working with my daughter

[300thumper]

details first, my daughters 11, no idea on a weight and about 4 1/2 feet tall. typical 11 year old. She has a strong desire to surf and wants to be out everyday. She has done 6 lessons. Id love to be able to put her in more its just when I have the extra money I send her. Otherwise shes stuck with me. She is surfing a 7'6"x22x3 funboard thruster. she surfs at least 2 days a week and usually 3

My surfing experience is almost identical. except that I get out more due to work and her school. Ive been bodyboarding for years so I have a good read and respect for the ocean which I can pass along to her. But not much surf advise other than whats worked for me.

Im concerned about her popup however. her instructor was satisfied with her going to her knees then standing up. I cant get her to shake the going to the knees though. Today we had real mild 1' waves. she worked on paddling into and popping up. I could see that she had no problem pushing up enough to pop to her knees then standup. To me it seems shes ready to do a normal popup. or something close. She has been out in 3' waves but rides the wave 20 feet before she pops up. Ive had her on a few green waves which got her really excited.

my question is should I push her more. I make it a point that im sure im not taking the fun out of it but sometimes I want her to break through the comfort zone. SO do I just be patient, go to a new instructor? any suggestions on this would be very helpful.

If I missed any details call it out and ill fill them in

[drowningbitbybit]

I was surfing a couple of weeks ago at an easy beach break, and there was barely a wave.
There was a mum out there with her two daughters (probably around 8 and 10). Mum could surf really well, but she spent most of the time pushing her little girls into the small waves. The girls were having a great time and were laughing their heads off, and it was a really nice sound out in the "line up".

Then dad turned up.
He immediately told the little girls that they were surfing in the wrong spot. That they shouldn't let mum push them onto the waves. That they should go for this wave not that wave. That they should...

The laughter stopped


You don't want to be that guy.

Not sure I'm qualified to say how you push your daughter while still letting it be fun (over to the mums and dads on the forum), but the fun is the most important bit (at any age).

[dtc]

As DBB highlighted, the balance between fun and breaking bad habits is hard (I have two kids about that age).

I will say that instructors can sometimes fall into the trap of wanting people to stand, rather than wanting people to be technically correct. So the two stage pop up is often taught so people can say they have stood up by the end of the lesson; 80% of the people at the lesson may never surf again so don't really care. The fact is that a kid can do a knee pop up in white water no problems because they are so light; so it seems to her like a successful method.

However, as you know, once you get to unbroken waves if you take too long to pop up then you, well, do the opposite of pop up. Slow pop ups are probably the second biggest problem learners have (slow paddling/nose diving is probably the greatest)

Riding white water is the time to perfect the pop up - you don't have to pop up straight as the water hits you (in fact, it can be hard because you bounce around etc), but the technique can be refined.

So it is worth, I think, pointing out to her that what she is doing will make it harder when she goes onto unbroken waves. I know my kids will take the path of least resistance at (almost all) times - if its too hard, they wont do it; if there is an easier (if 'wrong') way then they will take the easy route. But continual nagging (ok, mentioning it one or two times every surf) and they might come around. One day the kids surprise you and go 'ok, I'm going to do it properly'.

One thought is to make it a game at home - set up a fake surfboard or stringer (eg a piece of string on the carpet) and challenge her to pop up and land properly. Jellybean for every success. Rewards work well! Popping up is inherently a muscle memory activity; if she does it at home for jellybeans then it becomes what she does in the surf without even thinking.

Another suggestion I have is that there is a really good series of beginner surfing tutorials put out by surf camp 'surf simply'. Your daughter (and you) might get some benefit from watching these, at this stage in particular the one called 'Catching Unbroken Waves' (youtube 'Surf Simply Tutorials: Catching Unbroken Waves'). All of them are worth watching in due course.

Good luck - teaching kids is really hard, as I have discovered!

[waikikikichan]

agreed with DTC, In Waikiki if the tourist taking a surf lesson didn't plan to ever "become" a surfer, I would teach them to go to their knees first. It got them up quicker and let them immediately ride for a bit. But if they wanted to be a surfer, I would teach to pop to their feet.

Your daughter is fine not taking anymore lessons. Once she can stand and ride that's fine. Timing and position in the break, you can teach her that. She does not need a new instructor for beginner stuffs.

Question: are you actually pushing her into waves, or she can paddle into some whitewater ?

[300thumper]

I definitely don't want to be "that guy", yell and screaming and kids crying. Ive seen it .

As far as her catching waves on her own she is paddling into about 1/3 of what she rides. I usually go out with her first, ask her if she wants help, she declines cause she is a pro who can shred in her mind. Then after she struggles she comes and asks for help. That's the only time I step in is when she wants the help. Otherwise she wont learn anything. Then Ill push her into waves. she paddles hard I nudge the rear of the board. With one foot waves she was catching a few green waves. After awhile her confidence builds and she wants to try on her own again. I walk away and sit on the beach and watch. she maybe catches two waves on her own and they were green. she even backed off when some people down the line paddled into a wave she was trying for and didn't drop in. She is listening to something

Good stuff so far.. Keep the suggestions coming!

[300thumper]

My daughter and I made it out the last three days in a row. waves progressively increased in size and power. Day one was about a foot and slow on the pop up with me pushing her in 75% of the time. 2 hour session. Day two was about 1 1/2 feet and pop up was much faster. still hitting her knees but it looks much closer to a correct popup. When she was ready to listen made a few suggestions on stance and position on the board to get a longer ride. sure enough those small changes help and she was trimming some by the end of the day. 3 hour session. today day three waves were 2 feet with a nice shoulder to the right or left. I did not have to push her in all day. Waves started further out and had a good paddle to the lineup followed by paddling into all the waves herself. Popup was fast and had nice long rides to the beach. they started green but would usually break behind her. Ive got a vid of day two Ill try to post or at least some frames from it.

all in all the consecutive practice days have been a big breakthrough in both skills and confidence.

[dtc]

just make sure she doesn't get better than you; I haven't beaten my son at chess since he was about 7 and its embarrassing....

(kidding of course. except that my son doesn't even bother playing me at chess anymore because its too easy)