What constitutes a wave

Sorry if I'm out of touch here, but is the old, one pump per wave to promote planing still in the rules.

As MattK says, what matters is whether or not you are successful at initiating surfing or planing, not how big the wave is - see Pump 8 in the ISAF Interpretations of Rule 42:

Originally posted by ifoxwell Thanks guys. Not trying to be awkward here but what constitutes surfing. A good pump on any wave could lift you onto it even if it only last for a second? Is that enough

Look at it another way, a wave is something that can trap and reduce your speed in many circumstances since mostly over here they travel slower than the windspeed and your own potential to plane, so getting trapped in a trough and having to climb slowly up the back can be a drag, especially if you miss being able to surf down or along the slope. I'm sure I'm not telling you how to suck eggs when i say you snake through waves anyway, harden up along the troughs and only bear off and pump when you know the wave face behind will lift your stern enough to propel you down, up and over the next hump if your lucky, most often the best you can do is maintain station in a wave that might be travelling faster than the wind and your ambient pace,

Waves also affect different boats according to their wavelength and the boats length, try wrestling a 390 rockered boat against a 420 less rockered surfing bitch like the Laser, mucho kinetics required...

Edited by iGRF - 27 Jul 16 at 9:06pm