Beginner Or Intermediate Surfer?
Why It's Important to Know Your Surf Ability
In this video, we are going to figure out if you are a beginner or intermediate surfer. Knowing your surfing ability is really important if you are signing up for a surf camp, planning a surf trip with your friends or even just checking out a new surf spot. We’ve helped hundreds of surfers all around the world define and improve their ability and now we want to help you!
Before We Continue..
But before we get into the details, I wanted to tell you about our surf retreats. We host surf retreats in adventurous locations all around the world, where our main focus is to improve your surfing. We basically surf all day, sandboard down volcanoes, go horseback riding at sunset and connect with a growing community, so if all of those things sound fun to you, click the link in the description below to join us on our next adventure!
How The Independent Surfer Breaks Down Surf Ability
Now back to the post. Your surf ability is complex and made up of five main components. Your surf knowledge, this includes understanding of the ocean, surf equipment, understanding of body mechanics etc. Next is your ability to catch a wave, do you need help, are you doing it alone and how consistent are you. After that we have stamina. Can you catch a lot of waves in a short period of time or do you only catch one or two waves per session? Then, we have board control, which would include your ability to paddle, duck dive etc. Then we have the pop up and ability to ride the wave. Can you turn your board, or are you still riding straight?
Surf Knowledge
Catching Waves
Stamina
Board Control
On The Wave
We have also broken down surf ability into five main categories which include beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate advanced intermediate and advanced.
In order to define your surf ability, we need to first take a look at your ability to catch waves and the type of waves you are able to surf. You can almost always define someone’s surf ability by this characteristic.
Beginner Surfer
You are obviously a beginner surfer if you have never surfed before but you are also a beginner surfer if you are only able to catch white water waves, have gone to the line up once or twice and can occasionally catch a green wave but miss a lot of waves. Other signs of being a beginner surfer are riding a soft top surfboard or falling constantly when popping up or not being able to duckdive. Your main goals are mastering your paddle ability, pop up ability and catching and reading waves.
Advanced Beginner
You are an advanced beginner surfer if you are only surfing in the line up. You can catch green waves consistently but often find yourself out of position and can’t understand why. Other signs of being an advanced beginner surfer are riding a soft top or hard top and are even considering dropping in board size. Your goals are to increase wave count, drop down in board size, learn to turn your board and master the pop up technique
Intermediate
You are an intermediate surfer if you are surfing in the line up and can consistently catch waves without assistance, but you still miss one or two waves because of your pop up ability or positioning in the line up. You may also be riding a board of any size and can handle your board well with either duck diving or turtle rolling. Your goals are to learn to speed generate and to turn your board and you are challenging yourself with trying new waves.
Advanced Intermediate
You are an advanced intermediate surfer if you can catch most of the waves you paddle for, but still miss a few especially at crowded breaks. You are able to ride just about any craft but are still substantially better at one vs the other. You pop up most of the time and are working on perfecting your speed generation, exploring different types of turns and barrels but fall when pushing your limits. You may still be intimidated by bigger, more powerful surf but regularly surf different waves.
Advanced Surfer
You are an advanced surfer if you can catch almost all of the waves you paddle for, falling once or twice every other session and have a great understanding of how the ocean works. You can ride almost any craft and your pop up doesn’t need much work at all. You are able to get barreled but may be working on speed generating in the barrel. You are no longer working on bottom turns and speed generation but are now working on aerials, variations of turns and extending barrel time.
Still Not Sure?
Now, you may fall between two of the above descriptions. I would highly suggest sticking to the lower level description, especially when considering joining one of our surf retreats! Don’t forget to email us if you still can’t decide your surfing ability.
