heights are one of my bigger fears right now and l notice it affects my surf quite a bit. when l catch the wave and start to drop in, quite a few times l tend to chicken out... any advice please

When you begin to catch the wave, try to angle yourself the direction you want to take off so you are already aiming down the line rather than taking such a steep drop. Just make sure you already have the wave because if you try to angle out too early, you are going to lose your momentum.

lean alitile forword and lean left

mate just go 4 it ay commit to it.its the best rush ull ever get ay and if u get nailed at least ull kno what to expect the next time ay u will hav no regreats trust me.so plz get out the back and catch the bigest wave u can :)

you gotta dig the wave side rail of your board as hard as you can for the bottom turn. sometimes you have to take a few gnarly pounders in order to get one.. remember, anything under 20 cant kill you

point your board in a direction and relax, if you freak out, you are going to wipe out,

try to catch the wave dont let the wave catch you. so in other words you want to try to catch the wave before it breaks and when its a hill of water moving toward you then once you feel the wave pushing you jump up on your board and angle it the way you want to go. this way you have more time to get ready and you wont be as scared

B-money has the best advice. Angle ur take off in the direction that the wave is breaking. That way, u r taking of diagonally, across the face, not 'dropping to ur death of the face of a terrible sea cliff'. All kidding aside, the angled take off is important, also, the faster u r on ur feet, the faster u have control of ur descent & can make a bottom turn on a real steep face.

As far as being afraid, well, u just have to suck it up, l am afraid. l know what u mean, because l have surfed in some real big stuff, & it looks like ur standing on the roof of a real BIG building. However, keep in mind, unless the break is on a real shallow reef, the worst that can can happen is u get banged up a bit, & have to hold ur breath & hope u r swimming up, not down. Sometimes, big spectacular wipe outs r kind of exciting.

l suggest staying super Loooow on your board after you pop-up. youll be able to balance much better and just shoot down the face of the wave, untill you become more comfortable and up-right. keep your weight forward or the board will slid right out from under you. dont be scared to get your hair wet :D