Bad_Moose's Guide to starting Surfing.

Hello, welcome to my guide. I am going to be showing you the basics of surfing, and what you need to get started. Please post some feedback and suggestions for making the guide better. Thanks!

1) Your Board
When you start surfing, the board you use is absolutely critical to how well you do, and how easy you find surfing to start with. There is no point in spending a fortune on a 5 ft board if you have never surfed in your life. Sure, it will look good under your arm, but you will just look like a wannabe, and you WILL NOT be able to use it.

My suggestion would be to buy a foam board with a flexible fin. That way, when you come off the board you won't be injured by the board itself of the fins. A very reputable and well known starting board is the 'Swell Board'. These are great for starting out as they are stable and easy to ride.

After you have mastered basic steps, move onto something a bit quicker. I would still go for a foam board, but pick one with say, two or three solid fins and a hard, plastic underside.

After you can turn on that board, maintain your balance, ride along waves and easily catch waves, move onto something made of fibreglass or epoxy resin with a foam core and three of four solid fins. This is where surf boards get a lot more technical. You are going to need to get a board that not only suits your height and weight, but something that suits your style of surfing as well. Most Surf Shops should be able to help you out on this. Just be sensible about it, and don't do something stupid like buy a tiny short board when you weigh 15 stone.

As I have said before, a decent Surf Shop should be able to recommend a board for you and your surfing capabilities. Just ask them for help and they should be able to give it to you. A lot of Surf Shop owners are keen surfers themselves, and will be able to match you to a board perfectly. You must listen to them though, they know their stuff and if you ignore their advice, you are going to get nowhere.

If you don't want to buy a board straight away, try hiring one from a Surf Shop first.

2) Equipment
Depending on the climate of where you are surfing, you are going to want a wetsuit. Wetsuits work on the basis of trapping water between your skin and the suit and warming it up. Make sure your suit is tight fitting, but doesn't restrict your movement too much. Again, a decent Surf Shop should be able to help you more with this. A good quality wetsuit should set you back between 40-120 GBP. You should look for taped and glued seems, decent zips, thicker neoprene panels on the chest of the suit and some sort of grip on the knees of the suit. There is nothing more frustrating than kneeling on your board, getting ready to pop up into a standing position and loosing one of your knees over the side of the board because there is no grip on it. Make sure that the neck and cuffs of the suit aren't abrasive or rough, otherwise you will get very nasty rashes from it.

Under your wetsuit, you should wear a rash vest (depending on how cold it is). A rash vest is basically, a thin, tight fitting Lycra top that will help keep you warm and prevents rashes on your arms and chest.

If the temperature is very warm, a pair of boardshorts and possibly a rash vest will be fine.

3)Starting to Surf
First of all, carry your board into the water under your arm, until the water is waste deep. Then put it into the water and push it along beside you. Stop at chest height, you don't want to get out of your depth. Lie on the board, with the tip pointing out of the water, not so far back that the board is vertical, but not so far forwards the tip of the board is in the water. Now start to paddle around, pulling yourself forwards with your arms, similar to front crawl swimming. Keep doing this until you are comfortable with it and have found the best way to lie on your board.

After that, try and catch some waves. Start paddling, and when the wave hits you should be able to feel weather you have caught it or not. Keep paddling, and the board should accelerate. Just ride the wave closer to the shore. Then, paddle back out to chest height. Don't run the board up the beach, its very bad for the board and you will damage the board and the fins.

Try and catch a wave again, but when you feel your board take off, get up on your knees and try to stand up. Don't worry if you fall off, it will take time to get your balance. Keep repeating this until you can comfortably stand up and ride a wave standing up.

Once you can do this, you will want to try turning. You do this by just tilting the board in the direction you want to go. Don't over do it, you will flip the board and this hurts a lot. You will end up landing with your side on the board, and get a nasty bruise. Keep practising until you are comfortable with it.

After that, you are going to want to try surfing along a wave. You need to catch a wave that breaks along itself, bit by bit if you get my drift, as opposed to all at once. You need to turn so you are almost parallel to the wave but still travelling forwards too. When you run out of unbroken wave, use your back foot to push your board round, and you should accelerate up the wave. Straight away, turn back down and carry on surfing along the wave. Repeat as many times as you like.

4)Other bits of kit
There are various other bits of kit that you will need, or might like once you get to more advanced stages of surfing.

First of all, you will NEED a leash. This basically goes round your ankle and attaches you to your board. This is a must, no debate whatsoever. If you do not have one, you risk loosing your board and/or injuring yourself and others. I was surfing once, someone came into the water without a leash attaching themselves to the board, they came off the board and the board ended up knocking someone out. The Beach lifeguards had to come and rescue the guy who got knocked out and he almost died. That could have been avoided if the other guy had been using a leash.

Another must have is a bar of surf wax. This will help you grip your board, and stop you slipping off. Just rub it all over the board (you will want lots of little bumps and grooves) and anywhere else you think it will be handy to have. Don't use wax on a foam board, you don't need it. Make sure your board is dry before you do this, and make sure you don't leave the board in direct sunlight after applying wax. Make sure you allow time for the wax to set before you take the board into the water. Also, some types of surf wax require you to apply a base wax before hand. Make sure you read the instructions on the packaging.

A tail grip can also come in handy on your board. This is used for turning back up waves, and will stop your back foot slipping off the board when you go to do this. They come in a variety of colours and patterns, and have self adhesive bottoms, so you don't need glue or anything similar. Just peel off the backing, and carefully stick it in place at the back of the board.

5)What to do in an emergency
Like any sport, injuries can be sustained during surfing. Injuries can be a lot more dangerous for surfers, as you are in the water and vulnerable.

If you get injured, head for the shore immediately (unless it is something small and insignificant). If you are unable to do so, sit astride your board and wave your arms above your head. Try to attract attention to yourself.

If you see someone else get injured, go and check they are okay. If they aren't, bring them back to the shore. Again, if you can't, attract attention, or get another surfer to get help.

If you get caught in a rip/strong current, swim parallel to the shore until you are free of it. Don't try to fight it, it is energy consuming and you will not win against it. If you can't get free of it, then attract attention to yourself.

6)Some basic rules to abide by while surfing
-Don't take off on someone else's wave.
-Stay out of other peoples way.
-ALWAYS USE A LEASH.
-Don't take risks, be sensible - If the waves are 12ft high, don't even think about it...
-Have fun, don't take it too seriously.
-Pay attention to lifeguards and people who give you advice.
-Don't spend 600 GBP on a lovely, thin 5" shortboard if you are just starting out. You won't be able to use it and you will look like a fool.

 

Ha! An Englishman writing a surfing guide!

Stuff you should include:

1.Pictures

2. A couple of surfing lessons help immensely a

3. As a beginner you should stick to 7-9 foot boards, but they really don't have to be foam.

4. As a beginner it's much easier to start on long, rolling waves.

5. After 2 weeks of surfing a 6'5 board would suffice.

 

section 5 needs to be red and pretty nice, was thinking of surfing today, filled in a lot of blanks for me