Beginner surfers need to learn the 6 Steps to Riding a Foam Wave. Surfing more technical than anyone expects and one of the major obstacles is people are not good learners and they often cannot coordinate what they hear to their bodies.
Surfing is timing and rhythm, Each step follows the next whereas the beginner’s mind in the water is racing with no clarity and they try to do everything at once. This leads to a muddle and failure to ride. Surfers say, when they slowed down, it all got easier. What they mean is when they could focus, they could execute.
The First Step
The easy first step is catching the wave. It is timing and hard and correct paddling. If the surfer is standing waist deep waiting for a foam wave, he rolls over onto his board when the wave is 20 feet away. Then he paddles easy a few times and looks to the side to see when the wave will hit the board. Then he paddles hard three times to catch the wave.
Putting the hands on the board at the right time and right place is beginners’ basic hurdle. Their instincts say throw their hands in front of their shoulders in an already pushed up position and then slide their knees onto the board. This is not what surfers do. They place their hands on the board next to their rib cage in a man’s push up position and glide for 2 to 4 seconds. Without performing this basic technique, the surfer will not progress.
At this point, the surfer knows the board is going straight and it is level. Then he can push up and place a rear foot on the board flat and under his butt. It must be flat or the surfer cannot stand on it. Twisting it a little to the side helps the surfer get it flat. When it is flat and he can stand, he can lift his hands off the board before moving his other foot to the front. If the hands are not lifted before the front foot is moved, the surfer will usually crash.
Moving the Front Foot
The surfer moves the front foot near the nose of the board and places it across the middle stringer. The foot has to be in the middle or the board will turn over. He can look down and if it is not in the center, he can move it on the fly.
Now the surfer is upright and must be in what I call the “push the box” posture. Feet are shoulder width apart and hips and shoulders are parallel to the beach because both hands are in front as though the surfer was pushing a tall box. The surfer does not want to be in the posture I call snowboarding where one arm is trailing and his butt is over one rail. This causes the surfer to fall over that rail.
The final point is the surfer must be loose on the surfboard. The surfboard will jump around and the surfer must have flexed knees, hands in front or spread out in front, and ready to flex and bob as the surfboard moves. Surfers like to feel the board with their feet so they can control the direction of travel and anticipate what the board is doing. Surfers do not ride with locked knees or too stiff on the board.
Read Other Posts:
Beginner Surfers Learn on Soft Tops
5 Steps to Improve Surfing Performance
3 Ways to Catch Real Surfing Waves
Training to Ride the Surfing Short Board
Short Board Surfing Techniques
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