I have made some good strides foiling and feel I can call myself a mildly competent prone foiler. But at the expense of my surfing prowess. Catching foil waves has really ruined my ability to catch surf waves. Now I try to pop up too early and my whole deep late and steep surf take off technique is in shambles. I certainly hope once winter picks up around here Ill find my groove again. But right now I feel little disallusioned and conflicted about my predicament.
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It’s fine. Real waves will fix all your issues. Surfing is years and years of ingrained muscle memory. The more you do both, the better you’ll be at both.
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Haha I hope so. I feel like I now have to force myself to paddle deep and push down as opposed to popping up early and trying to stay level like on the foil. I guess thats what happens when you pass up surfing to go foiling instead for 5 months straight 
It always surprises me when surfers say this. I either foil or surfed most days since proning began and sometimes my best surfing was the very first wave after a prone foiling. I think the two work really well together as long as you are doing both. Try proning after just surfing solid for three months and see how much your proning sux. Surfing is more demanding to maintain a high level and if you didn’t do it for 3 months then your performance suffers greatly and that is bad enough but if you do nothing but prone foiling for three months then your surfing performance is going to be in serious strife. Its all just repetition and practice.
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Yes good point. I think I need to keep them mixed together vs going long stretches without the other. Im hoping this winter will allow me to get more consistent time on both. I think thats the ideal scenario Ive always wanted. Surf when its lower tide and powerful switch to the foil when its blown out and mushy or high tide and gutless.
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Keep switching and you’ll see how you surf better and foil better
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Let yourself slip into the dark side without regrets my friends, give up 
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you must be newer to foiling ?? switching the first year or so really messed me up but now i am better at foiling 2 plus years in its like 2 separate sports and doesnt affect each other. If anything surfing more messed up my foil because i forget about the depth management. It has actually helped my surfing , standing on a 4’6 on foil is way harder than riding my fish or pintail mid baha
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Yes Im in my first year. Started in march I think. I guess typing it out in the forum its kinda obvious I just havent been surfing so makes sense Ive kinda been out of practice surfing. Im def excited for this winter for all those days I used to think were a waste when it wasnt good for surfing. I hope it will be like just alternating between the two and twice as much days spent getting in the water catching waves on foil and on surfboard. We will see.
For me, always perplexed that my Amos 5’8” paddles and catches small waves, hardly breaking, better than a 7’10 midlength! But when the lip is throwing hard, my surfing instincts turn on really fast and there’s no confusion as to what I should be doing. On the other hand, trying to catch a hard throwing wave prone means sit on tail, and exit right, then catch a reform and pump out!
Which 5’8” amos board is that? How many liters? Im riding a ffb 4’10” rubix 45L still and I think even tho its got good literage it sucks for catching small waves. I think I need to get a better board just for the wave catchng aspect, either a unifoil or portal 5’6” 55L? I prob weigh 200lb soaking wet in wetsuit. I usually paddle a 30L-33L shortboard or fish for surfing comparison.
Amos Kruzer with 980S Code. I’m 200lbs also. Paddles like a 7’10” midlength. My old Amundson 4’10” paddles like a 6’6” perf. shortboard for comparrison. I had Amos add volume to 45 so I wouldn’t sit so deep. The only way I’d consider a different board was if I was on the East coast surfing short period shore pound where an Armstrong Surf 4’9 would be good.
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I think it really depends on your prone conditions. Getting in early on mushy waist or less drops doesn’t keep me fresh to backdoor a steep overhead drop on the shortboard. However, at prone spots with a steep pitching takeoff chip, I have to put in a similar level of head down commitment and technical skill at waist to chest, as hollow and overhead on a surfboard. It always takes a couple waves for me to adjust and feel dialed switching, but for me I feel like I keep up the push over the ledge skills more from proning than surfing when its waist to chest (assuming the drops aren’t roll ins).
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Yeah same here, the first year I struggle coming to surfing but now I have zero issues , I even have prone and a surf session back to back and its fine.
I started foiling just before you, exactly one year ago. Probably like yourself i prone foiled for 30 odd sessions without surfing in between. When I went back to short boarding I truely believed i would never be able to surf to my former level again . In fact i couldn’t even paddle that well due to a perceived instability in a board that I had owned and surfed on and off for well over 5 years. I was advised, as you have been, to persevere. For a period of months surfing would wreck my foiling and vice versa, and I had to sacrifice a full session on one or the other to get my brain back into either “mode”.. I was considering giving away surfing all together. I live in a surf town however, my kids surf, and in winter there are far more quality surf days than foil days. So I stuck with both. As others have advised eventually your brain works it out. I recently returned from Indo, where I was switching multiple times a day between prone foiling and short boarding seamlessly. Felt like I was surfing as well as I ever have at age 46. My boards have changed which is interesting. Purely riding quads. No longer riding narrow, knifey thrusters, can’t get my head around them.
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Haha yeah when I jump back on my surfboards. I have to remember to use my legs to keep the boards from flopping right to left. It makes sense aboit the quad vs thruster surfboard too. Glad to hear the consensus is its just a phase of managing both.
I find catching waves on the prone foil is harder than on a surfboard too. Hopefully that translates to better wave catching on the surfboard. I feel I def put way more effort into paddling in while on the prone foil.
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I think this is the scenario I’m waiting patiently for of re-learning to surf again. Looking forward to it, but it’s a long horizon
It will come. Something I didn’t realise was happening until I saw some footage, I was autopiloting into a much more forward position with my back foot when surfing. In amongst my genuine confusion as to how alien surfing was feeling to me, I didn’t register that I often had my back foot forward of the tail pad. In fact foiling has made me so much more aware of the individual weighting/positioning of both front and back feet at different times whilst surfing. Surfed all my life and never really honed in on that aspect, just ran on ‘feel’. It improves your surfing in the long run.
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yeah that’s what I’m looking forward to. I can distinctly remember the first time foiling that waves were much more 3D than I had experienced surfing. I don’t really want to dive into it until I have time and waves on hand
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Today Ive concluded that surfing is gonna be my main jam. I realize Ive been obsessed with foiling cus its so new and an exciting challenge. Trying to get better at foiling at the sacrifice of my very highly honed surfing just isnt quite worth it. Im going to focus on surfing and if conditions permit go foiling as a secondary. Honestly it will only change things slightly. I simple will choose to surf first if conditions permit and foil afterwards.
I just surfed these past two days and I have to say its really great to engage and pump the wave with fins and ride thru kelp and over the shallows and not be a super kook like I am on a foil ( cus I suck so bad).
They are both complimentary sports and thankfully I still have my surfing mojo so Im relieved.