What You Learn in Repeated Surf Lessons

What you learn in repeated surf lessons is consistency to ride every wave. When you observe advanced surfers riding real waves, you will notice they rarely fall getting into the wave. This comes from perfecting the techniques.

Often in a first lesson I am teaching someone who has tried surfing on their own, had another lesson, or is a snowboarder or skateboarder. The reason they are often taking a lesson is they can’t ride the board yet.

The First Principals of Learning

The issue most of the above experience patterns have is they can’t pop up on the surf board and ride square to the front. That means hips and shoulders are facing front instead of in a snowboard stance where one shoulder is back and the body sideways on the board.

The reason this is important is the surfboard is designed so weight will be equal on both sides of the center line. In the snowboard stance with a shoulder back, the rider is placing weight on their heels and this causes them to fall off the butt side of the board.

Beginners also have to learn the timing of catching waves. There is a rhythm. When riding foam waves, the student rolls properly onto their board when the wave is 20′ away and starts paddling. Then when it is close, they paddle hard for preferably three sets of strokes (six strokes) before they place their hands on the board. The reason is if you put your hands on the board too soon, you push the nose under water called a pearl.

The next biggest mistake beginner surfers make is putting their hands in front of their shoulders to begin their pop up. Hands should be placed next to the chest flat on the board in a man’s push up. Placing the hands forward leads to tipping the board over and difficulty getting the feet on the board.

There are many little details that are necessary to successfully ride and to progress. The first lesson introduces them, but most beginners also lapse into a few bad habits that have to be continuously corrected.

Multiple lessons leads to progress riding bigger waves and correct techniques that lead to riding every wave. The point of a lesson is to make surfers independent so they can practice on their own, but when they do, they usually create some bad habits.

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