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Trimming turns vs Carving turns â what's the difference?
Have you ever heard about âtrimming turnsâ or âcarving turnsâ? Me neither đ. These terms donât exactly come up in everyday surf chat so I wouldâve be surprised if you havenât heard of them either.
Either way, they do sum up different types of turns pretty well so letâs exploreâŠ
CARVING TURNS
To illustrate the difference, think about a car driving along the road for a second. A carving turn would be when the car makes an actual turn left or right. Itâs a sharp turn with a clear change of direction.
Some types of carving turns in surfing would be bottom turns, top turns, or cutbacks.
To do a carving turn, you apply pressure on your back foot/tail of the board to lift the nose up and apply pressure on your heels or toes to steer the board left or right & completely change direction.
Carving turns often start with the head and shoulders pointing to the direction you want to be going and the pressure in your feet follows suit which is then what causes the board to turn.
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TRIMMING TURNS
Back to our car analogy, trimming turns are more like changing lanes on a highway than they are actually making a turn. Itâs when you move left or right without actually changing your general direction.
In surfing, there arenât really any manuevers named after trimming turns but more the time and place for it â barrel riding, noseriding, or forward trim are all times you would use a trimming turn to adjust your line.
To do trimming turns, pressure is applied to the front of your board and thereâs no need to lift the nose up. Pressure is still applied to your heels or toes to steer slightly left or right, but itâs much more subtle as you are still going in the same general direction.
Where carving turns start with the head and shoulders, trimming turns are done more from the waist down. Itâs mostly done by shifting your weight into the toes or heels of your foot by moving your hips.
đŹ Can you spot the trimming turns in the example video? Blink and you just might miss it đ.