The Benefits Of Surfing

Surfing

Surfing, is a surface water sport where the surfer has to catch a wave and then ride it, usually towards the shore. Surfing waves are found mostly in oceans but they can also be found in lakes or in rivers in the form of standing wave or tidal bore. There are however also artificial waves that surfers can ride such as waves from boats or even artificial wave pools. Surfing is the general term for riding a wave and there are therefore a lot of ways to surf. In this essay we will be focusing on stand up surfing which is the most common type of surfing. In stand up surfing there are a lot of

Fins have a huge impact on the feel, stability, drive and manoeuvrability of a surfboard which are factors that can completely change the way you experience surfing. Fins can provide lateral lift opposed to the water and stabilise the board 's trajectory, allowing the surfer to control direction by varying their side-to-side weight distribution. Fins create two forces, the Lift Force and the Drag Force. The Lift force propels them forward up in the case of a plane or horizontal sideways in the case of a surf; where the drag force holds them back. Surfers want more Lift than Drag obviously, or look for a fin which will maximise the Lift and reduce as mush as possible the Drag. The Lift force will help to turn or resist turning by giving something to push up. The introduction of fins in the 1930s revolutionised surfing and board design. Surfboard fins may be in different numbers and configurations, and many different shapes, sizes, and materials are and have been made and used. Originally, surfboards had no fins, which meant the surfers had to drag a foot in the water so that the tail of the board would not slip sideways. The first fixed fin was introduced in 1935. They were 30 cm long and 10 cm deep metal sticks. The stability and control fins allowed revolutionised the sport. Fins keep evolving today, there are numerous types of fins, each creating a different type of manoeuvrability and stability. The three-fin "Thruster" design, is the most common design, especially for shortboards and they create the most manoeuvrability, making it easier to do tricks on waves. There are two major types of fins, the skegs and the rail fins. A skeg is a quite big fin in the middle of the tail of the surfboard and rail fins are two smaller fins at the side of the tail of the surfboard. The