Surfing Waves

I've been through a lot of different sports and activities and I've always found that there is one tip that usually makes a huge difference and has helped me progress... so I'd like to ask everyone if they could give just one tip (for surfing) to a beginner what would it be?


Thanks

The more waves you catch, the better you get.

Behind that inane comment is: if you have choices, pick the choice that will catch you more waves. Whether that is board choice, where you chose to surf (eg if you can find a point wave), surfing even if conditions are not perfect, pushing past your comfort level, etc

As a technical thing - paddle harder and commit. Going slower and being tentative makes things harder rather than easier.

good topic

The best tip anyone gave me about surfing...

"It'll hurt less if you're standing up".

dtc wrote:The more waves you catch, the better you get.

Behind that inane comment is: if you have choices, pick the choice that will catch you more waves. Whether that is board choice, where you chose to surf (eg if you can find a point wave), surfing even if conditions are not perfect, pushing past your comfort level, etc

As a technical thing - paddle harder and commit. Going slower and being tentative makes things harder rather than easier.

good topic

My thoughts exactly

If I were going to give one other bit of advice that would be to work on your balance and flexibility.

drowningbitbybit wrote:The best tip anyone gave me about surfing...

"It'll hurt less if you're standing up".

This was mine. I'm still a beginner myself, but I found I really turned a corner when I started being proactive and not just waiting for things to happen to me. Try your hardest to catch a wave, don't let it catch you (that's how you pearl). Paddle to the peak, don't wait for the perfect one to come right to you. Too many learners wait too long to stand up out of fear and end up pearling. Once I realized I can deal with whatever comes my way 100x better if I'm at least TRYING to stand up, that gave me a lot more confidence. Also, angling your take off helps a lot (you probably won't pearl).

As you can see, I, like most learners, had some problems with pearling. Those days are basically gone now that I do all these things.

catch as many waves as you can has an underlying property of conditioning yourself so that you can paddle effortlessly for hours on end, or at least for as long as you wish to go surfing. When you first start it will become progressively more difficult to catch waves because your arms will tire and you may get out of breath from the effort. So part of that is to get into better cardiovascular shape and paddle or other wise condition your arms so that when you do surf you will make better use of your time.

The single best thing that helped me was being told to look where you want to go, where you look your body should eventually follow as a general rule. As soon as I stopped looking at my feet I pogressed a lot quicker. Also like everyone else has said, surf as often as possible, there's always something to work on.

paddle, paddle and paddle some more.


learning to duck dive and having good paddle stamina will really benefit your surfing overall in my experience. once you're capable in those areas you'll feel a lot more comfortable and confident out in the ocean, especially amongst a crowded lineup.

Oh, and have fun! so what if you look like a kook at times, we all did in the beginning, just make sure you learn up on your surfing etiquette before you paddle out into the lineup.

Waikiki Beach Boy and surf instructor Roy Vierra told me " Surfing isn't surfing....... Surfing is Paddling ". Surfing is 90% paddling 10% riding. When have you heard people talk about a great awesome surfer, but he can't paddle for beans ? People tell me that they don't need a surf lesson because they snowboard or skateboard. When is the last time you had to "catch" the mountain ? When is the last time you propelled the skateboard with your hands ( if you weren't wearing training diapers ). As surfers we need to paddle out to the wave, paddle to stay in the lineup ( due to currents and wind ) paddle to get in position, paddle to catch the wave, and then paddle back out. Most of the time your paddling, it's only a small period that your not.

dtc wrote:As a technical thing - paddle harder and commit. Going slower and being tentative makes things harder rather than easier.

good topic

I'd have to agree with this one.

Whilst away this year the missus came up to me in the waves and told me how she was doing so much better now that she isn't chickening out on the waves anymore and just going for it.