The dream of many new surfers is to go from Beginner Surfer to Short Boarder. It is a great vision that requires commitment and dedication. There is a lot to learn and physical conditioning to improve.
Many beginners want to surf but have no concept of the physical demands of surfing. Surfing is difficult if people are overweight and the power to weight ratio says that a surfer must have the strength to lift their body off the surfboard. This takes strength but is greatly enhanced if the surfer is normal weight or lean. Most pros want to be lean and strong.
Learning the Fundamentals
The fundamentals beginners learn serve through advanced surfing. They just have to be perfected. The beginner learns in foam waves to get the timing and rhythm that are fundamental for surfing. Everything is a sequence. The surfer spots the wave forming or coming. He gets in position. He starts to move for momentum. He paddles hard to get into the wave. He then executes the pop up sequence. It all moves like a dance or song. One step at a time. Beginners usually try to do five things in two seconds. They don’t realize there is a sequence.
The beginner paddles as a foam wave approaches. Then he paddles hard as it reaches the tail of the board. After he has accelerated to be in front of the wave and when the board is level on the surface, he puts his hands in a man’s push up position. I usually have to tell beginners to glide in this pose with chest still on the board for three seconds. This slows all the anxiety that is racing in their mind and calms their instincts to just jump up or put their knees on the board.
Learning the Beginner Pop Up
Next the surfer, in the beginning pop up, puts their rear foot flat on the board under their butt. It must be flat or they can’t stand on it and release their hands to move their front foot on the board. Until they learn to put it flat, standing up on the board is difficult. The torso should be on the way to upright as the front foot moves to the nose of the board. In an advanced pop up, the surfer moves both feet at the same time and the hands are up when the feet land.
After a beginner masters riding to the beach in foam, he can start paddling out to turn around and catch bigger foam waves. Then he attempts small real waves that are 2′ to 3′. Sand bar beaches usually make this progression easier than reefed beaches. The surfer works his way to bigger real waves.
Riding Down the Face of the Wave
The surfer learns to ride down the face. Then he learns to do bottom turns into the pocket. Then he learns to accelerate for speed by pushing the nose of the board up and down the face with his front foot. He learns the cut back to reverse direction and get back to the power of the wave. All these maneuvers can be learned on 8′ or 9′ soft top boards. Now the surfer may be ready to move to hard boards.
If the surfer decides he wants to go shorter, he should just move 6 inches at a time and preserve the width and and thickness of 21+” and 2 3/4″ thick. Each move shorter will make paddling more difficult and require adjustments in catching real waves. Now the surfer is only riding real waves. He learns the timing of catching waves and slowly builds courage to ride bigger waves.
Many surfers can be content to stay at one level because they don’t surf often enough to develop the strength or skills to move to shorter boards. There is no shame in sticking with an 8′ hard board which has good maneuverability and big wave potential. The surfer reaches short board status at 6’10”. This requires a long journey if it is to remain fun. Moving too fast invites frustration. Keep it fun.
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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