My best sessions occur when I delibertely don’t concentrate on what I want to try on a wave or think about not getting pitched if I’m sitting a bit deep. I try to think in what I perceive to be the manner of my last, best dog, a Doberman, who did amazing physical things because it seemed it never entered his head that he couldn’t do something, he just reacted to a situation. As Bruce Lee said, just rely on your Kung Fu (your skill) to respond to the situation, no preconceptions. Those days result in rides where I wonder afterwards how I did what I did and wished I had a video of the session. If you have the basics and are confident in your equipment, just sit, wait for the wave and think of nothing other than going for it, and commit to the wave without thinking. You may eat it sometimes, but the rewards are there as well.
2 parts to surfing, paddling and riding. Work on them differently.
Paddling is about strength and endurance. Swimming helps the paddling part, but there’s other things you can do if you can’t swim. Walking will help for endurance, serious long walks like the stuff you have to do for your heart. Running will do a lot to help. Pull ups and push ups will help keep your arms strong. Setting up something that you can pull on for resistance training works. Sometimes there are days when you have to paddle non stop, so the better you can do that, the better off you’ll be for those days.
Riding requires balance and leg strength. Skateboarding is really good for that. I spent a summer land locked when I was 18 and just rode my skateboard everyday. When I got home I was amazed that didn’t lose any surfing ability, but actually surfed even better. When you skate you will sometimes be riding switchfoot so that helped my switchfoot riding. When you skate you need to be getting on 2 wheels not all 4. You need to be making turns where you lift the front wheels off the ground, then you need to ride on just the front wheels these things really gets your balance fine tuned. Walking helps with leg strength, running helps and jumping helps. I think you could inline skate like roller derby or ice skate for balance and strength too. Try skating on one leg at a time to build better balance on each leg. I built a vert ramp at home and that was great for staying fit. Skating ramps does wonders for vertical style surfing. If you can drop into a vert ramp and then making a gouging hard frontside turn off the top of the ramp, you won’t be phased by any wave.
Have someone videotape you surfing. Nothing helps more than being able to see yourself doing the activity. Then you can match what you felt when you were doing it with what you see yourself doing. Another thing is that you might think you’re doing good, but then you see yourself and realize you look silly or worse.
Mostly you should be enjoying your time, if you enjoy surfing that should be good enough. If you don’t, do something else. You don’t have to be a really good surfer to have fun. I have more fun cruising on waves, just making the turns that I need to. I’d rather ride a wave 100 yards or more than make a too hard cutback and have the wave pass me by. I sometimes don’t get radical at all until someone drops in on me or for some reason I get upset (angry) then the aggessive side comes out. You don’t have to rip it up, you just have to enjoy yourself. But if ripping it up is needed then you better practice.
That’s the best advice ever.
Q:
how FAST do you [think that you] get to your feet ?
I thought I was okay
.... BUT !! ....
HERE is a sequence that Stuey took of me , the other day .....
there are AT LEAST THREE things that I could have done a lot better , two of which I put down to some lazy habits I have formed from riding my mal ['longboard'] , a bit too much over the last few years ...
see if you can pick the three [and , if you get more ? well ... that's cool , too ! :) ]
By the way ...
' if ' it helps to know [?] , I'm riding a 6'11" thruster , in this photo (which some [of my surf 'buddies' ] would consider a 'longboard' , anyway ?! ha ! )
cheers !
ben
kind of like Phil’s quote, but make the most of every wave you have been blessed with, ride it all the way to shore if possible even if it means riding the white water going straight in before paddling back out. This is one thing that was lost with performance surfing in that it became a performance(show off) versus a ride. Riding your wave all the way to shore even if there were others on it too was part of the surf etiquette that has been lost and was part of the self policing that used to occur in every lineup along with wiping out and having to swin/body surf in to get your board.
this may sound weird but along with the idea of riding the right equipment for your skill set. surfer’s should really think about the size of their feet in relative reference the the width of their tails in high performance designs. the closer the rails are to the ends of your foot the more control and responsiveness you have in high performance manuveurs without having to adjust your foot position all the time. The best surfers of all time always seemed to have the biggest feet like the animal and duke.
also if you really think about it, it takes way more skill to ride a wave with a couple of friends and have fun shooting in and around each other or riding behind some one. most surfers today don’t have that ability in either keeping up, staying in control near the foam ball or jetting by a pal without hitting them…We used to do it all the time with junk pieces of foam.
Hey Ben, I took a board Bernie gave me out for the first time a week ago. It’s a Greg Griffin 6-8 thruster. The waves were big and the wind was strong, so I thought it would be perfect. Not such a good idea. First wave was probably 4-6 Hawaiian scale, 8-10 foot face. I get into it late and I couldn’t get to my feet quick enough. I end up at the bottom still on my belly and I can’t get to my feet the whole wave. I know I looked like to total kook on that one. Next wave, same size, another late take off. I’m in the lip going over the falls, so I just launch myself off the board and fall all the way down landing on my back. Another kook ride. Third wave I finally get in early enough and stand up, one nice turn and the wave closes out, I get out over the back just in time. The surf slows down and we wait for quite a while before the sets come in. It never breaks outside where we were earlier for an hour. I get chance to get a few smaller waves and get myself used to this new rocket.
Getting to your feet quick enough is so important, but getting onto the wave early enough is also very important. In hindsight I realized that I wasn’t paddling those 2 or 3 extra pulls that would have allowed me to drop into the wave instead of being hung at the top and dropping down in the lip.
When possible, surf with people who are
1.) Positive
2.) Better than you are on a board.
I’ve been surfing a lot with a couple of semi pro guys in their early 20’s. They hoot all the time and generally encourage everyone around them to charge. My last few sessions with them were unreal - super friendly vibe in and out of the water and I noticed some growth in my surfing.
Yup, I am usually the only one out screaming and hooting out all the good rides. Don’t matter who’s on it. I’ll give a shout out when I’m paddling out and see a big set coming in even though I know I’m too far in to catch one of the waves. We shout out a guy or girl’s name to get them excited about going for a wave. I do have friends who are even louder than I am. I think it’s great when we all get into having a good time.
Surfing with a bunch of people better than you are can be good and bad. It can make you surf better or it can intimidate you. They can also get wierd and take waves from you because they know they are better.
- Practice, Practice, Practice
- Practice your 'pop up' - on the living room floor 2,000 miles from the nearest beach if necessary
- Practice your paddling
- Practice holding your breath underwater
- Practice your kick out
- Practice giving a wave to the beginner who has been sitting forever out on the shoulder
- Practice, Practice, Practice
I like giving a wave to the older guys who can’t paddle as hard as the younger ones. One day soon I’ll be one of them and I hope someone does the same for me.
Give a wave as much as you can. It starts a good karma vibe that goes out and comes back stronger. You’d be surprised how good things get when everyone is having a good time.
Hooray for the turn this thread has taken. I’m bothered when i read about (always written stuff) technical tips on surfing, like it’s your golf swing or something. I like surfers who feel the wave and go from there without conscious intent. There’s no other “thing” like it, why analyse it? I can tell when I see a surfer who’s practicing something they’ve been coached on compared to the intuitive surfer, it’s digital versus analog, man.
But having said that… keep your head down when paddling for a wave! haha. Seriously, it works!
Give a wave as much as you can. It starts a good karma vibe that goes
out and comes back stronger. You’d be surprised how good things get when
everyone is having a good time.
Yes!!! And you’d be surprised too how after doing so, a bomb will come your way. Karma!
And we all thank you for that. I’m 69, I stay out of the way and usually wait for the 2nd or 3rd wave of the set. After a few sets someone will always yell " you go Uncle". I try to repay that courtesy whenever I can and we all enjoy the aloha.
Only other thing I would add on the original topic, is advice I read in West of Jesus, and which helped me deal with paddling into walls that seem unmakable: look where you want to go, not where you’re going.
I believe that you are using only the rotator cuff and small shoulder muscles when you put your head down… When your head is up with your back arched up a little, it engages the bigger muscles like your lats / pecs.
Now, grunting like a tennis player helps for sure. 
Yeah, but it feels like you put more weight on the front of the board, and centre of gravity feels more forward, helping to push the nose down into the wave in my kooky opinion.
Funny, i've been thinking, and sometimes with small, wide point forward boards, i find when paddling around in flat water, ie between waves, back out the back, up and down the beach, i lay a little further back, which feels efficient, BUT, when going for a wave, shuffling a good inch or 2 forward, helps to get that wide, foam filled front half of the board to "tip" down the face. The other bonus is, when you get up, you're a little more forward on your board, meaning you'll go faster on take off. You do have to shuffle the back foot back a bit for cutbacks though, but its not too hard.
In good shaped/bigger waves this isn't really an issue.
Just more random thoughts.
I don´t know much on these subject… but!
Get a “SINGLE”(1, only one, just one) local old surf guru you trust, get some time for him to watch your “surf”, and then take his tips seriously. Times in time(not sure this is inglish) repeat the “recipe”.
And have fun, lots of fun. Even failing, try hard to have a laught.
But the most important, I would say is, to be the first one(or one of the first) at the spot. Less crowd means less stress and a clear mind.
Go for it. Miguel
" ....Even failing, try hard to have a laugh ...."
a great LIFE tip , too !
that's why surfing with ladies is actually FUN...
I have seen some of them here get totally WORKED [eg: pitched in the lip , nosediving , lip to the head ] ....
and ....
come up .....giggling ??!!
There's a lesson there ....
cheers , Migs !
ben
Ben, i’ve seen a young girl here, maybe 16, absolutely rip the bag out of waist high junk. She frigging rips!
not sally fitzgibbons or her younger sister is it , mark ?
ask her for some tips , beery
and
yeah
claire bevilacqua used to pretty much dominate my local beach , before she joined the pro tour
Just the other day I was thinking how surfing is so fun... Just paddling around in the ocean is pretty great, get a wave, even better.