What You Learn in a Surf Lesson

What you learn in a surf lesson prepares you for advancing for the rest of your life. There are certain fundamentals that are necessary for a beginner surfer that are the same for advanced surfing.

The beginner learns in a surf lesson the fundamentals he can practice on his own. The surfing experience is personal and surfers advance based on their own capabilities to learn, practice, grow stronger, and develop courage.

The Basic Fundamentals

Beginners often have trouble just balancing on the surf board and paddling straight to catch a wave. It is important beginners use a high volume soft top so the board is not an issue. Soft tops are designed to catch foam waves, paddle easy, and ride stable.

A beginner surfer learns to time waves. Learning to catch waves is a skill he practices his whole life. Catching waves is the real essence of surfing. Most pros say it is easy after you have caught the wave.

The pop up is a technique. If learned correctly the board performs as it is designed. If the surfer does not learn the sequence of the pop up and how to land on the board perfectly, he will not ride waves nor advance.

Riding the wave is pretty easy if you have popped into the correct posture on the board. Advanced surfers don’t think about their pop up, they are thinking about their performance.

Beginners can practice the pop up in their living room every day to get the muscle and smoothness to execute in the water. Beginners that are serious need to be in good condition. They can cross train with aerobics, weights, and cables.

Beginners Get Coached in the Water

Beginner surfers begin with a dry land instruction on the beach. There is a lot to learn and in the water, the beginner is over whelmed with the ocean and often forgets the fundamentals.

The coach reminds the beginner of what he should be doing and not doing. It is easy to fall into bad habits and destroy the surfing experience. I often have difficulty getting surfers who have first tried on their own and developed bad muscle memory to get into the right practices.

Strangely, snow boarders and skate boarders often have difficulty because the posture on those boards is different and the muscle memory they have learned makes it difficult to learn the surfing technique.

Beginners can watch my free video on the dry land and in water demonstration to keep their technique correct.

Learn More

For Oceanside Surf Lessons, see the Home Page

See the Post Surf Lessons Begin with Foam Waves

See the Post What You Learn in a 2 Hour Lesson

See the Post How to Progress in Surfing

See My Dry Land and In Water Demo video

See How to Catch a Green/Real Wave video

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