Surfing

Ingredients: 

Balance/ posture – good balance on board 

Patience-  waiting for waves

Calculation- when to start paddling

Upper Body strength/ leg strength – pick yourself up

clothing (wetsuit)

Peripheral vision- watch your surrounds and other other people

Endurance- the ability to paddle 

Flexibility 

 

Steps:

  1. Having a routine throughout the year such as jump-roping, swimming, and push ups, this would help increase your upper body strength and leg strength. 
  2. You want to find a board that will make you comfortable. For beginners, longboards are very easy to balance and paddle into waves. 
  3. clothing – get a wetsuit, wetsuits help keep your body warm in cold water, helping prevent chills and hyperthermia. 
  4. When you get your board, you will need to wax it using surfboard wax. This is important because it will increase foot grip, allowing better balance in the water. 
  5. Practice on the ground first, attach the leash to your back foot then lie belly down on the board so your body is lined up straight down the middle. From that position, practice your paddling motion with both arms to get a sense of the muscles that you will be working.
  6. Upper Body strength- Taking off or popping up on the wave and standing up on the board takes practice. While lying down on the board, bring your hands up from paddling and place your hands below your chest, palms on the flat of the board while your fingers curl over the sides of the surfboard. In one quick motion, push your body up with your arms and tuck your feet up and under you. Place one foot where your hands pushed up from and the other at least a shoulder’s width behind. NEVER grab the rails, or edges of the board during your take off, unless you want to get a nice gash on your chin. 
  7. Once you’ve taken off, keep your knees bent, your arms loose and extended, your feet on the board, and your torso leaned forward to lower your center of gravity. 
  8. From the ground, begin to start heading into the water and just paddle around to get use of paddling. ( If the nose of the board is too high up, you’re too far back on the board. If it digs water, you’re too far forward. It’s important to find the sweet spot, as that is where you will achieve maximum padding efficiency.) 
  9. Peripheral vision – Respect the right of way. When there is more than one surfer paddling to catch a wave, the person who had paddled closest to the peak has the right of way for that wave. 
  10. Patience- Find a spot. You want to be waist deep in the white water, where the waves have already broken. Once you find a good spot now we wait for a perfect wave.
  11. Turn your board and wait for an appropriate wave. 
  12. Calculation- Start paddling and try to catch the wave. Keep looking forward as you paddle, never look back, you will lose power. 
  13. Balance/ posture- keep your feet planted on the board, your knees bent, your arms loose, and your eyes looking in the direction you are going. You got your first wave! Stay focused and let it carry you to shore.
  14. If you feel yourself falling, or if the wave dies down, jump away from the board towards the ocean. It will be easier to fall to the side or the back of the board, covering your head with your arms as you fall.