WHY SURF

For joy and fun.
Rule 1: When it isn’t fun anymore, get out of the water. (Everyone will appreciate it.)

Is Surfing Fun?
Oh, yes. There’s nothing more improbable than standing up on a stiff board and trying to steer it with your feet through a collapsing gyre of water. And it’s amazing that we’ve evolved so far that we can actually learn to do it.

I’m a Little Nervous, What Should I Expect?
If you aren’t living in the tropics, the water will be cold. You’ll want to wear a wet suit. Today’s wet suits are excellent and aside from an initial damp seepy feeling as you wade into the water, within a minute you’ll be comfortable and warm. Unless you’ve decided to learn to surf in the dead of winter. Why did you decided to do that?

What About... Falling?
You are going to fall in the water. Your head will go under. Depending on how big a wave you fall on, it’ll be like falling into a cross between a cement mixer and a fast flowing river. Waves are pretty powerful, even the small ones. Medium size ones can act like a Sumo Wrestler stomping his feet, picking you up, and slamming you down. However, you’re going to learn to surf on those little 1 to 2 foot waves, right? Not in those big Sumo Wrestler waves, right? Generally, surfing is a shallow water sport. So after you fall, wait a few seconds for the bubbling and pushy water to stop, and stand up when you need some air.

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Is Surfing Hard?

Ah, there’s no way around this. Surfing takes practice, in big doses. It takes months and years to get good. It takes weeks to master fundamentals. The ocean is a weird, sometimes chaotic environment to the newcomer. You have to learn how waves behave. You have to learn what your surfboard can do. You have to learn the skills of catching a wave, standing up, riding and judging bulging tumbling water. The answer: No, learning to surf isn’t hard, it’s fun. It just takes time.

Helpful Advice #1: Watch other surfers who know how to surf, figure out what they’re doing. Do it yourself.

Helpful Advice #2: Taking a couple of lessons with an experienced surfing instructor can save you a year of pain.

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What Kind of Surfboard?

A long one. Beginners need a long board. A longboard is between 8 to 10 feet long. Of course, you’re tempted by those pointed, streamline arrow-shaped boards that all the other great surfers are slicing and carving up the ocean with like men swinging chain saws. They’re all on 6 to 7 foot, three-finned shortboards, called thrusters, so why not you?

Because you’re a beginner. Those short little boards are shaped for maneuverability, which fits into the highly technical nomenclature of being “squirrely.” That mean’s it’s tippy, turns fast, accelerates, and requires great skill to control. Does that sound like your kind of board? (Before you answer that, remember, you’re a beginner. You’re what all those champion surfers will be laughing at if you chose a shortboard.)

With a shortboard, you’ll be getting up and surfing it within a year.

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Safety

Surf Safety. Know the beach where you surf, know where the rocks are, if any. Know how the currents work. Never paddle out farther than you can swim back in without your board. Never go out in wave conditions you aren’t prepared for. Don’t surf alone. Have good equipment, including a leash that keeps your flotation device close. Know your limits. Fear means something. If you’re tired, go in. Don’t turn your back on the ocean, cause sure enough there’s a great big wave waiting to sneak up and lion-pounce on you. Don’t fall off your board and shoot it at innocent bystanders. Don’t hang around inside in other surfers’ way so they shoot their boards at you. Don’t hold your board or let it float between you and the next oncoming wave—it can turn into a big bulldozer blade and you’re the dozee. Oh, there’s just a lot of things, things that you’ll just never have to worry about if you stay in your depth and height of wave (small) to learn the art.

You can probably break any one to three of the rules above. If you break four or more, you may pay for it dearly.

Rule #1: Respect Mother Ocean (Tick her off, she’ll kill you.)

When you go up against Mother nature, you can never totally control the outcome. The ocean, for all its beauty, is vastly more powerful than the strongest of surfers. (Here, as usual, surfer means bodyboarder and surfer - man or woman) Even in relatively small surf of 2 - 3 feet, the power of the wave can smash you into unpleasant reef or rock causing serious injury or hospitalization. Even when it's small, you can still get hurt. Always remember that the ocean is much bigger and stronger than you, and keep your wits about you to avoid injury.

THE BASICS

Never Surf Alone: This is the first rule. The danger is real. If you have a companion, when you get into trouble, your friend can help rescue you or get help. At least try to surf where others are surfing if you can't bring along a friend. It goes without saying that you should keep alert to trouble others are having and come to their aid should the need arise.

Don't Surf Until or Unless You Are a Strong Swimmer: Remember that a surfer becomes a swimmer once separated from his board. And it is bound to happen to you that a leash will break or an ankle strap will come undone. One can quickly succumb to fatigue if not in good physical condition or one is not a strong swimmer. Some of the tests of swimming ability are:

The ability to swim 100 yards at full strength; The ability to swim 500 yards at a controlled pace; Submerge and remain submerged for at least 30 seconds; Swim under water for at least 60 feet; Be able to tread water for at least 20 minutes.

Give the Other Surfer the Right-of-Way: Be cool! A wave comes in and everyone wants to get on. That is how they get broken teeth and smashed eyes. Remember there is much more surf coming in. Wait for another wave. Do not be a surf hog." I'm not sure that surfers today pride themselves in being good sports, but it wouldn't hurt. In fact it takes character to give the right-of-way to another.

Keep Control of Your Board: Loose boards cause injuries, sometimes serious. However, countless serious injuries have resulted from loose boards in the water. Unless you are surfing a deserted beach, a rare occurrence, you must have a leash. Every surfer owes it to every other surfer, and every other person in the water, to keep control of his/her board. Cutting out of a wave neatly, stalling, turning back, kicking out fast, and making a graceful pullout shoot be practiced until they are mastered and become second nature.

Speaking of loose boards, the inevitable happens no matter what precautions we take. Put a nose guard on your board. It can save you from losing your eye, where surfers got hurt, but their vision was saved because they had a nose guard attached to the nose of their board.

Surf Only Where Your Ability Is Equal to the Waves: This is especially important for beginners. Not only are you putting yourself at risk, but everybody in the line-up has to keep their eye on you to make sure you aren't dropping-in on them, and otherwise posing a hazard to yourself and others.

Remember, Don't Surf at Night: But you had better be able to surf that break blind-folded in the day before you try it at night.

If You Are a Real Beginner, Surf Only Broken Waves: This will help you get up-to-speed without getting creamed in breaking waves. Take your time learning.

Do Not Paddle Out Through Area Where Surfers Are Riding: It is simple common sense not to paddle out through areas where waves are being ridden. Always maneuver around incoming surfers even if it means a longer paddling-out distance as you work your way beyond the breakers to the line-up. You are asking for trouble otherwise.

Other stuff:

Just like any athletic activity, you must be in good overall physical shape. This will keep you from becoming winded too easily and will help you to avoid minor injuries like pulled muscles, strains and sprains. Warming up on the beach before you paddle-out is becoming a common practice too and is probably a good idea.

If you see a fellow surfer in trouble, go to their aid immediately. Once you get them to shore, make sure someone is going for emergency assistance if needed. Learn CPR. You never know when you will need it.

Study and understand the water conditions for the place you want to surf. If you don't feel comfortable going out, there's a reason. You aren't ready! Don't go.

If there are life-guards at your break (not a bad idea :^D) ask them about the break. They've seen it all and know what the conditions are like.

Understand the limitations of yourself and your equipment. Know the hazards of backwashes, riptides, strong-running eddies, currents and whirlpools.

Again, surf with a friend, or make some friends quickly in the line-up.

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Understanding Waves
The Thing About Waves

You can only catch a wave as it ends its long journey, coming up on shore. As the wave hits the sandy bottom, or reef, whatever’s under the water, it begins to well up. It’ll begin to get steeper, stand up in a C, then fall over in a white wash. During the time it begins to get steeper until the time it falls over, that potential energy converts to kinetic energy, and the water actually starts moving. It’s in that small range of this energy conversion that surfers catch a bit of force, get up, and surf. They catch some energy to get started, then they sled along on it. That’s the theory.

What’s a Rideable Wave?

Wave Positioning

Of course, experienced surfers don’t surf the white water. They paddle out just beyond where the waves are breaking and wait. You’ll notice that they all paddle out to roughly the same spot, longboarders a little farther out, because the waves tend to break in the same area. Surfers stay out beyond this area, then paddle into it when they see a wave they want to ride. They paddle in so that the wave catches up with them just at the place where the wave is getting steeper, rising into a rideable shape. With experience, you’ll get to recognize the position where waves form. You’ll see a wave approaching and get an intuition that it’s big enough to take you with it. You’ll decide if you want to go with it, and if you do, you’ll paddle in just far enough to catch the wave as it builds, but not so far that it’s already falling over in a throwing C shape.

Wave Catching Secret #1: As a beginner, it’s difficult to recognize the proper wave position. Look at the experienced surfers, it’s where they are.

When Not to Catch a Wave

There is a critical moment when you should not catch a wave. Generally this is when a wave has formed into a C and is throwing water forward at high speed. If you catch the wave at this point, you’ll be treated to a new experience: Going Over the Falls.

There are three main flavors to going over the falls. First, you can catch a wave too late, just as it is pitching over, and fall with it into the abyss. Just you and several hundred tons of water falling in a graceful arch to the sea bed. It’s a very jarring experience. Because once you hit, then the whole wave dog-piles onto you. You’ll likely do a little tumbling and rolling under the water. Maybe a flip or two.

The second flavor of going over the falls happens when you fall in front of an arching wave. You hit the bottom, or bowl, just as the wave is throwing a lot of water up. Of course, you take the up elevator too, then are thrown forward to continue the normal over the falls crash and bubble experience. The last time this happened to me, I was literally upside down in fetal position as the wave spit me out in a cannonball toward the bottom. You have a lot of time to think over your mistake.

The last over the falls flavor happens to “he who hesitates.” Bigger waves stand up and crash over in roughly the same spot. Sometimes waves just form a mushy slush of moving white water, other times they pick up and drop sledge-hammering tons of water in a hard curtain drop. X marks the spot. Say hey, do you want to be on X-marks-the-spot when the curtain drops?

No you don’t. This is the voice of experience talking.

Rule #2: When practicing as a beginner, stay safely inside where the waves break or paddle all the way out beyond where they break, don’t dally in between.

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How to surf Right

Equipment
Luckily, we're not as equipment-heavy as, say, skiing or windsurfing. You're going to need: A board.
A used board is generally your best bet when starting out. Chances are good that you're going to ding it up just carrying it around. There are different types of surfboards.

Something to wear
Hopefully this is nothing more than a bathing suit. But if its necessary, and you can afford it, a new wetsuit can be a pretty good investment.

Here are the Parts of Your Surfboard

A leash
Once upon a time, boards had no leashes. If you lost your board, you swam to shore. Only the best surfers could venture out to some breaks because losing your board could mean the destruction of you or your board. Surfers were stronger swimmers and more all-around watermen. It also meant that there were loose boards flying all over the place at some breaks.

For good or ill, those days are gone. Just a word of advice for the beginner: Treat your leash as if it were not there. Do not rely on it to always bring your board back to you. If the section you're riding starts getting gnarly, pretend you're going to have to swim to shore if you bail.

Some wax
You can usually wheedle wax out of a surfshop owner if you buy anything there. Some surfers pride themselves on never having bought a bar of wax. If the deck of your board has some form of traction pad, you might not need the wax.

Board Positioning

When you lie on your board, you want to be in the center. As you paddle, the nose should be about an inch or two above the water surface. Being in the middle of your board is critical to catching waves. Here’s why.

If you’re too far back on your board and the tail is sunk in the water, it’s like putting on the brakes. When the wave comes up under you, it can’t push you forward, it just rolls on under you.

You must be in the middle of your board, so that when a wave comes up from behind, it’ll threaten to tip the nose down under the water. (You won’t let it do that, I’ll tell you how.) But when the wave tips the tail of the board up, you can use your board a bit like a sail to catch the passing energy of the wave. It’s at that point that you paddle hard, hitting with both arms, to keep the nose out of the water. If you keep the nose out, the board will catch the wave energy and slide forward, and then you’re in for a ride.

You’ll have to experiment a bit to find the middle of your board. Note where your chin is when you lay down. If the nose was too far up when a wave went under you, move forward a bit. If the nose sank under the water when you tried to catch the wave, back up a bit, an inch or two. Find the spot where you’re in the middle of your board and can control the tilt when a wave picks you up. You always lie down in that same spot. Big wave or small.

Paddling With Heavy Arms
Your sole means of locomotion rests in the muscles from your elbows to your chest. As a beginner, you can expect your arms to weary quickly. Which is another good reason for starting out by wading hip to chest deep and catching white water: You don’t have to paddle. Your paddling strength will grow with practice. It just may feel very odd the first time you paddle a surfboard. After several outings it’ll feel more normal. Push ups and paddling exercises help. And yes, experienced surfers will be able to tell you’re a beginner just by the way you paddle.

Paddling to Catch a Wave
Now, when you paddle to catch a wave, you don’t have to paddle fast. You’re not trying to get up speed so that you can match the wave’s velocity. You’re just getting some momentum going so it doesn’t take so much energy for the wave to launch you forward.

To catch a wave, you want to paddle a few strokes hard to get the board cruising, then take it easy as you look back at the wave to see what it’s doing behind you. When the wave picks up the back of your board, threatening to tip the nose under, then you paddle hard, with both arms, two or three times, to keep the nose out. If you feel the nose might still go under, arch your neck and back to aim the nose up as you blast with your arms. It’s really a matter of timing and wave position, not speed or arm strength. If the nose stays out of the water, and you feel the board begin to slide on its own, then you’ve got the wave.

Getting Up
To get up, put your hands on the rails (edges) of the board under your chest and do a mighty push up. You can cheat and bend your back and knees. As you do your pushup swing one leg up under you. Then stand up as quickly as possible. The sooner you’re up, the sooner you have control of the board. If you go slow, getting to one knee, then the other, things may get tippy and you fall.

Ideally, you get up quickly at the top of a wave, as you and the board drop down the face, when the semi-weightlessness makes it easy to flip up and draw your feet under you. Experienced surfers get up to their feet in one quick snap. It comes with practice. The first time you’re on the beach, you may want to practice pushing up and jumping to your feet while still on the sand. It’s easier practicing on sand than on a tippy surfboard in water.

Standing
Let’s say you made it up on both feet. You ride a board facing sideways, not facing the nose of your board. One hip should be toward the nose, the other toward the tail. Your feet should be apart centered in the board. You’re in a slight crouch for balance. Down the center of your board is usually a thin piece of wood, called a stringer, built in to strengthen the board. Your feet should be on the stringer. Knees slightly bent. Arms out for balance. Grinning with joy or fear, your choice.

Now, your job as rider is to lean forward or backward, even stepping forward or backward, to make the board plane evenly along the water. If you lean just a little bit to the side of the board, the board turns. Because you’re facing sideways, you can control the turning of the board with your ankles and by leaning. Your job now is to lean and move on the board to aim it along the wave.

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Before Paddling Out
Sit and watch the surf for a while. Watch what people are doing. Where is everybody sitting, where do they paddle out. Where do the waves break? As waves get bigger they break further out, so if everyone is sitting farther out than where the waves are currently breaking, it means that there are bigger sets coming. Watch for them. While you're watching the break, stretch your arms and back. Limber up.

Getting in the Water
You've noted where other people head out. Wax your stick and head down to that spot. Put your leash on. (Digression: Decide whether you're going to be a regular-foot (left foot forward) or a goofy-foot. Try both while standing on shore and see what feels better.) Put your leash on your back leg. Walk your board out until the water is about waist deep and hop on. Position yourself on the board so that the nose is just barely (2-3") out of the water. Too little and you'll be going under, too much and you'll wear yourself out pushing water.

Paddling Out
Go for nice, even, alternating strokes. When you have to get through the whitewater get up some speed and then either: Plow right through it. Raise your chest up with your arms so that the water passes between you and the board. Just as the wave is about to hit you, roll over on your back (roll the board too), and pull the nose of the board down. Then roll back up. Duck-dive. Raise up on one knee, push the nose of the board under the wave and follow with your body. (This takes lots of practice). (See following notes on duck-diving)
Bail. Make sure no one is within 20-30' of you, get off your board, and dive for the bottom. This is for emergencies only. You lose a great deal of distance this way, and you endanger people around you.

Duck Diving
Try to have some forward momentum before you give up paddling to begin pressing your board down. This provides some counter to the force of the wave in the direction of shore. Even if it is just a couple of strokes before the angry whiteness consumes you, you will come out further than a couple of strokes ahead of where you would have it you had not gotten going forward.

Push your board as deeply under as possible. The more of your body that you get above water quickly will result in getting the board deeper under. Sometimes even tilt your board to the side in the water so that there is less resistance to it going down. Some people use only their arms and their knee(s) to push the board down. Using the ball of one of your foot instead and to raise the other one high to provide more weight on the board.

Immediately before the surf subsumes you, pull yourself down to the board and angle the board slightly up to the perceived other side of the break. Too much angle and the nose of the board will catch the break and push you backwards. Not enough and the back of the board will be caught in the suction of the wave as it rushes by you and it won't help pull you through. If you have the right upward angle, and your hands are toward the front of the board, probably about where you press up from, you can thrust the board to the other side of the wave and it will help pull you through.

A key is *not* to stay under for as long as possible, just to start deep and shoot up as far on the other side of the turbulence as possible. The sooner you get back up the surface and balanced on your board, the sooner you are able to start paddling again... and that's the only way you really get outside anyway.

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The Line-up
Once you get to where people are sitting around (in the water, if they're on the beach, you've been paddling the wrong way :-) ) sit back and take it easy for awhile. Watch what others are doing. A nice gesture is to say hello to the others in the water. This lets them know that you acknowledge their existance and will not run them over or drop in on them. Don't be chatty though. A simple "Hello" is fine.

Catching a Wave
This is the first of many hurdles in learning to surf. The wave knowledge - knowing which wave to paddle for and which to let pass, and the timing - when to start paddling, how fast, how much to arch your back, and when to get to your feet, are things that no one can teach you. They will come with time spent surfing.

Tip : When trying to stand up, stand up. Don't get to your knees first, that leads to kneeboarding (A curable illness).

Don't go to the most crowded/famous. Start at a mellow beach. Gentle waves. Sand bottom. Broad sand beach. You can't run before you walk.

Paddle out, and try to catch the whitewater in while riding on your belly. You may have to adjust how far forward/back you lay on the board. You want about an inch of room between the nose of the board and the surface of the water. You'll need to be paddling in and have the wave catch you and push you even faster in the same direction. Stay on the board as you zoom towards shore.
Once you can reliably pick a wave and catch it, start trying to angle this way and that under control. Try going both ways, left and right.

When you can zoom back and forth at will, you're ready for a bigger step. Take a wave right before/where it's breaking, and ride it while turning to keep right at where the wave is breaking. Figuring out just where to paddle to so as to catch the wave at the right spot is a major part of the game.

When you can catch waves reliably, you're going to want to try riding them standing up. Paddle and let the white water catch you. As soon as you're moving, jump to your feet. This is difficult. It's really worth it to practice the jumping from prone to your feet on land first and get it well-rehearsed before doing it on a moving board on the water. Foot placement is crucial. You'll want your back foot near the tail of the board and your front foot somewhere in front of that, near the middle of the board, say. Look at other surfers. Practice on a rough template of the board on the ground. Ride the wave in. Depending on the size of the board either balance on it (bigger) or move it to stay underneath you (smaller).

Once you can reliably get up, you want to start angling while riding the white water. Both ways, zooming back and forth under control. Once you can do that, move to catching the wave right where it is breaking. This will get trickier, because you'll have a more vertical take off point and the board will have a tendency to sink the nose as you go down the face of the wave. You want to catch the wave by angling in the direction the wave is breaking.

The Rules
Surfing tends to be pretty free form but there are certain accepted rules, mostly based on safety and common sense. The person closest to the breaking part of the wave has the right of way. In many low-key breaks, the first person paddling for the wave owns it. Do not expect this to apply in crowded conditions.

Dropping In (The Thou Shalt Not Rule)
Dropping in is taking off on a wave in front of someone who is already up and riding. Don't do this. Ever. No exceptions.

Paddling Out (The Eat It Rule)
When paddling out, if you must get over a wave that someone is riding, paddle behind them (On the white water side). This generally means getting stuffed for the sake of someone else's ride. Take comfort in the hope that they would do the same for you. Do not paddle in front of someone unless you are so sure that you will be 20 feet in front of them that you are willing to bet the well-being of your board/car/nose on it.

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10 steps to surfing a wave

So now, let’s put this all together into the drill you perform each time you catch a wave:

1) You are waiting outside, slightly beyond where the waves break.

2) You see a wave you want to ride.

3) You turn the board calmly toward shore and lie down in the middle of the board, putting your chin on the mark that tells you you’re in the middle.

4) Stroke hard four or five times to get the board moving.

5) Relax, paddle easy, and look back over your shoulder to see the wave.

Is it too small, is it getting too big, is it just right? If it’s too small, you may need to paddle a little harder to get in farther to catch it, or wait for another wave. If it’s too big, getting too steep too fast, stop. Sit up. The wave may just move under you. If you’re too far in and the wave is going to dump on you, get off your board and dive. If it looks just right, continue paddling easy until the wave reaches you and picks up the tail.

6) Stroke hard two or three times to keep the nose out and get on the wave. Arch your neck and back to aim the nose if need be.

7) If you feel the board start to move on its own power, wait a second or stroke once more before you get up. Beginners, because they’re uneasy, often get up too early, before they’ve caught the wave, and thus miss it.

8) If you’re sure you caught the wave, push up and stand in your infamous surfer sideways crouch.

9) Ride the wave in joy.

(Step 10 has to do with death and taxes.)

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Finding a surfing partner

One of the most important things to have in learning to surf is someone to surf with. Aside from the obvious safety reasons (it cuts your chances of being eaten by a shark in half :-) ) a partner will give you moral support, keep you stoked when you get frustrated, keep you from sleeping in when its good, talk you into paddling out when its big, and mostly be a friend.
There are two schools of thought here:

Find someone good to teach you to surf and find someone else who wants to learn and teach each other.

Boards and wetsuits will be shared. You will hoot for each other on fine days. You will badmouth anyone who drops in on him. People will come to view you as a team.

And, years later when you are 40 years old and you and your brah are sitting on a break somewhere listening to the younger guys yacking it up, you will smile and know deep in your soul that there is nothing finer than surfing and the people you do it with.

Finding a Place to Surf

Go to your nearest surf shop and ask people where a good break to learn is. Be honest about your abilities, surfers are a pretty friendly lot. Also, watch for the upcoming FAQ.

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