Surf Lessons and the 4 Fundamentals
Surf lessons teach the 4 fundamentals necessary to ride waves and progress to the next level. Surfing can be learned in the first lesson and most new students are riding waves quickly.
Learning the Surf Lesson Fundamentals
The first fundamental is positioning on the surf board and paddling to keep it level and going straight. It seems like it would be easy, but even after students have learned to ride waves they have trouble with this first part.
The second fundamental is timing and catching waves. A real wave breaks and then rolls to shore in a foam ball. Students learn to get on the board 20 feet before it arrives, paddle easy, and when the wave is close, paddle hard until they are in front of the wave.
Learning the Beginner Pop Up
The third fundamental is getting to the standing position smoothly. Surfing is the only board sport where you begin lying down and so other board sports don’t help with this facet. Beginners learn a count with which to move their bodies as a process to go from lying down to standing up.
The fourth fundamental is riding on the surf board. The correct posture is feet shoulder width apart with weight equal on both legs and body squared to the front of the board. In the correct posture, the student rides easily.
Advancing in Surf Lessons
As students progress in the surf lessons, they learn to paddle out to catch waves. This is where the real fun of surfing begins. It is also where students realize how tiring paddling becomes. Some students learn to catch bigger foam waves and real waves in the first lesson.
For Oceanside Surf Lessons, see the Home Page
For my Dry Land and in Water Demo video