What Is Surfing?
... And Is It Difficult to Learn?
Indeed! For most people, surfing is the most difficult and most fun sport you would ever participate in. Why? Because the very medium, the wave that you stand upon, always moves around. In skiing or skating, the board moves, but the ground usually does not (except when there is an earthquake or an avalanche). |
|
What is This All About?
So far as I have figured this out, surfing is...
- About the strength and endurance: You need to paddle a lot, and after paddling a lot to get out to the ocean, you need to paddle again to catch some waves. If you are presently out-of-shape or never have done any other endurance exercises, this it the first hurdle you are going to experience. Unfortunately there is just no ways around this one, and the only way to succeed is practice, practice and more practice! After you become buff with your arm muscles, you will need to get your hip and knee strength built up to make solid surfing turns. The best practice for surfing is go surfing, and fortunately with some initial investments in equipment, you can surf pretty much year around in "NorCal!"
- About the balance: You need to balance on the board while paddling out, waiting for waves, and making turns or even some radical maneuvers (cut-backs, off-the-lip, and floaters come to mind). This is going to be the second and the key hurdle for you. Most surfers get to be a mediocre level surfer with less balancing skills, but your surfing will not advance to the next level without some excellent balancing skills. You can and you should learn this skill if you ever want to be a good surfer (note that that I did not say it is about twisting your torso).
- About the timing: From proper paddling strokes, when you decide to go over or under the waves, when to catch, when to execute the turns, it is all about knowing the timing of your execution. If you are thinking about your surfing in terms of timing, then you are now in the realm of being an intermediate surfer, and this is going to be a key factor in letting yourself having real fun or not.
- About the friendship: Last but not the least, whether you like it or not, you need to rely on many peoples' friendship for you to succeed in surfing (don't overlook your non-surfing partners, friends, dads, moms, grandparents. Don't ever and never forget that they would be just as stoked as you are! They come to the beach, patiently waiting and watching you to take off, sew your board socks, take pictures, role videos, make and bring great picnic, help decorate your own bedroom with all surf theme stuff, and negotiate with the Santa to sneak a new board under the tree in December. They are as stoked as you are even though they don't surf, OK? ). But this friendship does not just stop there, you are going to become an intimate friend with the nature and the universe that surround you. As a friend, you have to go and take care of the nature, because ultimately you want it to take care of you! Share the waves, share the stokes, and be good to the nature so that a 100 and 1000 years from now, there will still be rooms for just as stoked groms as you are!
Sounds intriguing? Sounds fun? Let's go surfing!
So, What is Surfing Like?
If you look for "surfing" on any web search engine, people are talking more about "web surfing", it seemingly indicates that it is something relaxing and easy thing for anybody to do. But the real surfing is far from that. It requires all dimensions of what you are made of - from the seer physical strength, endurance, persistence, keen sense of the natural surrounding, an ability to precisely calculate split-second decision to stay on the wave you picked. No single wave is the same as before. As you learn the sport and pass through many of these obstacles, you will only come to realise that the depth of the sport will pull you further in to it.
For a beginner (term a kook might apply) like you and me its 99.9% paddling, and a 1% standing if you are lucky. The first time out, you will be out of breath in a few strokes of paddling and your arms will be numb and sore for the rest of the week. A good 99% of people give up at this stage (thank god). But, if you don't stop here and keep at it, each time you go out, you are building up your paddling muscles that will be needed for padding out to stay longer in the water. You will become ready for even bigger conditions and also become able to catch the waves when others are not catching. Soon you find your shoulder and arm muscle mass and tone is visibly improving... an added benefit and it is rewarding. And yes, you might stand up on your board for a few seconds.
You got to paddle well at all conditions. Good paddling is really the number one key to good surfing. Not only you paddle to move forward in the water, the paddling speed is important for negotiating waves on your way out to the ocean. Many common beginner errors occur due to insufficient paddling speed and power.
- Getting out, you actually need to have quite a bit of momentum to go over the waves. Do not stop paddling in front of oncoming waves that will cause you to be deflected. If you have been deflected before that means you are not going fast enough against the wave, or are being afraid of being crushed to cause the paddling to stop. Paddle hard just until you lift up on the fact of the wave, then push your upper body up at the same speed as the wave is building up. You can often get over the waves before they break and to do that you need to get up to the wave faces quicker.
- Once you are ready for duck diving, you also need a lot of momentum.
- You will need a couple of very strong strokes just prior to you standing up. If you do not do this, you will likely to pearl (fall forward) instead of taking off.
Before you hit the water, though, you should first do an extensive stretching exercise. Stretching exercise before getting into the water has been very helpful to me as I used to have severe cramps while swimming. I have found out that Yoga type stretching technique where you apply stretch tension for a long period of time has been more helpful than rapid bouncing motion of stretching. Deep inhaling and exhaling is also helpful in building up the lung strength and capacity needed to work in the water. No wonder, Yoga seems to be recommended by many surfing experts, while they also recommend other supplementary endurance exercises like biking or swimming free style strokes, but the best practice for surfing is surfing itself.
While practicing, your body may become more tired than you actually think you are. So, get out the water once in a while and rest on the beach. But your surfing practice does not stop there. Take a look at some good surfers catching waves or even paddling out. Observe the waves, put yourself in the waves breaking and imagine yourself surfing in it. Do you think you have caught the wave? Would you be able to find yourself in the take-off zone if you were there? Have you judged the wave enough that you could have turned to the correct direction? Learn who is catching, who is not, who is paddling well, why, where and who is getting longer rides. Then when you are rested, paddle out and imitate those good people you have just watched.
One thing you want to try when first paddling out is to adjust your paddling speed and power by increasing it gradually. What usually happens in the beginning is that you would paddle too hard from the get-go, essentially wasting much of the power, tiring you all out. This is like punching on a gas on your car, tire spins, smokes come out, but not moving very fast., or like your car stuck in mud or snow with tires spinning but not getting any traction. You may even want to kick start your board with your legs while in the shallows then jump on. When you are stopped, give it a good slow start. As the board catches the speed, gradually add more power to your paddling. If you are on a longer board, the board will start to plane and it will drastically increase the board speed with a very little additional power needed.
On your early days, the nature and your board will first seem to reject you, waves crashing and spitting you out of the wave like the coin reject button on a vending machine, and your board refusing you to be on top... it is almost like being in a Rodeo. But, like anything that come with learning something new, this is the initial lengthy hard period where you don't feel like you know what you are doing... For the first 3-4 sessions, you seem to be making no or a very little progress. But if trust your body and instincts, they are quietly organizing your entire self in the background ready to surf as you practice more. Then one day on one break, the skill will emerge from your subconscious. So, even on the days that you don't feel like going, do not give it up, but try to go. Be determined and committed. Sure, you are going to drink a lot of salt water, gritting some sand in your teeth and spitting out sea weeds... or even some bruises and cuts. But just be patient, keep trying, it will come. Then when you get a beautiful long ride, you will be paddling back for more. This opens up the next door for the next step to learn. I think that this is the part that is making surfing really fun. Regardless of your age or shape, there seems to be no limit to the mastery of the sport, making you come back to surf better than the last time, and in that endeavor, it is pretty much the sport that you can enjoy for your entire life.