The Chinese team made its debut on the wave crest, and it turns out this is how to play surfing!

Surfing is a sport with 35 million fans on five continents, more than 3,200 certified coaches and 1,200 referees. It is a new event in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and will remain as an event in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Surfing, as the name suggests, is a sport in which people use a surfboard to perform some technical moves with the help of waves.

Waves are the most basic form of motion of seawater, affected by natural factors such as wind, earthquakes, and tides. People want to "conquer" the waves, and this action of riding on the waves is called "catching the waves." In surfing terminology, waves are divided into white waves and green waves. White waves refer to waves whose power has been lost, and they are invalid waves. Green waves are those before they become waves.

Surfers are waiting for waves with the right timing, size and shape. How to catch green waves in the best position is a must-learn lesson for every surfer throughout their surfing career. Green waves have uninterrupted waveforms with perfect power and steepness, allowing surfers to glide on them.

Surfboards support the weight of surfers through buoyancy, allowing them to glide on the water. According to Archimedean principle, buoyancy is equal to the weight of the displaced liquid. The buoyancy formula is: Fbuoyancy = ρliquid gVdisplaced. Athletes crawl on the surfboard and paddle, taking off and running diagonally on the waves at the right time. When the edge of the board cuts the wave surface, the surfboard blocks the surface water flow. When the seawater flows upward along the wave surface and hits the bottom of the surfboard, it will flow along the soft inner edge of the board, and then it can "catch the wave".

The interaction between the surfboard and the water current not only helps the surfer catch the surf, but also generates lift and propulsion.

At a certain speed, the surfboard is affected by inertia, and its movement and response speed in the waves help the surfer adjust his posture and adapt to different wave conditions.

If you are a novice who wants to try surfing, you need to first understand the entry-level techniques and general training guidelines. First of all, choosing the right surfboard and mastering the basic movements are the key. "Stepping skills" are the basis for keeping the surfboard balanced, and "wave cutting skills" help surfers better control the waves. When surfing, how to find the best time on the water and stand up quickly determines whether you can successfully "catch" the green wave.

For experienced surfers, difficult moves such as "turns" and "somersaults" are highlights of their ability. These skills require surfers to not only stay smooth on the waves, but also have good agility and control. When facing different waves, athletes can quickly adjust their postures to ensure the continuity of their movements.

In order to maintain stability in complex wave environments, surfers not only need to master basic gliding skills, but also need to conduct multi-faceted special training. These trainings include strengthening core strength to improve the body's sense of balance when gliding; strength training for the upper and lower body to help maintain stability and agility in various sea conditions; and improving endurance and cardiopulmonary capacity to ensure that surfers can maintain efficient performance when facing long-term physical exertion.

The history of surfing is longer than people think. It can be traced back to Hawaii in the fourth century AD. But for the native Hawaiians at that time, surfing was very class-based. For example, the king and the ruling class could use the longest surfboards, while the lower class could only use shorter surfboards. Today, surfing has become a fair competitive sport, pursuing "higher, faster, stronger, and more united" in the Olympic arena.

In a surfing competition, there are usually 2-4 athletes competing in a group, and they need to catch the best wave conditions and complete the surfing in 20-30 minutes. The referee team will give each competitor a score (out of 10) for each surfing, and the judging criteria include the difficulty, diversity and type of the action.

Strength, speed and the continuity between each movement are also factors that affect scoring. Only the best two scores are recorded when calculating the athletes' scores.

If several players "like" the same wave, wouldn't it be easy to cause a "traffic accident" if they all rush over? When a wave is about to collapse, a "wave crest" is usually formed at the steepest position, and the players will enter the wave they choose from the wave crest. Therefore, if two or more players want to surf the same wave, the "right of passage" of each wave is obtained by the player closest to the wave crest.

For example, the most representative "wave tube crossing" is that athletes pass through the tube formed by the wave crest. Rather than being a competitive sport, it is more like a performance of athletes riding the waves on the sea. Such an extreme sport that combines strength, skills and speed is not only competitive, but also very entertaining.

It may be one of the few sports where humans and nature live in harmony. 15-year-old Yang Siqi from China has qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics and will participate in the women's shortboard surfing event. This is the first time that Chinese surfing has appeared on the Olympic stage. Let's cheer for the Chinese team and wish the Chinese athletes to "ride the wind and waves and pursue their dreams" in the Paris Olympics!

This article is a work supported by the Science Popularization China Creation Cultivation Program

Author: Dongdongmiao Popular Science

Reviewer: Ma Yong, professor at Wuhan Institute of Physical Education

Produced by: China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.