Beginner Surfers Progress from Foam to Real Waves
Beginner Surfers Progress from Foam to Real Waves with excellent practice. The beginning fundamentals for surfing are the same fundamentals used for advanced surfing.
Surfing is a full body sport and one that progresses slowly for most. It is like karate where participants get different color belts as they get better. Surfing begins by learning the timing of foam waves and the techniques of popping up to ride to the beach without falling off.
Learning the Pop Up
The beginner pop up I teach has student paddling to catch a wave, putting their hands next to their rib cage and pushing their upper body off the board. Then they can put a foot flat on the board under their butt. This is a problem for most people because they don’t have the flexibility to put the foot flat. If it is toes only on the board, they cannot stand up on the rear foot in the water.
Flexibility for this move is greatly improved with squats and dead lifts each day. No weights required. Do 30 of each. Pushups are also excellent for upper body and core strength. Both upper body, lower body, and core are needed for surfing.
Conditioning for Surfing
Stamina is necessary because surfing is all about the paddling. When a person is tired paddling, the session is over. I have always liked cables for upper body and paddling strength. They can be used at the gym or a set of rubber cables can be wrapped around a post and pulled both facing and facing way from post.
The right stance on the board has the surfer with feet shoulder width apart and the front foot across the middle stringer far enough forward to keep the nose of the board down riding waves. Weight is equal on both legs and the torso is upright. Both hands should be in front where they can be seen. Snowboarders and skateboarders have built in memory to trail one arm which is harmful to surfing.
Progressing to Real Waves
Once a surfer has learned to catch and ride foam waves to the beach in good form, they can paddle out for bigger foam waves and then small real waves. This progress requires skills and courage. The real wave moves the board faster and beginners have to get used to more speed. Real waves crash on top of boards and also cause pearling (nose of board underwater.). Both have to be tolerated to progress.
Beginners should start with 2′ to 3′ real waves to get used to the speed. With small real waves, they may have to paddle more on their soft top boards to catch the wave than they did with foam waves. A lot of beginners just let the foam wave hit them and then paddle to catch it. A real wave needs hard paddling to get in front.
The surfer wants to catch the small real wave at the bottom of the arc and let it push him as the wave arcs and then breaks. On bigger real waves, the surfer wants the wave to roll under him and as it arcs it lifts the tail. The surfer then paddles hard 3 times to get the board riding down the face before putting his hands on it.
Reading the Waves
If waves are closing out like they do on sand bar beaches in Oceanside, the surfer can catch the wave and push the nose toward the pocket before popping up. Or the surfer might just point the board at an angle toward the pocket to minimize pearling. If the waves are closing out, pointing at an angle will not work.
Closing out is where the whole wave down the line comes over at the same time. A good wave has an apex where the foam comes over the lip and then starts advancing forming a pocket the surfer rides in. A close out wave ends the pocket quickly.
That should be sufficient to get you started. Once you are catching real waves, you will want to learn all the maneuvers.
More Posts
Oceanside Surf Lessons for Beginners
Beginner Surfers Learn the Pop Up
How to Progress to Surfing the Short Board
For Surf Lessons in Oceanside, see the Home Page
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