A Complete List of Surf Moves and Surfing Tricks

Last Updated on February 28, 2024 by Matt Hapgood

8 – 10 Minute Read

No one starts surfing just to ride the white water or simply to speed down the wave in a straight line.

The art of surfing calls the surfer to do something with the wave, read it, feel when to turn and when to snap, and when to pull into the tube.

It doesn’t matter if you want to smash the lip like Occy, dance on a longboard like Joel Tudor, or spin around on an Alaia like Dave Rastovich – building a repertoire of surf moves and mastering them will not only make you surf better but also give you different surf tricks to adapt to a bunch of different situations.

We’ve outlined a complete list of surf moves and tricks based on ability levels – so you know what to work on and when.

Our List of Surfing Tricks

Beginner Surf Moves

1: Bottom Turn

When it comes to surf moves, everything begins with the bottom turn. By doing an efficient and timely bottom turn, you ensure that the power harnessed from the wave is transmitted to your next turn and that the next turn is performed on the correct spot.

A baldy performed bottom turn can cause a loss of speed and/or a weak subsequent turn. That is when you aren’t simply swallowed by the foam. So, it’s crucial to practice this move over and over again, in all sorts of waves.

And keep in mind that bottom turns will also feel largely different depending on the board you’re using, as well as the fin setup.

The optimal bottom turn consists of a solid takeoff, followed by setting up a low center of gravity, which is done by bending the knees and keeping the weight evenly distributed across the center of the board.

Then, eye your target and redirect the board by applying pressure on your toes (frontside) or heels (backside). The idea is that the rail sinks just enough to spring the board back off the surface once it ends its slicing motion.

2. The Floater

Nothing to do with what you do in the bathroom, ‘the floater’ is a very useful trick that is also relatively easy to perform and master – hence its popularity among entry-level,  and even advanced surfers.

It consists of riding horizontally over either the white water of a crumbling part of the wave or over the lip before it breaks. The main benefit of the floater is that it allows you to maintain your speed since you don’t have to go around the breaking section. In fact, a well-performed floater can cause the board to gain speed, which is, more often than not, an asset for the following turn.

This is a particularly good trick to have dialed when surfing windy beach breaks.

3. Cutback

Cutbacks are a smoother, more strategic version of a carve. Here, the surfer’s objective is to slow down whilst repositioning himself/herself in the pocket – or power source of the wave. The main structural difference between the two is that cutbacks are often performed on the shoulder of the wave, whereas carves, are not really.

Assuming you’re a regular footer on your front side (going right): perform a cutback by simultaneously applying pressure on your back foot, twisting your torso counter-clockwise, opening your shoulders, and pointing both arms back towards the broken section of the wave.

This motion will engage the fins and inner (left) rail, thus cutting a sharp arc on the wave face and setting the board back toward the pocket. Once you start nearing the curl, turn the board back toward the shoulder of the wave. If the wave has no tube, you can ‘bounce’ off the white water to assist in this re-direction.

Intermediate Surf Moves

4. Snap / Re-Entry

A snap works similarly to a carve in that it is a good way to change trajectory abruptly. The main difference is that the movement is much quicker and more explosive than a carve, usually done closer to the pocket or on top of it, and thus produces a smaller radius arc.

That said, a properly done snap can release a huge curtain of spray off the lip or top of the wave. To pull off a good snap, try to keep as much speed as possible after the bottom turn, then set the nose of your board on a 30- to 50-degree angle (in relation to the horizon) and head toward the lip.

The steeper the wave the better. As soon as the first half of your board goes over the crest, it is time to change direction. Turn your shoulders on toward the wave face and put pressure on the back foot so the tail will spin and the nose will point downward.

Throwing your arms up helps the motion – and so does keeping your gaze on where you want the board to go.

5. Foam Climb

The foam climb is very similar to a floater – but perhaps not as functional and harder to perform.

It is essentially a vertical or diagonal floater; only you climb up the foam as opposed to gliding over it.

You do so by pulling a sharp bottom turn in the direction of the white water, then bringing the nose of the board – as well as your shoulders and arms – up so as to lift your weight off the board.

Most surfers will only perform a foam climb when they already find themselves behind the foam ball and need to get back into the pocket. Doing a foam climb in the usual floater scenario will stall the board. The old foam climb looks so easy, but it can be a seriously risky move – It is VERY easy to blow the wave and fall!

6. Tail Slide

Think of the tail slide as a progressive snap.

Indeed, most of the setup and technique are the same as the aforementioned. The main difference is that you’ll add more power and rotation to the body and board so that the tail can slide down the face of the wave – often a whole 180 degrees.

Tail slides work best in small- to -medium-sized waves, either on top of the pocket or on a crumbling section of the face. As with the snap, adopting a low stance helps the turning motion. And again, use your gaze to direct the board.

7. Three Sixty

In a 360, the surfer will do a single full rotation, either clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on his/her stance and the direction of the wave.

360s are mostly done on the lip, but some people also lift the nose and slide the tail 180 degrees whilst on the wave face, ride backward for a while, then spin back around to complete the move. However, this is more of an aesthetic variation of the 360 as it doesn’t actually do anything.

For the proper, off-the-lip 360, either carving or reversing, you should head toward the lip at roughly a 45-degree angle, trying to build up speed as you come up.

There’s no need to perform a sharp bottom turn for this. Once the nose is close to touching the lip, start the rotating motion with your body, leaning the board on the lip and shifting your weight to the front foot.

You’ll notice the board will almost turn by itself. Then it’s just a matter of keeping the balance.

Advanced Surf Moves

8. Tube Ride

Oh, the barrel. This is the most popular, sought-after, and romanticized trick (if you can call it a trick) in surfing – and for good reason.

Getting barrelled, or riding the tube, means the curling lip of the wave will wrap you as it breaks, as though you were the filling of a burrito, and you will ride inside the hollow area, AKA the pit.

A proper, deep tube will give you an incredible view of the water spinning up to form the face of the wave and the lip curling in front of you to form a sort of picture frame, all the while your feet will be trembling with the intensified sucking motion generated by the white water behind you.

A tube will quite literally make you feel like you’re a part of the wave. Words can’t describe it – you’re in the womb of mother nature herself!

That said, these kinds of utopian tubes are rare to find, let alone to ride. The reality is that, in your everyday surf session, you’ll probably encounter smaller, tighter, crumbling tubes, and you’ll have to “make yourself fit” in the barrel by crouching and leaning hither and thither.

But the fundamentals remain: as soon as you see the lip throw over and a potential tube form, adopt a solid stance, pull in, and stay in the center of the pit, avoiding the white water (aka the foam ball) that will form either underneath and/or behind you.

Stalling, either by dragging your hand(s) back or butt, on the wave face, is a great way to manage your tube ride and stay inside for as long as possible.

Keeping your front foot in the center and moving your back foot forward and backward will also increase or decrease your speed, respectively. There are a bunch of tube riding techniques out there, but the most important reflexes will all come to you instinctively with time and experience.

9. Aerial

The aerial, or air, is a trick inspired by snowboarding and skating. It was introduced into the world of surfing relatively late but has quite literally taken off!

There’s a growing and restless trend around airs; surfers seem to itch to push the limits and come up with variations of this maneuver. In a nutshell, air consists of launching off the lip of the wave and flying up into the air.

Aerials can be performed in all sorts of conditions, but they are more common in shoulder-to-head-high steep waves. That is because such a setting usually provides the ideal ramp-like configuration the surfer needs to launch off of – and land – with the right amount of speed to render the maneuver feasible.

Otherwise, it would be either too hard to take off (small, mushy waves) or too difficult to land (double overhead, hollow waves).

As with tube riding, doing an air requires expert reading of the wave.

Once you’ve spotted your take-off point, adjust your stance and try to harness as much speed as possible before reaching the lip. The kind of launching technique you’ll go for depends on the kind of aerial you’re attempting (see list below). But for all of them, you’ll need impeccable timing.

So when getting started with airs, train in all sorts of wave and wind conditions. This will exercise your muscle memory and set you up for success in the long run.

Here are some of the most popular air variations:

• ALLEY OOP: The Alley Oop is probably the aerial variation that allows you to fly the highest. Speed up toward the breaking lip of an open-faced wave at a 45-degree angle. As the nose of the board passes the lip, direct the bottom toward the wind, bend your knees, and kick the tail out, rotating 180 degrees in a backward motion to land with the nose first.

• RODEO FLIP: Invented by no one other than Kelly Slater, the Rodeo Flip is very similar to the bodyboarding ARS (Aerial Roll Spin). Once you come off the lip, grab the board with both hands and roll/flip 360 degrees whilst rotating 180 degrees so you land with the tail first.

• SUPERMAN: South African surfer Jordy Smith is a master of the Superman air. A proper Superman requires the surfer to harness a lot of speed and gain a lot of lift when coming out of the wave. Once in the air, he/she has to kick the board out, grab it with both hands whilst removing both feet from the deck, kick the air with the front foot, and place the board beneath him/her before landing. That said, a Superman can also be performed in 3 to 4-foot waves – only it is not as exciting to watch.

• KERRUPT FLIP: Josh Kerr came up with what became one of the most popular and stylish variations of the Alley Oop – the Kerrupt Flip. Here, the surfer pulls a full-rotation Alley Oop whilst holding a stalefish grab.

• KICKFLIP: The Kickflip is a prime example of how skateboarding influences surfing. Surfer Zoltan Torkos was the first to perform this trick, which consists of kicking the outer rail of the surfboard so it spins 360 degrees along its longitudinal axis. 

• SUSHI ROLL: First executed by Australian surfer Julian Wilson back in 2007, the sushi roll mixes the rotation of a Rodeo Flip with the legs-free grab of a Superman.

Final Thoughts

Have we missed a move you think should be on the list? Where do you think the future of aerials is going? Will someone land a 720 sometime soon? Hmmm I wonder!