Surfing Waves

I just spent a week in Newquay and had two surf lessons, but I didn't manage to stand up, I don't have a lot of upper body strength (and I'm gonna work on that) but am I doomed never to surf? Almost all the other people on in the lesson stood up and I've heard people say that they picked it up really early on so I'm a little disheartened... should I give up?

They are all talk....

ITs take time and lots of practice! don't expect it to happen over night!

they may be the most technical surfer in the water, but the best surfer in the water is the one that in there for the stoke, the smile.

Aims,

If it's something you want to do, don't give up. Just because those people stood up doesn't mean they're able to stay up or even get up consistently (believe me, I know). The fact that you're having trouble with it means you'll have to focus on it more and will be more likely to have a good, consistent technique when you do get it. I assume in your lessons, they showed you how you could practice popping up on land so you can work on muscle memory and developing that strength?

Good luck!
Ashley

It took me weeks before I could stand up............but I was on a 6'6 very thin shortboard. Read loads of the posts here and you'll pick up little tips to help you improve. To build up your strength and stamina go swimming. You'll be excercising the muscles you need for surfing. Everyone has different abitlities, and learning to surf is not easy, just keep it up and if you really want to surf, you'll get there. Just enjoy yourself cos thats what it's all about!!

Keep on trying and you will find, sooner or later, things will click...

Dont be discouraged, surfing (especially surfing well) is a whole heap more difficult than it looks and I doubt if anyone here would claim to have totally mastered every aspect of the sport....and dont believe the try hard blow ins who are going take over the surfing world in 2 days flat on a short board after only dipping there toe in the water for the first time yesterday...they are full of S**T.

when i started surfing i had no upper body strength either, i know where your comming from. after all the work paddling out, i had no strength left to pop up...felt like i weighed a ton, lol.

for me what helped was surfing more often, lots of pool swimming to strengthen arms, and push-ups - even as few as 10 a couple times a day makes a difference.

good luck!

It takes practise and no-one finds it easy. Just enjoy - and stick to a big board and small waves until you get your confidence up.

See you in the water

oh yay to hear your story!

I was exactly the same. Except for my complete lack of patience with myself. Unbelievably hard to maintain a happy demeanour.

Please keep with it. I'm going to.

I had to relearn how to pop up last week. I booked myself onto a 5 day surf tour around some nice warm breaks up north. WOW!! So after feeling totally the MAN! on some awesome head high green peelers, I had to restart from scratch midway and had the ultimate pleasure of feeling like a complete utter retard again.

Yay for me I stuck to it and feel happy that I'll get there.

Yes we are not alone in this! Plus plus.. when you watch even 'experts' for a while you see them struggle every so often too, i think we're all kin in realising the addiction here may have something to do with trying to reach that unattainable perfect wave a.

Hay please keep us posted a! Hearing about other people's retard days is awesomly encouraging somehow. ha ha.. sorry but you know what I mean yeah?...

Just to make you feel better, it took me three full days (5 hours a day!) before I managed to stand up properly. Once i got there it felt great and I'm getting better now. Only recently started learning but can now do i turn or two. don't give up! it's worth the effort. I don't know how old you are, but it's true (i'm told) that it's much harder to learn as an adult than a child. x

It took me 4 bloody months and 2 different surf lessons/teachers to be able to properly stand and ride the board. In that 4 months time I went 2-3 times a week and at least couple of hours session each time to practice. During this period I also learned that I was in fact a goofy footer (I started learning on regular stance). One other thing was that changing from a round toe to a split toe boots helped my balance and standing almost instantly (I definately prefer barefoot surfing but it's way too cold here in Ireland).

Don't give up, the hard work will pay off eventually (in your case it's propbably sooner than mine was)

I love you borneng!!

You are that! cool!!

I think in the end it just "clicks" and you can do it.

I stod up on my third wave when I was learning. Mind you I grew up near the ocean and was always into activities requiring fine balance, etc.

Now turning and trimming across green water and cutbacks and...

They all seem to click too.

It's just a matter of when that will happen for you.

The more you practice, in and out of the water (preferably in), the sooner it will come.

Just what I have found and observed in others.

-doug

Even the quality of the waves you're out playing in makes a significant difference to your progress.

For example at Shippies, Ninety Mile Beach, Northland, NZ there is this beautiful left point break. The waves are consistent and when we went out the sets were far enough apart for you to get back out there and have another go.

So when I had to relearn to pop up by placing my back foot first, then millisecond following it with my front.. It was easy... relatively... because I didn't have to also battle a strong sidecurrent... time the chopped up wave, dodge the double wave or the high tide backwash that interrupts your wave and leaves you in a dead zone... or battle the closeouts smashing your head every three seconds..or the strong onshore messing up the wave or even the rooster tail from the offshore that sprays beautifully in your eyes blinding your approach.

I also see some people get up fairly quickly yet there is still that all important lesson of learning to trim and find that sweet spot, you know what I mean??

You see it happen all the time when they pop up and then are left sinking.. standing there with that "What the hell" look on their face. Aye!

And learning not to lean over and stick your whapwhaps out behind ya.. classic learner stance... it's all good... but it's also all good learning not to do that anymore and enjoying how much more in control you feel of your ride.

Yay!

Personally, I think probably the most common beginner mistake with getting to your feet is focussing on doing it really, really quickly.

Focussing on doing it smoothly, IMHO, produces a better surfer. Once you are doing it smoothly and correctly you get into a natural rhythm and your tyming (with the wave) is a lot better.

I think that puts you in a better position to go with that rhythm and flow onto the next thing. Whether bottom turn, snap turn or whatever.

-doug

Amen to that!