Air grabs    F'side air reverse    Late Drops    Carving 360
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		a. Feels real nice to round off the bottom, lunge at the lip and ride over the foam like this.        Frame grabs courtesy of Framelines				WAX ON SMOOTH. The dreaded Chinese wax job. Placing your board straight on top of another without a divider is a sinister act. Regardless of the heat, the wax will melt, leaving a crook brown mess on the bottom of your craft. It also slows you down. And here's a story. Sometimes, I write my sponnos on the bottom of my boards with texta. I packed my coffin board bag, got on a flight and when I unpacked, my new craft were covered in scratches, smudged texta and wax - it was crook. Divide 'em with a towel, a wetty, whatever. Just keep those kids apart. Photo: Respondek
				These are easier than you think, though it’s pretty rare to see ’em out in the field. Learn ’em, refine ’em, and you’ll have a powerful trick in your repertoire. A lot of people can’t do carving 360s. When I first started trying ’em, I’d just throw myself at the lip and fall forward without my board. I think they’re only tough because they look so hard. You don’t expect to make them in your head. But they’re so much more basic than you think. TALK TIME… The most important thing I learnt about carving 360s was from Nathan Webster. He’d done a few and was frothing out on them. His advice was that as you bottom turn, you need to cruise up the face and don’t lean into it too hard. His theory was that as you head up the face, that’s when you push hard through your turn. It was so easy: chill, don’t squat and drive and push right at the top. After that it all started to come together. All turning is about overpowering your board and ripping it off its natural trajectory. None more obvious than the carving 360. But it’s a double-pronged turn because you still have to come out of the bottom and get to the top with enough speed to jam it back around. advertisement advertisement The ultimate section is one with a washy, semi-throwing section. If it’s too sucky you’re going to get clipped in the head by the lip. If it’s chubby, that fat old thing isn’t going to be enough to kick you back down the face. You may done a 360 in the wash but this isn’t a carving 360. A carving 360 happens on open face when your tail hits the lip not the nose of your board. When you’re about three-fourths of the way up the face, that’s when you need to break your line. A solid hit of power on the back foot will rip you into a new world. As you hit the section you need to keep a fair amount of weight on your front foot. Staying over the nose of your board is the key. It’s all about coming down nose first. Again, a 360 where you come down backwards and spin once you hit the bottom isn’t a carving 360. If you’re falling forward without your board then you’re probably motoring out of the bottom of the wave and trying to spin when you hit the lip. Your tail has to hit and you have to ride back over the foam. If you’re going for carving 360s and getting close then you’re skilled enough to deal with wash. Your stance in a turn like this is pretty standard. Ride it out and be ready to deal with the bumps. Once you pick it up, it’s a real versatile turn. At the end of 2002, Kelly did the most freaky carving 360 at Haleiwa in Hawaii. He drove out of the bottom on what had to be a 10-foot wave and attacked this closeout. It was one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever witnessed. If you’re not feeling the carving three-o, studying other people’s surfing is the way to go. If you’ve got a mate who can do the tricky gear and he’s being a bit of a gatekeeper and not throwing you any tips, watch video. Fast, slow, super-slow, imprint the move into the sponge of your mind.
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