How to Do a Cutback Without Losing Speed: 3 Coach Fixes
You come off the bottom, lay into the cutback, and halfway round the board just stops. No drive, no spray, no return to the pocket. It's rarely one big mistake. It's usually a few small ones stacked on top of each other.
ALORA coach Shayno broke down a wave from one of our surfers and found three of them. Here's what he saw, why each one drains your speed, and what to change on your next session.
Cutback: https://youtu.be/1b6eMWMkRys
Prefer reading? Everything from the video is below.
Why a cutback loses speed
A cutback takes you back to the power source: the whitewater, the part of the wave that's still pushing. The steeper the section you turn on, the more push you get back. Turn on a flat section, or stop the turn before you reach the white water, and you're left with only the speed you brought in. It runs out halfway round.
On this wave, three things drained it.
Fix 1: Get your back foot on the tail pad before the bottom turn
What Shayno saw: the back foot landed in front of the tail pad. Then, right as the bottom turn started, it shuffled back to find the pad.
That shuffle is expensive. While you're moving your foot, the board sits flat with no rail in the water. You stand up taller to make the adjustment, the bottom turn starts late, and the arc ends way out on the open face instead of in the pocket.
The fix: in punchy waves like this one, land your back foot on the tail pad straight from the takeoff. Then you can engage the fins and the rail and start turning right away. Your bottom turn comes straight off the bottom, and the cutback happens where the power is.
One nuance: in weak, fat two-foot slop, where you have to make your own speed, a back foot slightly forward is fine. Once the wave has real power, the tail pad is home. (More on this in our guide to common bottom turn mistakes.)
Fix 2: Start the turn in the top third of the wave
What Shayno saw: the cutback started only halfway up the wave.
The lower half of the face is flatter. Less steepness means less pushback, so the turn bleeds speed instead of building it. The top third is where the wave gives you the most push.
The fix: hold your bottom turn longer and aim for at least the top third before you lay into the cutback. Shayno's own cue for his carves: try to get the top fin loose and flirt with the line of the lip. The higher you start, the easier it is to bring the turn all the way round into a full roundhouse cutback.
What was already working
Good feedback isn't only a list of mistakes. On this wave the body position was right: chest open, arms reaching toward the whitewash, back arm coming around in front of the chest, head starting to turn. Shayno's only note was to get a little lower through the turn.
So don't rebuild this part. Hold it longer, which is exactly where Fix 3 comes in.
Fix 3: Don't turn your head back down the line too early
What Shayno saw: the setup was perfect, then the surfer looked back down the line. The moment the head turned, the weight moved onto the toe-side edge and the cutback stopped short.
Your body follows your head. Look down the line mid-turn and your weight goes there too, before the board has finished coming around.
The fix: hold the position and keep looking at the whitewash until you've brought the turn all the way back to the power source. Let the white water push you back out onto the open face. Then look down the line for your next move.
Your next-session checklist
• Back foot on the tail pad from the takeoff (in waves with real power)
• Hold the bottom turn and start the cutback in the top third
• Stay open: chest and arms toward the whitewash
• Eyes on the whitewash until the turn is finished, then look down the line
Bonus: leave the GoPro for barrels
Shayno's parting advice: unless you're getting barreled, ditch the GoPro. Turns look terrible on it, and it's one more thing to think about. Get a friend to film you from the beach instead. That angle shows the whole turn, which is exactly what a coach needs to see. Our Film Your Session guide shows how to set it up.
Want a coach to look at your cutback?
This wave had three specific problems. Yours might have one of them, all three, or something else entirely. A tutorial can't tell you which. A coach watching your clip can.
Send one clip from your session and a certified ALORA coach records a video breakdown with written feedback: what's off, what to fix first, and what to try next session. $20, one analysis, no subscription.
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