We’re all out here doing our best to learn how to noseride, but did you know noseriding isn’t just for looks and feels? It can and does have a functional purpose.

Simply put, noseriding is an extreme form of being in “forward trim”. I’ve mentioned trim before in this series and it’s probably not the first time you’ve heard it either, but it’s important to understand what it is as it’s the foundation for a solid noseride.

You may have heard trimming being referred to as “going down the line”, but it’s actually more than that.

Rather, trim is when you and the wave are travelling at equal speeds while you are positioned within the pocket of the wave. That’s the key – the pocket of the wave.

Simply put, noseriding is an extreme form of being in “forward trim”.

It’s such a subtle thing (and difficult to explain 😅), but requires the ability to read the wave, make small adjustments to your speed, make small adjustments left or right to maintain your line, & knowing when you’ve fallen out of trim or to even break trim yourself based on what’s coming down the line & reset.

It doesn’t sound all that glamourous or even necessarily difficult, but just think about it – you’re trying to fit a 9 foot+ surfboard into the pocket of a 1-2 foot wave. It’s subtle & takes technical skills & micro adjustments to do it well.

Generally while in trim you’ll be more forward on your board (hence the term “forward trim”), but you’ll often need to move forward or back on your board to adjust your speed. If the situation calls for it (i.e. you need to speed up for one reason or another), you might even move far enough forward on your board that you end up on the nose while maintaining trim (wait, is that? are we...? noseriding?! Yes! 🙌). Such a simple yet intricate joy it brings when this happens.

So there you have it. You’ve just accidentally learned to noseride by learning how to maintain trim.

In all seriousness though, with noseriding being such a hot topic we’ll be talking more about it in upcoming posts & expanding on this idea of being in trim & how to position yourself so stay tuned ✌️

💬 How do you define noseriding? Or the subtleties of trim?