I'm learning to surf my longboard in knee to waist high surf. Waves don't have a lot of power and tend to crumble. I'm catching plenty of waves and can trim the board but am finding it difficult to really carve a turn. When I try to get my weight back over the fin to initiate a turn, the board stalls and I either have to move forward or come off the back of the wave. What am I missing?10' x 30.5 Stylemaster

longboard can be narrow in the tail and walking back and forth is the only way to keep your board moving with the wave ,unless you always stay in the steeper part of the wave ,trying different size fins may also help with your glide .bigger fins can give lift and keep the board moving in smaller waves .I like using Quads ,as the speed lose seems a lot less than thruster set up or single fin ,a lot also could be judging the wave and turning in the powerful part of the wave so you have the wave energy to have the speed to continue with the wave after the turn ,don't be too hard on yourself its all practise .you also might be ready for a smaller board

A stylemaster is more of a pivot turn type of board than a carver... Especially as a single fin.

You could try and surf as a thruster with XL sides and a large centre. You do need to be in the power section of the wave to get it to turn though. Most boards with lots of tail rocker do slow pivot style turns.

I tend to go for what is called a high performance longboard. lower tail rocker, thruster fin, surfs more like a shortboard with added trim and ability to noseride.

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grgd said..
What am I missing?

I guess, like 99% or surfers, you are just missing ... speed.

Speed is the mandatory ingredient for turning.

There are two ways to generate speed:
- pump the board, but it wont work with a 10' board
- "tap the juice" by using the wave power zones. I would guess that you are too low on the wave, where there is not enough power for your board to get speed.
As described in www.surfertoday.com/surfing/the-energy-zones-of-a-wave , aim for the pocket/curl, and avoid the flats and the shoulder.

On the flats, bad:

In the curl, good: Look how the riders are constantly getting into the upper zones of the wave to accelerate, so they gather speed to then "spend" in turns.

Committing to the turn is so important ,even if you do fall you'll feel the necessary drive that comes from compressing the rail into power of the wave. Good luck.

Those sorts of long soft waves your better off giving up delusions of getting radical and have fun playing around with some old school longboard groove.

You don't carve on knee to waist high waves..pivot..step right back put pressure on and swing that board round.then walk up the board

It's been said a lot already, but the answer for me was getting weight right back over the fins, pivot it round and then step up to trim out again!

10'5 Starboard Drive

My experience is
Fins matter - more erect for pivoting and more swept for carving.

And, You can carve with a pivot fin and you can pivot with carving fins -
stand back further on the board to pivot,
stand less far back on the board and lean to carve.

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grgd said..
I'm learning to surf my longboard in knee to waist high surf. Waves don't have a lot of power and tend to crumble. I'm catching plenty of waves and can trim the board but am finding it difficult to really carve a turn. When I try to get my weight back over the fin to initiate a turn, the board stalls and I either have to move forward or come off the back of the wave. What am I missing?10' x 30.5 Stylemaster

If your board is stalling while trying to turn,you are turning on the wrong part of the wave or you don't have enough speed to turn so turn at at the power source.