Cardboard slide technique
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What is the cardboard slide and how it teaches you to drive

A piece of cardboard can be used to help you train your surfing stance and how to generate speed on a wave and improve coordination.

Speed generation.. I'll be the first to admit I was doing this all wrong before I started coaching with Clayton. I was what he calls someone who wiggles and looks like an idiot flailing their arms. So I'm gonna break how the cardboard slide and how you can use it to train speed generation and coordination so you don't end up like I was.

What is the Cardboard Slide

Firstly, yeah the cardboard is a serious piece of equipment here and its intended to create a low friction surface so you can use your weight to propel the cardboard, similar to how you would with your surfboard. To get to the cardboard slide I first want to explain the co-ordination and how we jump forwards.

If you watch Clayton below. someone jumping forward, will compress their knees, lift their chin up and coordinate both their hands to drive forward.  A band example is someone side on or bent back, which is often what we see at the beach. Better your coordination, better your drive.

Improve your coordination in the surf
We jump coordinated so why surf uncoordinated?

Practicing the Cardboard Slide

Now using our piece of cardboard. Any will do, big enough for your stance to fit within it. From Coffee Cup stance, compress the knees into a lunge, lift your hands up and drive the hips forward. Using a stick will help coordinate both arms. Watch Clay below for a sense of how this works.

How to get around sections in the surf
Cardboard slide

Cool but how does it work in the water?

Watch the master showcase the simple drive.

Learn to surf with speed
Cardboard slide in the ocean
Written by
Luke Hardacre
surf coaching