There are several reasons Why Beginner Surfers Should Start with a Lesson. The idea of a lesson is to be able to practice on your own, but practice is only good, as it has been said, if it is perfect practice. This is the advice that follows it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master.
Beginner surfers are not aware that there are techniques necessary to become an advanced surfer. They are also not aware that all their instincts are wrong. This is easy to verify by watching someone who has not had a lesson try to catch a wave and stand up on a surf board then ride it to the beach.
Starting Off with Bad Practices Defeats Success
This was reinforced recently when a businessman arranged lessons for his 3 colleagues on a trip and he said he had experience and wasn’t going to be in the lesson. He paddled out to real waves during our lesson and I observed he could rarely catch one and when he did, he popped up poorly and fell off. In the meantime, two of his colleagues were catching and riding waves to the beach in their first lesson. They were now ready to progress to bigger things.
Most instincts for catching waves are wrong. Beginners should start with foam waves so they don’t get hurt. Beginners don’t know when to paddle, how to paddle, and when to stop. They often try to pop up before the wave hits their board or as the wave hits the board. They need to learn to paddle until the board is in front of the wave and is being pushed by the wave without them paddling. There is a peak speed when the surfer should then put his hands on the board.
Paddling is One of the Most Essential Techniques
The beginner doesn’t know how to paddle. They usually want to take long slow strokes as the wave starts to push the board. They frequently miss the wave. Strokes have to be short, half a swim stroke, and the hand dives to the elbow and the forearm does the pulling. The strokes have to be fast for two or three until the board jumps in front of the wave. When the board hits peak speed on a foam or real wave, the wave is pushing and the surfer can put his hands on the board.
Popping up is a sequence and most beginners don’t know the sequence. They usually paddle, place their hands in front of the shoulders and try to hop both feet onto the board while holding on. This places their head in front of their toes and their feet at the back of the board and they fly off the front. The pop up has to get the feet under the body and when the feet are on the board, the hands have to be in the air.
The Pop Up Has a Sequence and is Not Luck as Most Beginners Think
A good sequence is paddle, place the hands flat on the board next to the rib cage in a man’s push up position. Glide for a few seconds after catching the wave. Push up and bring one foot under the butt and place if flat on the board so the surfer can stand on the foot and lift his hands off the board. As the hands are rising, the surfer places the other foot in the front of the board across the middle stringer at a 45 degree angle.
Most beginners do not know how to stand on the board. Most get into a snow board stance with one hand trailing. This places the butt over one rail and the weight on the heels. That causes the board to carve and the surfer to fall off butt side. On the board, the surfer should be in a “push the box” stance where both hands are in front, weight is equal on front and back leg, knees are flexed, and the torso is upright. The hips and shoulders are square to the front and parallel to the beach. This keeps the weight equal on both sides of the middle stringer to comply with how the board is designed. This works for foam and real waves
The beginner never imagines these techniques and without a lesson they are developing very bad habits and sometimes muscle memory that can’t be changed.
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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