Learn How To Surf

We finally made it to the good stuff! In this article we’ll go over how to catch broken waves, also known as whitewater or whitewash. Your life will be a lot easier if you’ve read through the first 6 articles and really practiced those 3 key fundamentals. Now let’s get to surfing yewwwwwwwwwwwwww!

So for your first few times out, you’ll want to focus on surfing in the whitewash. These are waves that have already broken, so they will be a little more gentle and a lot easier to catch. You’re looking for the small breaking waves that you can basically walk out to.

Alright so get your leash on your back foot, if you are a regular footed surfer that’s your right foot and for goofy stance it’s your left foot. The leash should be on the outside of your ankle.

Now when you’re walking out, just guide the board along with you, right on your side, use your arm to push down on the tail when whitewash is about to hit you, this will help get the board over the broken wave. As you are walking out, keep an eye out for other surfers and other people around you. Always have full control over you board, never ditch that board. Nobody wants to get hit with it!

If it’s your first time out, it might help to just jump on and start paddling around so you can practice and get a feel for it. Really focus on getting situated in the right spot, get those feet out of the water, toes on the end of the board, head up, back arched. If you are paddling out and whitewash is coming at you, you can get over the whitewash by pushing up with your hands and arching your back.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of paddling around, find a spot in the whitewash where you can stand. Place your board on your side, nose facing the beach, keeping an eye on what’s coming in. When you see one that’s not too big (but still big enough to push you), hop on and get in your paddle position, start paddling and as the wave starts to push you do your pop up. That’s it!

Now, there is no magical number to how many times this should take before you get it. Some people are lucky and get it their first time out, some people it takes a few sessions to pop up and ride a wave for the first time. So don’t be discouraged, surfing is one of the hardest sports to learn, especially as an adult!

Here are some things to look out for in case you aren’t having any luck.

If you are nosediving, try moving a bit further back on the board, sometimes the whitewash is too powerful and it will force your board down. Make sure your back is arched, this will also help prevent nosedives.

Try not to catch the wave while it’s still breaking, make sure it’s broken already and you are just focusing on the whitewash right now. You can move on to open faced waves (or green waves) once you master surfing in the whitewash.

If the wave is passing you by, try moving a bit forward on the board, you may be pushing too much water (so the nose out of the water too much).

Try paddling earlier and faster so that you have more speed, keep paddling until you know for sure the wave has you. You should be able to feel the whitewash pushing you.

If you are really having trouble getting a feel for the wave, skip the pop up and focus on just catching the wave on your stomach. Really get a good feeling of what it’s like to have the wave take you. Once you are comfortable with that, add in your pop up and start surfing.

Some surf spots are better than others for learning in the whitewash, and some days are better than others. So do your best, but don’t be surprised if you don’t get it your first time out. In between surf sessions, go back home and study the fundamentals we covered, practice your pop-ups, and get prepared for your next session.

If you need help or tips with catching whitewash, feel free to leave a comment on my YouTube video or shoot me an email. In the next article, we’ll take this a step further and get you out to the actual break where you can start catching open faced waves.

So you’ve figure out how to pop up, but now what? Just stand there and shred right?Surf stance is a tricky thing because it goes against how your body naturally wants to react to things. A proper surf stance also goes against what you learn in most other sports. So if you’re getting into surfing later in life, you may already be at a disadvantage because you’ll have to break muscle memory.

Once you pop up, your knees should stay bent. Don’t go stiff or stand up straight – you’ll just lose balance and speed. Make sure you are bending at the knees, not at the waist!. Don’t lean too far forward or lean too far back. Your feet should be in the center of your board, just like how they were when you were practicing pop ups.

Keep a narrow width stance, maybe a little less than shoulder width, and don’t point your knees apart. You don’t want to look like you’re taking a poop out there (poo stance). Keep those knees forward, almost pointed together. This is going to help with moving your weight around so you can turn and go where you want to go. Being able to move your hips properly will let you really throw your butt into a turn. Or it will allow you to get your weight back fast enough so that your nose doesn’t dip on a steep drop in. You want those hips loose and in a good position so you can react.

Now onto your arms. Don’t drag your arms, but don’t flail them up high either. Keep your arms outside of the correct rails. Match your front foot with your leading hand. So I’m regular footed, which means my left foot is forward, which means my left hand should be outside my left rail and my right hand should be outside my right rail. An easier way to remember is to look at where your hands are on the board when you pop up, your hands actually stay on the same side as they were during your pop up. Having your arms on one side of the board is going to make it really hard to balance.

Open up your chest, don’t have your arms all stiff and tight together, and look where you want to go. As simple as it sounds, this is something that often gets overlooked. Your body will follow your head, so look where you want to go.

A good stance will take some time to perfect, but knowing what NOT to do will help make sure you don’t have to break bad habits down the road. So again, knees bent, knees pointing forward/almost in, arms outside your rails, and look where you want to go.

If you need help, tips, or feedback on your stance, feel free to leave a comment on my YouTube video or shoot me an email. We’re finally ready to surf, in the next article we’ll get out in the water and go over how to catch waves.

Like I mentioned in the previous article, there are 3 fundamentals in surfing that you need to learn about and understand before you start catching waves – paddling, the pop up, and proper stance. If you missed any of the previous articles, go back and read through those first. In this article, I’m going to teach you how to pop up on a surfboard and share with you a few different ways you can practice.

The pop up is one of THE most important aspects in surfing. It’s what gets you off your stomach and onto your feet so you can shred those waves. You will struggle to find a good surfer who hasn’t perfected their pop up, so I encourage you to practice, practice, practice so that you can rely on muscle memory once you are out in the water. Alright, enough background – let’s get to it.

First, make sure you are in the right spot on your board. You shouldn’t be too far forward, and you shouldn’t be too far back. Your toes should be at the end of the board, you should still be in the same position that you’ve been paddling in. If you’ve stumbled across this article looking for help on a shortboard, you’ve already made a mistake – get yourself back to a longer board and work on your pop up before advancing.

Second, your head is up. Don’t stare at your board. Look where you want to go!

Third, place both hands FLAT on the surfboard next to your pecs/ribs with your shoulder blades pressed together. Your hands need to be back far enough, not too far forward or it will make popping up more difficult.

Don’t grab the rails, it creates an imbalance and causes drag in the water.

Now you’re ready to actually explode to your feet. In one fluid motion, with your back already arched, start to push up and move your feet forward underneath your body. Your feet should land in the center of your board – and by center I mean if there was an imaginary line running down your board nose to tail – it should go right through the middle of your feet. Your arms should stay in place until your up, and your front foot should land about where your hands were on the board.

Once your up, stay bent at the knees, don’t stand straight up. We’ll get into stance in the next article.

The pop up itself is going to take some practice to get used to. If you are really struggling with this version, there are two other methods that you can start with. Instead of doing one explosive pop up, you can cheat a little bit and slide your back leg up first to where your back foot is going to be and then place your front foot as you pop up. This is sort of an in between version of a pop up and might be helpful for beginners.

The other method is what I call the “knee first” version. While laying down, slide your back leg forward first onto one knee, place your front leg, and then stand up. Ideally you don’t want to be doing this, it’s way too slow for real waves. But for starting out in whitewash, this is ok and it can help you get used to paddling and getting in the right spot on your board.

Alright, so that’s the pop up and there are two ways you can practice this.

Option 1: Grab a foam board and put it on the ground with some blankets/padding underneath or bring it to the beach and build up some sand so you have a little bit of clearance for paddling. Placing the board on an angle can help simulate the wave a little bit better. Don’t use a fiberglass board for this, you’ll destroy it.

Option 2: Tape off your floor in the shape of a surfboard or use a yoga mat. You’ll want to tape a line down the middle of your yoga mat or pretend surfboard. That middle line will be helpful so you can tell where you are landing.

You want to always aim to be landing in the middle, you want your feet to be perpendicular to that line. The more off center you are, the harder it’s going to be to balance on an actual wave. So practice this over and over until you consistently are hitting the center with your feet.

The other thing to do while practicing is to pretend you are paddling before popping up. Really get in that mindset of paddle, paddle, paddle, pop up. Paddle, paddle, paddle, explode to your feet.

When you’re out in the water you don’t want to be overthinking things, so the more you do this at home, the easier it’s going to be.

If you are one of those people like me who needs a routine, wake up and do 10-15 good pop ups before you leave the house and do 10-15 popups at night. Make your practice sessions harder by only counting the ones where you land in the center. Keep in mind that once you start doing these in the water, it’s going to feel a bit different, but the muscle memory will help.

If you need help or tips with your pop up, feel free to leave a comment on my YouTube video or shoot me an email. In the next article, we’ll cover what your stance should look like and then we’ll be ready to go out and catch some waves!