After coaching for 5 months at the British Surfing Association in 2005 doing hundreds of beginner surf lessons I got a taste for surf coaching. From there it went on to coaching at Roxy surf school, Ticket to Ride and currently some of the top junior surfers in South Africa. Across all these levels these are the most common ‘obvious’ mistakes made.
1.Practice and master your pop-up:
‘Obviously’ is what you are thinking right now, BUT you’d be amazed at the number of surfers who use a knee (or elbow or chin for that matter) whilst getting to their feet. I’ve seen surfers getting big barrels and doing 360 airs who still don’t pop straight to their feet. And for those of you who wipe out 2/10 waves whilst standing and are making excuses, stop already and practice 10 times before you go to bed each night. If you want to know how then just comment below and I’ll help you out.
2. Get your feet in the right place:
Once again this seems obvious, but it is always the first thing I look for and often find with surfers who have started surfing a little later in life. No, on a mini-mal your back foot is not right at the tail (unless you are doing a big turn), but when you move down to that shortboard/fish/evo you need to plant that back foot between the fins, a deck pad will help with this! Really good surfers subtly move their feet all the time depending on the manouevre performed, but lets start simple and get the basics right first. If you are always too far forward then take that wax off the front of your board and do the splits once or twice as a reminder! This will take time but be worthwhile.
3. If you paddle then catch the wave:
Paddling is easily one of the most important things in surfing, and there is nothing worse for me as a surf coach than watching someone paddle for ten waves in their 20 minutes, only catch one of them and come in saying ‘I tried I just couldn’t catch them’. Bull*#$t! Yes there are times where you may miss a wave, but unless you have dings on your board from your chin pushing down trying to get into that wave then you didn’t try hard enough (see pic). Be selective and when you turn to go for a wave then commit to it 100%, unless of course someone is already on it, we don’t like drop-ins. If you are on the inside however then don’t pull out for someone on the shoulder!
4. Ride a bigger board:
I could go on forever about this, but i’ll keep it simple. Yes an Al Merrick Dumpster Diver with Dane Reynolds doing full rotation airs looks super sick. However for us normal folk who are heading down the line and stoked to do a nice cutback, riding a surfboard 4 inches shorter than our height doesn’t really help! You catch fewer waves, your surfing looks out of control (you got someone to film you lately?) and you don’t learn how to use a wave or turn properly. Sorry to burst your bubble but it might be back to the drawing board for you! If you want advise just comment below and I’d be happy to help you out.
5. Surf more:
‘Obviously’ is once again the response, but seriously it really helps. No, I don’t mean going on two trips to Indo this year instead of one, I mean surf as frequently as you can. Onshore, offshore, cold, 1 foot or 6 foot just get in the water. If you only have 30 minutes of light before heading to work or after you get home then use those 30 minutes and get out there! The more you surf the better you get, especially using these top tips above.
AND BY THE WAY, by surfing I don’t meant paddling out the back and having a fat chit-chat for an hour, catching one wave and going in for a shower and a coffee. If you actually want to improve then you have to catch waves!
Please feel free to ask questions below and stay tuned for more ‘How to’ blogs sharing over 20 years of surfing knowledge.