Banana peeling

Hello!

I've been searching through some forums for some tips on surfing backhand but couldn't find anything about banana peeling and was hoping that you could help and provide some feedback. I'm not sure that this is the right place to post this but I hope you all don't mind.

I'm a 5'7 goofy foot at 165lbs and I normally ride a 5'4 x 19 3/8 x 2 3/8 moontail fish with a five fin setup (FCS K2.1 quad + VS fin) but decided to pick up a CI Fred Rubble thruster (Futures RM) with a squash tail at 5'9 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/4 since I'd been having a hard time dropping in on those bigger, steeper days.

I don't consider myself to be a very good surfer but I can hit a turn and/or a cutback now and again if I spot my line correctly with the fish.

However, with the Rubble, once I get up and try to follow my line, I start to plane and can't seem to find the rail which leads me to banana peel and a lot of other surfers either laughing at me or giving me stink eye for wasting a decent look.

I don't seem to have this problem surfing forehand but I do feel that it is much less stable than the fish which I assume is due to it being narrower.

Any advice on how to correct it?

Thanks for reading and for any help.

Hi dirtyasian and welcome to Tribal Surf!

I’m not sure I’ve heard of the term “banana peeling” before but the way you’re describing it, it sounds like you’re having trouble digging that backside rail and find yourself planing flat instead? Especially on steeper waves, you need that rail dug in to get turning control and when it’s planing flat, it’s basically all on your fins.

I don’t think it’s the width of the Rubble that’s giving you more stability but the added length. Actually, the narrower width should be taking stability away assuming the same dimensions everywhere else.

I’m thinking it’s just going backside that’s causing this problem and the change in board dims is highlighting it. Frontside, you’ve got the balls of your feet that offer a lot of rail control on the frontside rail. When you’re going backside, you have a lot less control since you no longer have the balls of your feet to control that backside edge.

I’ve struggled with this myself and while I can get substantially more speed on my frontside (because of the rail control), I still love going backside since the hits feel more natural. But to be honest I have no idea what I’m really doing to compensate on my backside since I haven’t given it much thought. I think I may be leaning towards the wave more than I would on frontside and using my feet to control that weight distribution.

to be more specific it felt like running at full speed and then stepping on a banana peel... I'd fall backward and the board would shoot out in front me when I was reaching the bottom at full speed.

I got a chance to go out today and worked on a few things and some adjustments really helped.
I noticed that I had a tendency to not look down the line when going right... it may be a habit from when I swam (i would only breathe to my left) and turning my head to the right wasn't very comfortable.

However, it did help with a few things: weight shift over to the heels, opening up my stance, and getting ahead of the white water on take off.

So I see what you're saying about the digging the rail. I felt the rail a lot more during the session today but I stability of the board is going to take some getting used to.

Thanks for the advice and bouncing back some info... It really helped!!!

just a thought along Rob's thought's: maybe you're trying to compensate for the minimal rocker on the fish on the steep drop by leaning too far back. try to get into the wave sooner or takeoff at an angle so you can dig the rail in easier...

goodluck, man!!

try to get into the wave sooner or takeoff at an angle so you can dig the rail in easier...

x2 on that - good advice!

just a thought along Rob's thought's: maybe you're trying to compensate for the minimal rocker on the fish on the steep drop by leaning too far back. try to get into the wave sooner or takeoff at an angle so you can dig the rail in easier...

goodluck, man!!

That is genius!