing and body going one way, your board the other and an ugly weak turn.

Look at the below gif of one of our students out in the water with a stick. Watch how his body and arms co-ordinate together to work through the turn and match the wave.

The hidden benefits

By using the stick this also subconsciously teaches you to raise your arms and match the angle of the wave during your turns. By doing this you are helping create lift and drive out of your bottom turn and also keeping balance as you go up and down the face of the wave.

How to train this out of the water

We aren't about to tell you to go out and take a high performance stick to the line up but the best way to start is on land with a surf skate. Look at the clip below of Clayton using a stick to co-ordinate his body to do a bottom turn. He's using a cone as a point to turn around, cruises up and eyes the spot where he wants to start the turn, weight focused on his front foot and engages the lean and holds it till he finishes the turn.

Notice how the stick is controlling his shoulders and both arms to be in alignment. This creates balance and allows him to create a better, sharper and longer bottom turn. In the water, this will be what helps generate speed or gets you around sections.