Surfing is a passion-driven sport. It requires time and practice to reach different levels. With time, effort, and dedication, you will be able to become a Level 4 surfer and perform the trick like hitting the lip or surfing vertically up the wave. The term “Hit the lip” can confuse new surfers. To make you more familiar, let’s discuss “Hit the lip” in a bit more detail.
What Does Hit the Lip Mean?
Hitting the lip in surfing refers to hitting the top of the wave after taking a bottom turn. It is a highly skilled task and can be hard to execute for some amateur surfers. Someone hits the lip when they ride the wave, go down to the bottom of the base of the wave, then come back up to hit the top of the wave above the wave face. This trick opens up the surfer for other tricks once they master this manoeuvre. If you want to understand it better, you might first need to know the anatomy of a surf wave; if you already don’t know.
How to Hit the Lip
If you are looking for ways to hit the lip, first, you need to master the bottom turn, and it will set you up for success. It will also help you start the trick the right way. A bottom turn is when you enter the wave and do a 360° spin at the base of the wave. But, at first, you should know how to read a wave, so that you can make a better analysis before hitting the wave.
After that, you have a few options while trying to hit the lip. The first is to touch the wave and throw your arm. To do this, you need to do a bottom turn, touch the water and trail it along while you are riding, then throw the arm powerfully across your body and down the wave as you make the turn at the top. This helps your body to get enough natural momentum and force to touch the lip of the wave and come down safely.
The next thing to do is what surfers call a 9 o’clock wrap. For this manoeuvre, you need to do a base turn, do the touch and throw method we just talked about, but instead, put your other arm, the one not trailing up, to the 12 o’clock position. Again, this helps turn the body and board so that you have enough momentum to complete the trick.
You can also do what is called the reverse karate chop. For this move, you need to do your base turn, ride up the wave, and as you are coming down, throw your leading arm up into the air and behind your head. It will help to position and throw the board to move in the direction that you want it to move.
How to Practice for Hit the Lip
The best thing you can do for any new trick, is to practice over and over again. After all, practice makes a man perfect.
Hitting a lip is very challenging, and it tests both your patience and ability as a surfer. That does not mean it is not worth it. With practice and dedication, you can master this (or any) trick. Hammer out your basic skills before trying anything new. You may want to look at these tips to prep your body and improve your overall surfing moves.
Surfing pushes you to aim for perfection, to go outside of your comfort zone, and challenge yourself for new experience. Get out there and practice, and you will be surprised with how well you come out and how much fun you can have by hitting the lip.
So, come and HIT THE LIP here at Mentawai.
