Beginner technique questions

you need to sit deeper or nearer to the breaking wave. those guys doing litttle or no paddle take offs are taking off right where the waves is breaking. not a great place to be for beginners. as you feel more comfortable work your way closer and closer to the curl.

 

Lot's of pull ups and bench presses! Paddle faster = more waves, Paddle faster = catch waves earlier. Catch waves earlier = more speed = "lighter" feeling ride.

Or you can get a 15 ft long canoe to surf from a magical Gnome that hangs out with Hobbits and Wizards and
sh!t like that.

 

The best advice is to have confidence. When paddling for the wave convince yourself that you are going to ride this wave, get rid of all doubts in your mind. It sounds silly, but it works. Also make sure your head is over the board and your eyes are looking to where you want to go towards.

 

when catching the wave remember nose of board perpendicular to beach.
if not that than a 90 deg angle to the wave DIRECTION i.e. where its headed.
don't start cutting til you're sure you have the wave.
also re-consider your conditioning - good, fair, poor etc.?
consider hitting the pool if you really want this sport ( and i think most would say you do…)
if you do master the sport you'll look back at where you are now and smile.

 

Keep doing what you're doing, experience comes in time. Exercise out of the water to stay in shape and spend as much time as you can trying to catch waves. Most importantly, do not let yourself get frustrated. Have fun out there and if you screw up and fall, get back on your board and paddle back out. The more you do it the more your paddling muscles will grow making it easier to get out can get into waves. You will learn in time my young padawan.

 

Do push-ups and crunches (sit-ups). Start about 2 weeks before your surf day(s) and alternate with push ups one day, then sit ups the next. Once you can do 15 push ups, start trying to do another set of 15...and so on.

On the crunch days, try to do 30 the first day. When you can get past 30, try for 50...keep upping it until you can do 60. Just this little workout will have you popping up like it's instinct.

If your legs are weak, try 25-30 non-weight squats every other day. (I also mix in some bicycle riding for cardio and quad work...but endurance may be jumping the gun for you.)

Start paddling early for the wave you want...really early. That way, you have a better chance of getting the board on a plane before the wave gets to you.

 

note. if you can't do 15 pushups then you shouldn't surf until you do. unless you don't have any arms.... in which case im sorry.

 

Time in the water. That's it. I started almost 3 years ago, and I used to only get out once a month (due to location). When I moved to the coast, I started hitting it a couple times a week, and that helped a ton. I still have some issues catching the really big HH/HH+ waves, which is purely a confidence thing. Anything chest and less is now fairly easy to catch. If you were out in the big Arthur swell, I can see how you wouldn't catch much. Start smaller if you can. I think waist is perfect for a beginner.

 

yeah, forgot to mention that extremely important point: Make sure the wave is pushing your board real good before you try to stand...this somehow makes popping up much easier. Essentially, the board should already be surfing the wave before you stand up.

 

If I had to guess, you still aren't far enough forward on the board. The nose should be just above the waterline. Without seeing a vid I can't say how far "just" is but experiment until you are starting to pearl more often, then move back a little bit. When you find the spot that works best for you, mash a little ball of wax right under your nose so you can lay on the board in the same place again.

I'm no instructor but I would tend to disagree with the "point straight at the beach" idea. You're on a 9'8" board and the smaller learning type waves are going to want to lift the tail of your board and pearl your nose if you are pointing perpendicular to the wave. Try aiming the board somewhere between perpendicular and 45deg. to the wave face. This kind of depends on the type of wave too. If you're on a mushy, slopey type wave, straight to the beach may be fine but if there's any steepness/curl to the wave, try adding a little angle to your takeoff.

good luck. the most basic skill in surfing is also one of the hardest things to learn as a beginner.

 

All good advice above. Check out Longboarders Start Up by Bill Stewart. He breaks down the questions you ponder very thoroughly. I read it when I was a newb and it helped alot. Aloha and enjoy!

http://www.amazon.com/Longboarders-...4933234&sr=8-1&keywords=longboarders+start+up

 

re: paddling...

Take your board to a nice calm flat water lake and paddle paddle paddle. Concentrate on making as little sound as possible entering and leaving the water and keeping your head and torso as straight as possible (i.e. no wobbling side to side). Efficiency, not speed or power, is the key. Get to where you have a really efficient stroke. After a while you will intermittently hit it right and you will notice you paddle and glide a lot faster. Get the stroke right and THEN work on paddling harder and faster. Do burst paddles of 5-6 at a time and work on getting those bursts as efficient as when you are just cruising.

If you don't get the stroke rt you will just be paddling harder and faster but wasting even more energy. Repetition repetition repetition until you can paddle flat calm water for long distances and not even have to think about it anymore. You'll be surprised how much easier it is to catch that wave once you learn how to paddle properly, and will make getting out and maneuvering around much easier.

 

if you have a buddy has a surf shop and gives you a lesson, as long as you learn one new thing it will be worth the money regardless of whether you hear if your on the right track or not. there's no set bar to reach in surfing, no plateau to hit. just go out there and have fun. and if you get a lesson from someone who's been surfing for a lot longer than you, chances are you're going to gain some knowledge by spending time with them. if you want my two cents and you have the money for a lesson, go for it

 

Screw the lessons, the best post in this thread is from ZaGaffer, he breaks it down perfectly. Read that over and over and then commit it to memory. Then go out and do exactly as he says over and over again until it's 2nd nature like riding a bike. You don't need lessons, I didn't take them, and most of the people I know who can surf didn't take them either. It's mostly going to be like you said, unless you get an instructor who #1 cares and #2 knows how to surf well themselves and are good at teaching it. I find that it's not very easy to tell someone what to do while in the water, they almost never listen because they are too focused on not falling or flipping the board over, worried about the wave crashing on their head or just simply overwhelmed with it all.

Start small and work your way up. You'll need plenty of water time before you finally get it dialed in on the regular. Nothing wrong with that, we all went through it. Some learn faster than others. You have the right board for learning, the right attitude, now just put in the continued effort and don't give up. It'll click one day and the rest as they say will be history.

Couple tips that I can add that I didn't see in this thread, 1. Don't start paddling too early, so many people tell you to do this but I find you can actually outrun the wave and when it finally breaks you are too far in front and it just smashes you with white water. Get closer to the wave as it's approaching and turn around in enough time to get a good 4-8 strokes.

2. I find that if I start paddling slow but long / powerful and gradually speed up my paddling as the wave is approaching I tend to catch more waves than if I just paddle hard and fast or slow and deliberate, it's all about timing as many have said. If the waves are moving slow then don't paddle too fast, if the waves are coming in really fast then you'll need to generate more speed before hand. Long story short, don't outrun the wave, be in the sweet spot ZaGaffer talks about.

 

You're getting some solid advice here. A lesson is okay to get basic orientation, after that its all you brotha.

In your living room put a piece of tape on the carpet to mark the center of your board and practice popping up over and over. Toes on one side of the tape, heels on the other.

Go out and paddle---alot. Find your spot on the board where the tip of the nose is 1-2 in. out of the water, shoulders and head up. Practice changing your paddle speed from slow to fast to sprint (fast as you possibly can). When you paddle into a wave you need to sprint paddle. When you start to feel the wave moving the board, get ready and pop up. If you stall in the wave you need one or two more paddles.

If you pearl (catch the nose of the board - cover your head with your arms so you don;t get bonked. Next time move your weight toward the tail a tiny bit and try again.

For positioning in waves, watch where other guys sit in relation to breaking waves, watch waves, watch how waves break, try to get used to the idea that a wave is going to break on your head.

After you catch waves and ride straight you'll need to figure out how to paddle straight into a wave to catch it and then yank the board to one side while popping up so you can set trim and actually surf a wave.

PLEASE stay out of the way of other surfers (very important for new guys). Nothing pisses folks off like a guy who hasn;t figured it out ruining a ride for others.

That's lesson 1....$35 please

 

like most of the people on here said,u just have to keep with it.surfing isn't something u can learn in a day,or a week,or even a month.getting pushed into whitewater is easy but its far from surfing.everyone starts at the bottom.to be able to paddle out on ur own and catch ur own waves takes time.

timing and commitment and confidence is key.dont worry about excercizing your body,thats for dorks.doing pushups and sit ups might make u look good,but it wont help with your surfing.the best advice I can give is try to spend as much time in the water as possible.thats the only way ur gonna learn to surf.dont bother watching videos on youtube its all bullshyt.it doesn't help.i watched a billion Kelly slater videos and I still cant surf like him.its really mind over matter and not being afraid to take a fall.once u got ur wipeout game down,u will push urself harder because u know u can handle what the sea throws at u.

so start off on a beach with a crumbly wave,sit there for a half hour watching how the waves break and if theres any other surfers watch what they are doing.with a longboard u have different options on how to catch a wave.u can catch it early,or u can sit a little on the inside ,wait till the whitewater hits u,stand up,and try to go down the line to where the wave is still breaking.its all about the feeling,u know when to go when u feel urself lifted up.when I started I always sat too far out and il paddle for the wave and try to stand up even tho it never lifted me and got nowhere fast.u just paddle til u get lifted up,stand up straight with ur knees bent,dont crouch down because u will fall over,try not to put too much weight on ur front foot and glide

 

along with others in the thread, dawnpatrolsup and tlokein offer some solid advice that will help a lot

 

Couple more things... when the wave is about to make impact with the tail of your board, really dig in as deep as you can on your paddling and give it another one or two strokes when you think you might have missed the wave, sometimes it's not over yet and you have a chance to get in still.

Another thing, when I started putting my chin to the board at the point where i'm really digging in just before take off, I found my percentage of catching the wave went up. So I start paddling slow and long / strong with my chin up and shoulders square, but as I pick up my pace and start really digging in, my chin is actually touching the board. When it's small / mushy it requires more work typically, when the waves are good and have power you'll end up using less energy if you get the positioning down.

You're going to have to find what works for you, you gotta have some kind of timing pattern you go through each time, something that keeps you consistent, once you find something that works, just try and repeat everything you did over and over again. Your body will find a way to save it or commit it to muscle memory, much like saving a file on a computer. Once you have the program, you can get the same results from it every time almost, minus the occasional glitch.