Learn to Ride Foam Waves on a Soft Top before advancing to bigger and real waves. The fundamentals for advanced surfing are learned in the early stages. Techniques are best learned keeping everything simple.
The advantages of learning to surf on foam waves with a soft top board are that surfing is more technical than people suspect and conditions have to be kept simple to learn the techniques. One of the advantages is that foam waves are small and soft top boards don’t hurt if you get hit.
The Fundamentals of Learning to Surf
The dry land portion of a surf lesson in Oceanside is instruction on safety and the pop up techniques. The students learn the sequence of the pop up and practice a few times before entering the water. Tendencies have to be corrected because students can still stand up on dry land with mistakes in form, but in the water they may be a hindrance.
Once in the water the students look for foam waves while not being any deeper than their waist. As the foam wave approaches, the student rolls over on the surfboard correctly so it is pointed straight at the beach and they are perfectly balanced in the middle. If the board is pointed at an angle, the wave will turn it over.
As the foam wave approaches, the student paddles a few strokes to get momentum and then paddles hard for three strokes to get in front of the wave when it hits the real of the board. I call this accelerating to get the tail off the foam of the wave. Once the board is being pushed, the student can put their hands on the board. They should be patient and not just jump up as soon as there is wave contact.
The student puts their hands in a man’s push up position and collects their poise before popping up. They should not just go to a direct pushed up position with hands in front of their shoulders as most beginners have a tendency to do. This ends the ride.
From the man’s push up position, with the chest resting on the board, the student pushes up and places a foot under their butt flat on the board. Students without flexibility will not be able to get the foot flat. This is a hindrance to learning a smooth stand up on the surfboard. As the student stands on the board with the first foot, they raise their hands and move the other foot to the front of the board.
Correct Stance and Riding the Surfboard
Now they are in a stance with feet shoulder width apart (3′) and both hands in front where they can be seen. This means the shoulders are squared to the front and one shoulder is not trailing like on a snow or skateboard. Weight is equal on the front and rear leg and the knees are flexed.
If the stance is correct, the student will ride straight to the beach and not fall off. If he has popped up with his butt over one rail and one arm trailing behind like a snowboarder, he will fall off the butt side. Getting the correct stance on the board is difficult for many beginners. Without the correct stance, the surfer will not ride properly to the beach and will have a difficult time advancing.
Once the surfer can ride to the beach, they can begin paddling out to catch bigger foam waves and then small real waves. The surfer begins with 2′ to3′ real waves and learns the difference in timing from foam waves. Real waves create more speed as the surfer rides down the face and this is always scary for new surfers. A little courage is needed here. The process then is for surfers to keep riding bigger real waves and learning to get into the pocket where they can execute maneuvers.
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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