Mark, Author at Surf Lessons in Oceanside

Beginner Surfers Master 3 Fundamentals

Beginner surfers enter a world like they have never experienced. Surfing is more complex than it appears, but the beginner learns 3 fundamentals.

The Basics for a Beginner Surfer

The dry land lesson explains what a beginner has to accomplish to ride a surf board in the shore break foam waves. Then the student has to learn the lessons all over in the water because the dynamics cause lots of uncertainty. Not as easy as it would seem, balancing on the board and paddling level towards the beach are not easy with a tumultuous foam wave pushing from behind.

The most important aspect is the beginner needs patience to paddle until the surfboard is in front of the wave. So many beginners jump up before the wave has even hit the board or too soon while the tail is still in the froth. Kids and sometimes women don’t have the power to paddle until the board is ahead of the wave and to keep it going straight.

Catching the wave is timing. Catching a foam wave requires little skill compared to catching a real wave, but the fundamentals are the same. Start paddling before the wave arrives at an easy pace to get the board moving and level. Paddle hard for 3-5 strokes when the wave starts to push the board. Many beginners don’t change their pace from easy to fast paddling and the wave spins and flips the board.

The pop up is the athletic part of getting to a standing position. The body has to move smoothly and the feet have to land in the right spots and the posture needs to be exact. If the student swings into the wrong posture with the butt over a rail instead of in the middle of the board, the surfer falls in the water immediately. The difficult part of instructing beginners is they want to put a knee on the board first because they are fearful. (watch the pop up video below.)

The surfer has to go from the lying down position to having both feet on the board. The front foot has to be in the middle of the board far enough forward to keep the nose down. The hips and shoulders have to be square to the front with both hands in front. Snow boarders and skater boarders like to ride with a shoulder back and a hand trailing which doesn’t work for beginner surfers.

For Surf Lessons in Oceanside see the Home Page

My Pop Up video

A good video for Catching Waves

Surfers Cross-Train to Improve

Surfers cross train to enjoy more time in the water and support each technique. The most tiring part of surfing is the paddling. When you can’t paddle any longer, the session is finished.

Surfer Cross Training Exercises

There are three physical demands for excellent surfing: Flexibility, Stamina, and Strength.

Flexibility is important for two reasons. Surfing has a wide range of body movements from the ankles to the upper torso. In catching waves the body is moving down the face and then might need to carve right or left. During the run in pocket, riding up the face and ripping require balance, flexibility, and strength in all the muscles. Secondly, when surfers fall, they don’t want to get tweaked from tight muscles or weak joints.

Stamina is needed first for all the paddling. Paddling out to waves, catching waves, and returning to the waves is about paddling. There is aerobics and recovery. Some of the paddling might be anaerobic in which the effort consumes all your oxygen and you go into deficit. Paddling is the best preparation but out of the water running, biking, or treadmills help build endurance, peak load, and recovery.

Strength is needed in most every muscle. The feet must exert pressure on the board and the ankles have to support various rotation. The knees and quads exert pressure and must be supported by the hips, lower back, and abs which are the core muscles. The upper body often drives the tricks plus provide paddling power.

The 5 basic movement patterns of fitness are squats, lunges, pushes, pulls, and rotations. They can all be exercised in the gym and contribute to the strength needed for surfing. Building the core is served with dead lifts, squats, and military presses. The entire mid-section, posterior and anterior is the core. Pushing and pulling can be executed with cables, bench presses, pull downs, and seated rowing pulls.

Why not use surfing as a motivation to get very fit with surf cross training or take your fitness to the water and use it to help your surfing. Once you are fit for surfing, you should be able to enjoy most sports.

For Surf Lessons in Oceanside, see the Home Page

Beginners Learn to Surf Real Waves

Beginners learn to ride real waves after mastering foam wave riding. The essentials of riding foam waves are a first step for the more intricate timing of real waves.

The timing for riding foam and real waves first involves positioning. On a foam wave, you get in front of the wave and start paddling easy. When it is close, you paddle hard three or four times until you are in front of the wave before putting your hands on the board

On a real wave, you can paddle parallel to where you know the waves are breaking to help momentum. When you see it begin to form, you paddle out a little bit, in a little bit, or just parallel. When it starts to arc, you have to let the wave come under the board. Then three hard paddles and you should be in the wave.

Angling for the wave is an important technique. Rather than just riding straight down the wave which can increase pearling on steep waves, you can push the board to the direction the wave is breaking before putting hands on the board to angle for the pocket.

The pop up needs to be smooth, efficient, and quick on real waves. The body should wind up just as in a foam wave with weight distributed evenly over the center line of the board with hips and shoulders facing the front of the board.

Beginners should learn to ride real waves that are only a few feet high. They can often be interspersed with foam waves or you can go to the outside on smaller days where all the surfers are lined up. Getting a wave in the line up is another topic.

Learn the basics and how to ride small foam waves in this video

5 Beginner Surfer Fundamentals

There are 5 beginner surfer fundamentals that launch a new surfer and allow them to practice on their own. My goal in surf lessons is to teach beginners how they can go anywhere and practice without an instructor.

Water safety is important. Beginners are vulnerable to getting hurt because they are not aware of what happens with a board and the waves. Most beginners start with an 8′ or 9′ soft top. They are excellent because they have high volume for easy use and don’t hurt as bad if they hit you. Best to keep the board behind you by dragging it backward by the leash or pointing it straight into waves.

NEVER let the board get between your body and the wave because you will get knocked down. When you fall off the board, always know where it is. If you go under water, come up with your hands over your scalp protecting your head from fins in case the board is right above you.

The next beginner surfer fundamental is getting on the board properly. I like students to hold the board with one hand on top and one underneath and in the spot when they roll over their feet are at the very back of the board. Then students put the balls of their feet on the board.

Your nose should be on the middle strip and your feet together in the back. You balance the board with your butt. The board has to be pointing straight at the beach. If you take off at an angle on foam waves, they will turn the board over.

Paddling to catch waves is about timing. Drive your arm into the water up to the elbow and pull in very short abbreviated strokes. You do not want to stretch the arm out like you are swimming; it is too slow and causes the board to change direction with each stroke. Paddle easy before the wave arrives and then at least three hard paddles until the board takes off in front of the wave.

Standing up on the board is about timing, steps, and smoothness. After the board has taken off and the foam is behind the board, put your hands on the board in a man’s push up position under the chest. I call this the rest position as you are laying on your hands. From this position, you push up evenly until your arms are fully extended like in a full push up.

It is important not to stall in this position and be thinking about what you are going to do. Lying down and standing up are the only stable positions and everything in between is unstable. As soon as you have pushed up, place one foot on the board a foot or so from the back of the board, flat on the board and perpendicular to the two rails of the board.

Then you stand up on this foot raising your hands up in the air and keeping your shoulders and hips facing forward toward the beach. Now your front leg has no weight on it and you can drive it to the middle of the board and set it across the center line.

You want your weight equal on your front and back legs. You do not want your nose to be over your front foot in a leaning forward posture. Your feet create a nice platform and are shoulder width or a few feet apart. Your knees are flexed so that you can ride the board once you are up.

The beginner surfer’s first objective is to ride the board straight to the beach on a foam wave without falling off. If the posture on the board is right, the board will go straight and the surfer doesn’t have to do any work.

See this video which is my dry land and in water demonstration for beginners.

For surf lessons, see the Home Page

Adults Learn to Surf

Adults learn to surf almost as easily as teens. Adults seem to have one advantage is they understand and translates instructions to their bodies better than young adults, but have the disadvantage of flexibility.

Learning to surf has great parallels with how you are able to learn any new body movements, for example dance or yoga. The more new challenges you introduce to your body, the easier it is to learn.

The second aspect is the body’s ability to move. Adults fall into the trap of prioritizing careers over exercise (which may be necessary) and then lose the opportunity for many recreational outlets. Flexibility should be the first consideration, followed by movement and aerobics such as walking, biking, swimming, yoga, running, and hiking.

Strength training is important not only for new recreation activities, but to maintain lean muscle mass for health and daily activities. There are so many opportunities to develop strength that can occur with isometric and isotonic exercises (resistance without moving muscles and moving resistance by pushing, pulling, lifting, and raising.)

Surfing requires certain muscle groups. Paddling is the most energy demanding and the exercise that tires surfers and students first. I like pulleys to develop upper body strength. Pushing off the surf board for a pop up is developed by practicing pop ups and push ups or burpies are great.

Weight can become a detriment for adults that want to learn to surf. As we get more sedentary, we stop exercising, and therefore lose the power to weight battle that allows us to get our body off the board. Usually a big midriff increase is accompanied by a loss of strength in the upper body.

Surfing is a full body and mind/body coordination sport. It is great for conditioning or as a target for conditioning. Most adults are successful in their first lesson even if they realize they could use more body training.

For surf lessons in Oceanside, See the Home Page

The Timing for Surfing Waves

The timing for surfing waves is a skill surfers need from beginning through catching the biggest waves on the planet. It is learned through practice.

The beginner catches foam waves which is good practice for real (green) waves. The idea for both is to anticipate when the wave will arrive to push the board, get momentum, paddle into it, and then pop up on it.

The foam wave has the biggest lead time for it can be seen approaching and the only requirement is to get in front of it, paddle for momentum, and then patience to paddle a few more times to get in front before popping up. (beginners lack patience to paddle in front of the wave)

In a real wave, you want the wave to arc lifting the board and when the board is at the top of the wave, the surfer paddles hard and maybe kicks to get the nose facing down. Once the board starts to slide down the wave, the surfer pops up smoothly.

The timing issue new intermediate surfers have with real waves is it takes courage to let the wave arc behind and over your head before paddling down the face. Most beginners feel more comfortable letting the wave pass and then catching it. Big mistake. A late entry usually means crashing down the face or losing the wave pocket and just riding foam.

Watch the timing of other surfers. When you know what to look for it becomes obvious. Notice that they line up where the waves arc. Then when they spot a wave they start paddling for momentum and position. They may have to compete with others in a line up, but in friendly line ups, surfers rotate.

Then as the wave approaches and the surfer is moving, never taking his eyes off the wave as he paddles, he patiently lets it rise under him, paddles hard three times and once it starts pushing, pops up.

A great trick for getting into the pocket is to push the nose of the board after catching the wave and before popping up into the direction of the pocket. This saves the need to drop down the face and bottom turn. If the wave is too big or is closing too fast, you may need to drop down the face first and then carve a bottom turn.

For surf lessons in Oceanside, see the Home Page

For a good video on catching real waves

Beginner Surfers Learn to Carve

Beginner surfers learn to carve in both foam and real waves. The techniques are the same and the most fun aspect of surfing.

Surfers can learn to carve even as beginners in foam waves. The technique for foam and real wave begins the same. While riding straight on the board, the surfer rotates his upper body beginning with the eyes.

The eye lead carves in surfing. The eyes then turn the head and the shoulders arms and trunk should turn together in initiating the carve. When riding a foam wave, surfers can pump a few times to be sure they are in front of the wave and then look in the direction they want to carve (turn).

On real waves, surfers drop down the face and begin their run in the pocket with carving a bottom turn. The bottom turn takes the surfer into the pocket. On a short board, the surfer will accelerate by pushing the nose up and down the wave with his front foot.

On a long board, most surfers are going to drive the wave meaning run straight in the pocket. For carves on a long board, most surfers will move to the tail of the board putting the weight on their back foot, lifting the nose of the board and then swinging it in the direction of the turn.

On a short board, after accelerating for speed, the first turn might be up the face by once again initiating a bottom turn. In a bottom turn, the surfer initiates as above, then rides up the face. Once near the top, he decides on ripping the lip, getting air, or another trick like a 360.

For steep carves like up the face of a wave, the surfer will get a low center of gravity and usually drag their inside hand in the water. Its still a bottom turn and requires the surfer to look up the wave and rotate their upper body.

For surf lessons in Oceanside, see the Home Page.

Learn Surfing with Big Boards and Foam Waves

Learn surfing with foam waves and big boards to make a difficult sport to learn easier. I was included among most new students who say surfing is the most difficult sport they have encountered.

Why is it difficult? There are several elements. It tests your physical abilities in flexibility, strength and stamina. The surf board is designed for the right technique and posture. Timing is extremely important in the techniques. There is little tolerance by the board or the sea for error.

The proper physical preparation, learning the right techniques and using a high volume board to execute the techniques makes the process easier. First you should have the flexibility to touch your fingers to the floor. You need to be loose in your hamstrings, buttocks and lower back.

Doing push ups is a good test and practice for executing the pop up. The pop up is like a burpee where you push up, bring your knees under your chest and then pop to a stance. Like yoga in the down dog position, practice bringing your knees under your chest to reach your arms.

The Surf Board

Higher volume boards like 8′ or 9′ soft tops wont hurt you if they hit you, paddle easier to catch waves, and are more stable for pop ups and riding. You could ride an 8′ Wave Storm for a long time and in real waves as well.

The process of getting shorter should be 6″ at a time while maintaining width and thickness of the bigger boards. Moving to longer boards is easy. The first good hard board would be a 7’6″ fun board that is 21″+ and at least 2 3/4″ thick.

The Waves

Foam waves are real waves that have broken and are rushing to shore. They are easier to catch because there is a big window between spotting the wave and paddling before it hits the surfboard. Then the board goes level to the beach.

A real wave has only a few seconds of opening when you can catch it and the board is going down hill first. Timing has to be perfect and then you have to avoid pearling. To ride the wave, you need a bottom turn to get into the pocket or beginners can just let the wave crash and ride the wave.

The Techniques

There are three main aspects to riding a foam wave. Anticipate the wave and paddle in front of it toward the beach to get momentum. A few seconds before it hits the board and for at least three strokes afterward, paddle hard to get in front of the wave. Do not pop up on impact.

The best pop up for beginners is placing the hands on the board in a man’s push up position after paddling to the front of the wave. Place the back foot on the board, then raise the hands and torso to make the front foot more weightless and place it in the Middle of the board close enough to the front to keep the nose down while riding.

When you rise to the feet, have both hands in front of you and shoulders and hips squared to the front. If your butt is over one of the sides (rails) you will fall off the back. If your head is over one rail, you will pitch off on that side.

If your posture and foot position are correct on the board, the board will go straight without much work.

A good demo of dry land and water techniques are in this video.

For a Surf Lesson in Oceanside, see the Home Page