Surfing Waves

Cheers everyone,

I am new to surfing and have had 2 lessons as well as about 6 solo sessions at surfing, so I am quite a beginner. I manage to catch quite a lot of waves and stand up and enjoy it a lot. Definitely want to keep surfing! However, at the moment we have rather big waves with a lot of white water at my spot and I find myself thrown back by that a lot. It's a complete waste of energy. I tried duck diving but the foamie is giving me a hard time with that and though the turtle roll works kinda okay for me it takes quite a lot of energy and I need a lot of breaks instead of catching waves like I want to. Really frustrating but better than getting the board into my face or letting go of it. So my mate told me to go for a hardboard next time. I had considered that for the sake of getting out there easier, but since it is generally said that beginners should stick to their foamies I am not sure with that. Also, I don't want to blame the board if maybe I just lack basic surfing ability (though realizing that would be painful). Any opinions and advice on that here? Thanks in advance

I'd much rather get hit in the face with a soft board than a hard board.

A large hardboard may be marginally easier but the issue will be the same (high volume, can’t get it much under the water) and the technique required is the same (turtle roll or - better yet - paddle smarter not harder)

So short answer is ‘no’ - it won’t help all that much.

That said there is no particular reason why you have to surf a foamie just because you are a beginner. Sure it hurts less but you don’t have to surf in a way that ends up with the board hurting your head.

As the others have said, it won't make any difference going to a shorter board. You just aren't good enough yet. It takes quite a long time to develop decent paddle fitness. Dropping to a smaller board will just make everything harder.

dtc wrote:paddle smarter not harder

To have and easier paddle out -



1. Look for channel or rip current where the waves are smaller.

2. Look for a gap between the the sets before entering the water. When it appears, jump in and paddle hard straight out.

3. Watch how other longboard surfers get outside.

4. Read your forecast to avoid the days/times when to waves are too heavy.

Paddling out is a skill that needs to be learned. Number one thing is don't paddle out in the way of surfers riding waves. You want to go the shortest route out past the waves bu that is not directly to where you want to surf. You want to paddle out to the end of the wave that you want to surf avoiding the whole wave so you don't get in the way of other surfers. The end of the wave is the shortest way through the break once you get outside of the break then you can paddle out to the break without getting hit by waves. As mentioned above the rips can help you out and generally are where there are no waves or small waves. Watch the other surfers particularly longboarders if there are any if not then there may be a reason why not. Watch where they go in where they paddle to and what they do when they get caught by waves.

Then you need skills to go through waves. There are a variety of things that you can do going through waves starting with just keeping paddling for really small whitewater to turtle rolls or duck dives on bigger waves. Learn as many different methods to go through breaking waves as you can. There are other threads on this.

Get in shape. All of this learning doesn't work well if your out of breath after the first wave.