every time I try one i get washed off the wave......or it ends up beiing a flatspin.....can someone tell me whats up.

Put in a hard backstroke to try and keep yourself on the wave. Also you may be waiting too long to launch. Try setup on top of the wave first (if possible) then as soon as you start going down the wave do your move. This way hopefully you'll land in a position to keep surfing the wave. If you wait too long you might land in the trough or even slightly upstream of the trough. In this case, it's almost guaranteed the water will catch you and throw you off the wave.

I had trouble until I made a differentiation between what I was thinking was a \"backstroke\" and what was really needed (mentally), which was some kind of paddle \"plant\".

Do this excersize.......

Start at the top of the wave and wait to feel yourself race down the face of the waves. Just feel it. Do it until you can work you way to the top of the wave and then close your eyes and FEEL yourself race down the wave. That is the most important moment because it's when you ahve the most forward momentum and the least chance of being pulled off teh back of the wave.

Once you havee that felt out, the next step is to stick in a quick forward stroke at the same exact time you race down the face, to make you rush forward faster, then it quickly turns into a paddle plant, almost like you are placing it in concrete,and you can throw a big blunt off of that.

Also might help to learn how to do shuvits. 180 flatspin, then back the other way 180 degrees, essentially reversing and coming back to how you started. It's like a flat splitwheel. I always thought of it like, \"hey, check out this flat spin, Oh no, just kidding, going back from where I came\"