Surfing Waves

Hi Everyone,
I hope you can help. I have a 10 yr old boy who wants to be a surfer in the worst way. We've taken him to Carlsbad for a week every summer since he was 3. A friend of ours has given him a few tips. And he has a long board and a short board that we got at a garage sale. We live in L.A. area--San Fernando Valley. We are 1/2 hour from Topanga State Beach. Do you guys have any ideas about where I could take him to practice. What would be a good beach to learn at. Carlsbad is great because it has lots of whitewater for him to practice on and he even got a couple of smallish green water waves last week. We tried Point Dume, but the surf was really crappy. Any ideas? How do local surfers feels about kids trying to learn?

Thanks fo much for any help you can give me.

well, find any beach with a "beach break". if you dont know a beach break is a wave that breaks on a sandy bottom. and of course for the tim ebeing dont let him go out in anything huge... two to four footers are good. find this and then just let him surf. surfers (unless there a*holes) dont mind kids learning at all as long as the kid knows the following:

1) if a surfer is riding a wave do not get on that wave
2) when going out to the line up do not get into a surfers way by crossing infront of him making him turn. always try to get past the wave long before he reaches you, or try to hang back and wait for the surfer to pass (even if this means getting hit by the whitewash)
3) respect other surfers and they will respect you.

as long as he knows that he is fine, and surfers probably wont care about him being out there.

<also see https://surfing-waves.com/basic_rules_surfing.htm - SP>

Thanks Namino. I really appreciate your responding. I am having trouble finding a "beach break" that would be OK for a kid. We're close enough to Malibu, but that I don't think that is a good place for a 10 year old to be, and from what I hear the surfers there are pretty territorial. Oh, well I'll keep looking. Thanks for the info anyway. We've discussed surf "etiquette" with my son. Hopefully, he'll remember when he's out there, either that or some one will educate him real quick!!
Thanks
Kell

i did a quick search on google for some nice breaks in your area, i found out that long beach right below you may have some nice begginer waves. if not any beach will do as long as it doesnt have rocks or reefs

Thanks again. Unfortunately, long beach is a bit of a haul for us, especially given the nasty conditions on L.A. freeways! We may try somewhere up north from us around Ventura. It's a drive too, but at least you don't have to duke it out with the other cars on a crowded fwy!