Top Surfing Tips

Surfing is a challenging sport to learn so here's a some advice and tips to getting started. For more technique tips and information go to carvemag.com

Getting started

If you want to learn to surf, you need to be fit and you must be a good swimmer. Good eyesight is also important; if you have poor vision, wear contact lenses.

Just as beginner skiers spend their first days on the slopes at a ski school, so beginner surfers should spend their first days on the beach at a surf school.

Surf Schools

Being taught the correct techniques by a properly-qualified instructor will save you hours of frustration. Lessons are inexpensive and they’re good fun. Most importantly, it’s vital that you learn about safety in the water: the ocean is a dangerous place to play if you don’t know what you’re doing.

A few Ground rules

As well as the basic techniques of surfing you’ll be taught at a surf school, you’ll also come across a number of important ground rules, which apply to all surfers:

• DON’T surf alone. It’s always safer to surf with a mate or two...and a lot more fun.

• DON”T drop-in. Recreational surfing is a sport without hard-and-fast rules but there is one fundamental unwritten law: the surfer nearest the curl of the wave has right-of-way.

• DON’T surf straight after a meal, or after drinking alcohol.

• DON’T bail your board when paddling out through waves if you can possibly help it. There may be someone right behind you and they won’t appreciate getting a board in the face.

• DO observe warning flags and restricted-area flags. These are used for safety purposes by lifeguards at most of the main surfing beaches from May to September.

If a red flag is flying, the beach is closed because surf conditions are unsafe. Beginner and intermediate surfers should find a more sheltered beach elsewhere. Experienced surfers who paddle out when a red flag is flying do so at their own risk.

A zone with black-and-white chequered flags is a lifeguard-supervised area for beginner surfers. These areas sometimes get pretty crowded, with boards flying around all over the place, so keep your wits about you.

A zone with yellow-and-red flags is an area for swimmers (and bodyboarders) only.

Paddling Out

• Stay on the inside if learning. Don't let go of the board when you are paddling out.
• Be concious of people around you.
• Learn to turtle roll if you can't duck-dive your board.

Surfing and Wipeouts

• Once you've made it out back, pick two points on shore and keep them lined up to stay in the same position.
• When you paddle for a wave, check there is no-one directly in front of you.
• If you come off protect your head with your arms but don't panic and dump the board when a bigger wave comes towards you - you could hurt yourself or someone else.
• When you come up have your hand come up first as it will protect your head and push the board away.

Rips

If you get stuck in a rip don't leave your board, it's your life preserver. If you’re stuck in a rip, don't try to paddle directly against it. Paddle horizontal to the beach or ride it out and come in in the whitewater.

Getting to your feet

Use the same technique to paddle into the wave, as you feel the tail of the board lift and you begin to move towards the beach, catching the wave. The first thing to do is push up with your arms. At the same time, slide the knee of your back leg up the board. Make sure that it is positioned in the centre of the board. Keep your weight forward leaning through your shoulders. Focus on keeping your head up, this will keep the nose of your board up and stop you from nose diving. As you gain momentum bring your front foot forward and place it in the middle of the board.

Keep your balance in this drop knee position by holding your arms out to your sides like a tight rope walker to help keep your balance. Your front foot should then be brought through and placed in the middle of the board just forward of the centre point. Don’t stand up bolt upright again keep a low centre of gravity. Your body should be kept sideways and you should be looking forward, keeping your nose roughly in line with your knee and your foot. As you become better at this technique you should begin to try the first technique as jumping straight to your feet will make steeper drops easier.

Once you’ve finished your ride don’t just run up onto the sand as this will more than likely snap your fins. So just step off the side of the board and you will stop. Never dive off! . This maybe difficult at first but don’t worry it’s all part of learning a new skill.

Duck diving

Once you can ride broken waves with confidence you’re ready to venture further out to the lineup. But to get there you’ll have to get through bigger lines of whitewater, as well as unbroken waves, and to do this you need to learn how to duck-dive.

Duck-diving involves sinking your board underneath the oncoming wave, then popping up the far side. The zone of turbulence of a wave is usually only a couple of feet deep, so if you can get underneath it you won’t get dragged back the whole time. Here’s how you do it:
Paddle hard towards the wave, so you’ve got loads of forward momentum.

Just before the wave reaches you, grab the rails of the board under your chest, lift your bum in the air, and lean downwards on the board’s nose, straightening your arms as you do so. This will sink the nose of the board. Now bring one of your knees up under your body, position it in the middle of the board, and shove the board downwards and forwards underwater. Take a deep breath as you do this.
If you’ve duck-dived deep enough, you’ll sense the wave going past above you. Once it’s passed, your board’s buoyancy will lift you back to the surface.

Most intermediate surfers find duck-diving the hardest part of learning to surf, as it requires a lot of effort. If you find yourself struggling, try to build up your upper-body strength between surf trips by doing regular exercises (especially push-ups and stomach curls).
Intermediate surfer’s boards are hard to duck-dive because of their large volumes (thinner custom boards are much easier). Unfortunately you’re in a Catch-22 position because you need that volume to catch the waves.

Once you’ve mastered duck-diving using one knee, try bringing one leg up under your body and using your foot to push the tail of the board down. This method allows deeper penetration.