Surfing is not easy to learn and is physically demanding but who are the best surf students? It is a fun question I always ask myself when I have a family or a couple. Who is going to be the best. Surfing is both a learning task requiring brain body coordination and a physical challenge requiring strength and flexibility.
Fit men make excellent students. They are consistently working with their bodies to build strength and stamina. They are used to coordinating movement. Women make good surf students because they tend to learn better than men. They are able to assimilate information with 100% learning and fewer filters. Boys have so many filters hardly anything gets through. Girls are good learners if they are physically capable.
Overweight is a Problem for Surfing
People who are overweight fall into the bottom category of capable students. They can’t lift their body weight off the board and their legs are too big and flexibility lacking to get their feet right. I suggest to those that want to learn that they begin a weight loss and strength building process at the same time.
Surfing is timing and rhythm. Getting new students’ minds to stop racing is a big challenge for the instructor. I tell students when they get in the water their minds go “gaga” and it is always true. This makes them want to rush through all the steps of the sequence and not have the patience to do things right. Fear is also an issue as many people are afraid to stand up on a moving surfboard and want to hold on too long.
Learning to Catch Waves Takes Focus
Surf students also have trouble learning the timing of catching waves. The proper process is to paddle a few times before a foam wave arrives and paddle hard a few times when the wave arrives at the board. Many students are putting hands on the board before the wave arrives and most aren’t paddling long enough to feel the board take off before putting their hands on the board. This has a lot to do with calming down and focusing on what is happening.
As a whole, women seem to have better brain body coordination. Frequently, the mom is the first to surf in a family. Women are often the best surfers with couples. Women want to listen and learn. Men and boys want to follow their instincts over learning the correct process. In a family, girls will stick with me as they learn. Boys want to go off quickly to try it on their own. Our instincts of how to surf are wrong. Nothing we have done earlier in our lives is similar to surfing.
New students can get in shape to surf. Flexibility is the main issue. Squats and dead lifts without weights every day prepare the hamstrings, buttocks, and lower back for the pop up. Push ups give us the upper body strength and snap we need. Any aerobics builds glucose in the muscles and allows for better effort and recovery.
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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