how do I overcome my fear of bigger waves?

[gnarlyportugal]

hey guys, i've been surfing for a few years now and i have some experience already, the thing is i always go a bit freaky when i'm about to drop but when i look down from the boil it seems like im looking from the tenth floor of a twenty story building, and that stops me from even trying

could you please give me a few tips on how to completely forget this paranoia? cheers in advance

[oldmansurfer]

Hi gnarlyportugal and welcome to the forum. It simple, just start with smaller waves and work your way up.

[drowningbitbybit]

I'm no big-wave hero, so I feel your pain.

The one thing that I find really helps on bigger waves is to start paddling much much earlier than you would for your average size wave. Pick your wave when it's still way off, start to paddle, keep an eye on the wave but focus primarily on the water in front of you, and commit.
This way, you've got into the rhythm before the wave gets to you and you're paddling fast enough that you immediately catch the wave nice and early, and then it all becomes one fluid transition without any gut-wrenching terror-filled pause right at the lip.

A step-up board (a bit longer than your go-to board) also helps as you can get in earlier.

[oldmansurfer]

Don't make big jumps in the size of waves you catch. If you can't catch any waves then maybe you have other issues but if a wave that is one foot doesn't scare you try 2 feet till that doesn't scare you and once that doesn't scare you try 3 feet. There are significant differences in how you deal with waves of different sizes so you need to get used to handling smaller waves first then bigger. A one foot wave isn't going to kill you unless you do something incredibly stupid but as waves get bigger the danger goes up and you need to learn how to handle dealing with smaller waves first.