Frontside Cutback in Whitewater

Riding whitewater waves

You can still ride waves that have already broken frontside. Here you can see Arne Jörn riding a wave in the whitewater.

There are two key points here: first, you have to get up on the foam; second, you have to keep in mind that the fin provides only minimal grip during the cutback.

You get up by shifting your weight to the tail and leaning back accordingly, because the foam forms a sort of bubbling ridge (you can see this movement in the slow-motion sequence).

On the whitewater, the board slides more than it rides; the tail almost slides around on its own, without the fin being able to guide it. That’s why you should shift your weight over the mastfoot toward the nose, because rail grip at this point is important to keep the board from overspinning.

This way, you’ll slide back in front of the whitewater and can set up for a another turn onto the whitewater.