Year 11 Student Seeking Surfing Feedback for School Project

[JamesHsouthaus]

Hi everyone, my name is James and I’m a Year 11 student in South Australia. For one of my school subjects I am completing an AIF (Personal Learning Project), and my chosen learning goal is to improve my technical and physical surfing skills. Surfing has been a big part of my life since my dad introduced me to it when I was younger, and it’s also something we still do together on weekends. That personal connection makes this project really meaningful for me, but I also want to approach it in a structured and disciplined way so that I can show clear improvement over time.
So far, I’ve constructed a weekly planner (I’ll attach an image) that balances physical training and technical development. On the physical side I’m focusing on paddling endurance, flexibility, balance, and pop-up speed. On the technical side I’m working on wave reading and selection, takeoff positioning, and practising maneuvers like cutbacks and bottom turns. To stay on track, I’ve been using strategies such as habit stacking (e.g. stretching straight after I wake up), reflection journaling after sessions, and reviewing video footage of my surfing. I’ve also started graphing my pop-up success rate and writing weekly self-check ins, which helps me see patterns and measure progress.
At this stage, I’d love some outside feedback from more experienced surfers. Do you think my weekly plan looks realistic and balanced? Are there areas where I might be overloading or missing something important? What habits or routines have helped you personally to keep consistent and see long-term improvement? I’m especially keen to hear if there are land-based drills or time-management strategies that could make my training more effective.
Any advice, big or small, would mean a lot. Thanks in advance for helping me push this project further, I really appreciate the chance to learn from people with more experience.

If you have the time, I’d really appreciate it if you could share your thoughts on the four questions I’ve included.

Does the balance between training, surfing, and rest days look realistic, or am I risking overtraining/undertraining?

Are there any skills or drills that you think are missing from this plan?

Does this routine look sustainable long-term, or should I make adjustments to avoid burnout or injury?

Which parts of the routine do you think will make the biggest difference to my surfing, and which parts seem less effective?

If you had this exact routine, what would you change first and why?

Are my technical goals (wave reading, maneuver practice, pop-up, paddling endurance) matched well with the physical training I’ve planned?

[jaffa1949]

Nice to see a planning intent, an outcome that uses therewardsystem of having fun (purely fun surf days ) maintaining surfing endorphine pleasure… don‘t make surfing a job…….. also consider two other things Yoga and or Pilates both have give long term shelf life through the surfing life older surfers who took either up early.

Most burn out has happened to surfers when they lose the joy of surfing!

[waikikikichan]

"Video Analysis". How is analyzing your surfing technique ?

"Paddling Endurance" How are you paddling without a surf session ?

[JamesHsouthaus]

Thanks everyone for their feedback, I very much appreciate it!

[jaffa1949]

With your training , are you doing much surfing? Has the Gulf Algal bloom stopped that?
If it has I hope Victor Harbour wave area is un effected?
Big assumption by me you could be elsewhere in South Australia