Fastest Way To Learn How Surf
In this article we dive deep into the age old question of how surf. At the end of the day, putting the time and effort to surf better is the only way to get good at surfing. A better question than how surf or how to surf is how many surf lessons do I need. Because, the fastest way to learn how surf is to learn to surf with a well qualified surf coach. So, let’s dive into what that looks like.
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How To Get Better At Surfing
With so many surf coaches and surf schools dropping content all over the internet, a person really has to wonder how to get better at surfing. There are so many self proclaimed guru’s claiming that their way of teaching or surf coaching method is the best. With the surfers’ road map, the coffee cup and so much more, one has to wonder if these are just marketing campaigns or if they actually work.
Broken Down Step By Step:
Without using any trigger or marketing phrases, let’s just take a look at how to get better at surfing fast in the most basic and straight forward way possible.
1. Practice Your Pop up at Home
If you truly want to get better at surfing fast, then you should absolutely practice your pop up at home. You will only get a limited amount of chances to stand up on the surfboard in the water. Most of your time will be spent paddling and trying to catch waves. But, at home, you don’t need to think about catching waves, you can solely focus of practicing your pop up.
The pop up is the number 1 problem holding back most,. if not all of the clients we work with. Even at the intermediate and advanced intermediate level. So, the fastest way to learn how to surf or get better at surfing is practice your pop up at home. This extends past being a beginner, if you want to surf like a professional, you need to pop up like one. If yours has issues, your surfing will have issues.
2. Get a Surf Coach
There is a big difference between going to a surf school for a couple of lessons in the white water and hiring a professional, qualified surf coach with credibility. A surf school will introduce you to surfing, a qualified surf coach will take your surfing to the next level. Even if you are doing everything right, a surf coach can give you confirmation that what you are doing is correct. Our perception of how we surf is skewed and we need a non biased perspective to know if we are making progress or not. So, what do surf coaches actually do?
Define Goals
There are so many things to learn in surfing, but knowing which to focus on can be incredibly difficult. That is where a surf coach comes in handy. By reviewing your surfing, a surf coach can help you define the things you should be focusing on. Here’s an example.
I was working with a client recently, they are trying to improve their turns while surfing and they believed that they were having trouble with the turning technique itself. But, when we went surfing together and I saw their pop up, it turned out that they constantly landed their foot in the wrong place on the board, thus making it impossible for them to improve. So, they had to dial it back, work on their pop up and as soon as their pop up was good, they were able to turn the board with ease.
Direct Feedback
As mentioned above, direct feedback from a coach will help you define what you are doing right and wrong to help you know what to focus on. Ultimately speeding up your rate of progression. If you are left wondering what the problem is all the time, you will have a hard time making progress quickly.
Video Analysis
One step better than having someone else tell you what you are doing right and wrong, seeing it for yourself. A surf coach can film you and show you what you are doing right and wrong through video analysis to help you get better at surfing fast.
Training Routines
Not every problem in your surfing is related to technique. Sometimes the issues you are having with surfing are related to your overall strength, flexibility and mobility. A surf coach can help you identify weak areas in your surfing and plan a training schedule that will help you get better at surfing fast.
3. Watch Waves Break
Growing up, I once heard that the difference between good surfers and the best surfers is when a good surfer goes to watch the sunset over the ocean, they pay attention to the sunset, but a great surfer pays attention to the waves. You need to be good at reading waves to catch them, so spend a considerable amount of time just watching waves when you are at the beach to help improve your wave reading skills and get better at surfing fast.
4. Visualize Yourself Surfing
Let’s face it, not everyone has the time to go surfing all day everyday. Some of us only have the time to go once or twice a week. But, visualizing yourself surfing can be an easy alternative during your day to day life that can help you get better at surfing fast. I don’t just mean thinking about surfing, I mean trying to focus deeply on specific elements of surfing that you are working on and visualize them with intention.
5. Journal
Journaling is an underrated way to speed up your rate of progression. Journaling will help you organize your thoughts and feelings so you can create actionable goals that will help you get better at surfing fast.
6. Ride A Surf Skate
Surf skating is a great way to practice surfing without the hassle of catching and reading waves, driving to the beach and getting into your surf gear. It allows you to mimic control of the surfboard to help you surf better faster. You can easily speed up your progress by spending 30 minutes a day riding a surf skate at home.
7. Go and Surf!
Sure, all of the above mentioned approaches will help you get better at surfing fast but, at the end of the day the only way to get better at surfing is to go surfing and practice. But, that’s pretty basic, and you might wonder, what should I focus on when I go and surf? Well, that’s very simple, catch more waves. You see, the secret to get better at anything is practice. So, if you want to get better at surfing fast, you need to surf as often as you possibly can.
How Long Does it Take to Get Good at Surfing?
The answer to this question depends on variety of factors including;
What does it mean to be good at surfing?
What do you consider being good at surfing?
How athletic are you?
How frequently can you go surfing?
How many waves do you catch in each surf session?
Do you have a surf coach?
Are you training outside of surfing
Do You Surf Skate
The answer to your question, how long does it take to get good at surfing depends on all of the above factors. But, let’s say for interest sake, you ticked all the boxes above and you are a surfing prodigy, it will probably take about 3 to 4 years of consistent practice to get good at surfing and much longer if you lack in any of the above mentioned factors. A good example of this is the female phenom, Erin Brooks. She managed to start surfing at the relatively old age of 9 years old and won her first Championship Tour event at 17, thats a total of 8 years.
She was determined, devoted every second of her waking life to surfing, had a surf coach, trained like an athlete, probably caught over 30 waves every session she surfed, surfed twice a day everyday and was probably on a specific diet with a specific training routine. You can achieve what she achieved if you apply yourself in the same way. But, the reality is that not everyone has the time to do that.
Obviously she got good at surfing long before she won the event but to put things in perspective 8 years of surfing to win a world tour event is basically unheard of. Most of the CT surfers started surfing at very young ages and only win WSL events well into their 20’s. So, it takes a very long time to get good at surfing. You will never get good at surfing if you get into surfing for the wrong reasons like: it looks cool. But, the real question you should be asking is how many surf lessons do I need? because that is the fastest way to get better at surfing, get a surf coach or take surf lessons so, let’s take a look at that below:
How Many Surf Lessons Do I Need?
We had previously written an article about this topic, so if you want an indepth look go check it out here. But, to keep it simple you need at least 5 to 10 lessons just to be able to paddle out into the line up by yourself. This will give you a good baseline to know what to work on and how to do it. I would suggest surfing for about 6 months on your own before taking your next round of 5 – 10 lessons. This will allow you time to get used to surfings fundamentals. After 5 – 10 lessons and 6 months of practice on your own, you are ready for a surf coach. As mentioned above this is different to a surf school as a surf coach will help you progress with techniques like video analysis, theory classes and direct feedback.
I would suggest 5 to 10 more lessons with a surf coach to help set a baseline. Then once you have had those 5 – 10 lessons with your surf coach, take another 6 months to a year to work on these aspects by yourself. By this stage you will be around the intermediate stage. And again, after another 6 months to a year you can take 5 to 10 more lessons to help you reach the advanced surfing stage. This is the best approach to learn how surf and get better at surfing fast.
