“I always paddle out with two goals, no matter the conditions. And the main recurring one for me is a good bottom turn: one where you put your hand on the face of the wave and you keep your back knee tucked in. For me, it just connects all the dots. It keeps me centered and it connects and pulls my surfing together.”
We’re encouraged to know that a surfer as advanced as Matt Pagan is still working on his bottom turn, a transitional move that can be accomplished once a surfer graduates from standing up on white water. At his level, you’d think he’d be solely focused on above-the-lip maneuvers, but he considers the bottom turn “the most pivotal reactionary move that you could do in surfing”.
Matt is relentless in maximizing that space between the take off and the turn. He’s thinking about harnessing speed by surfing off his back foot, putting his hand on the water while front side, grabbing rail going back side, keeping his chest up…dissecting every variable of a bottom turn.
Leading by example, Matt shows how the desire to progress never stops. No matter how long you’ve been surfing or where you are on your journey, we can all get better.
