Surfing Waves

Interesting insights from a Vlogger who learned to surf.

She did remarkably well learning. However she is a very fit Olympic (or almost) level athlete who swam. So two things in her favor is she was very fit and she swam so had good paddle muscles. The other factor is the waves as they were reasonable and not too crowded which can slow down learning (Waikiki is probably better except for the crowd). It is really a mind opener to me the widely different experiences that people have learning to surf. I grew up in the ocean and never even thought about any difficulties in learning to surf. You just put in the time and then you are surfing. Besides listening to the stories here I read the books Board and An Old Surfers Story which show the other side of learning to surf. But the one thing in common is they all had fun.

Tons of beginners in pretty good waves...

Pretty much the same has me.
How I learned to surf in 14 months

I popped up and went frontside on my very first attempt (after being shown how to pop up on the beach during a lesson). The instructor had a surprised look on his face LOL

It was on a huge board, and I was a skateboarder for ~15 years, so that definitely had something to do with it. I just pretended I was skating a snake run.

But I haven't progressed much since. Not much free time; really crowded lineups; mediocre conditions; and some health/life issues. Recently started going out multiple time/week though. Hopefully I'll make more progress.

My experience learning to surf was quite different from most here on this forum but perhaps not too different from others from my area and time. In two weeks time of surfing every day after work and on the weekends I was able to do a bit better than her. I learned on a 6'10" x 18" x 2.75" single glassed in fin diamond tail surfboard with no leash. While I was a swimmer since I was a kid, on the swim team in high school (I had just graduated) and one of the fastest swimmers around, I didn't train but was fit from paipo boarding. I had a 4 foot plywood and fiberglass paipo board that I both kicked with fins and paddled with my arms to catch the bigger waves. I was unlike her in being completely at home in the ocean as I grew up in the ocean. A few months prior to learning to surf I had switched from a prone riding position to a knee board position so I was popping up to my knees on every wave on my paipo board. Unlike her I had zero instruction. In two weeks I could ride 9 out of 10 waves to their end making turns to stay in the power so not go off the end before the wave ended and not get passed by. But unlike her I didn't think this was a big accomplishment as I was much better paipo boarding. However it was enough to encourage me to continue learning. It took me a year before I didn't think about going back to paipo boarding.