Surfing Tips

How to Catch a Wave – the double paddle finish

When it comes to catching waves and explaining the technique clearly then we have to tip our hats to Rob Case. Here he provides an excellent tutorial using Nat Young in a World Surfing League heat as an example.

This is well worth 10 minutes of your time. He breaks the technique down clearly as well as providing some excellent pointers on how to improve your paddling technique, speed and power.

These surfboard paddling techniques should form part of any surfer’s arsenal and can be easily applied to your surfing whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced surfer.

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Pretty good huh?

I just have one little tip that you could add to those that you’ve already seen and that’s the ‘double paddle‘. You can see Nat Young starts paddling in the wave using the standard front crawl – one arm then the other arm, then the first arm and so on.

As he reaches his top speed he switches into a double arm paddle – more like the ‘butterfly’ in swimming terms – both arms at the same time.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The front crawl alternate arm technique is great for quick acceleration and getting your surfboard up to maximum speed.

It’s drawback is that it’s not particularly stable. Think of all those forces being created as you fling your arms forward in alternate strokes.

The double arm paddle is great for those last few strokes as it’s more stable, super powerful (both arms at once so double the power) and great for maintaining that momentum that you have worked so hard for.

It also has another benefit in that as you withdraw your arms from the water at the back end of the stroke they are both in line and ready to be put on the surfboard deck for you to pop up.

You won’t need to use this double paddle technique for every wave that you attempt to catch but if you find yourself paddling for waves and not quite able to ‘get over the ledge’ then it will definitely help.

So why don’t you double paddle all the time?

I’m glad you asked.

Because you are fitting two strokes in the place of one it’s tiring and while it’s a great technique for maintaining momentum it’s not so efficient for gaining speed in the first place.

Try this technique next time you go surfing and let us know how you get on in the comments box below.

Dr SurfLove (or how I learned to stop complaining and love lousy surf)

Tyson Greenaway

One of the all-time funniest things that has ever happened at the surf school occurred two years ago during work experience week. We had a young lad, let’s call him Rob, in for a week of work placement from a local school and we were showing him the ropes with regard to dealing with customers and the basics of surf coaching.

Rob was a really good worker and he was a delight to have onboard, but as he lacked seniority in the coaching room he would get the bum jobs – washing wetsuits, making the tea, packing the surfboards away – all of which he did without complaint.

Meanwhile away from the surf school a sub-plot was developing.

My father-in-law was an avid cyclist and had a collection of tandems of varying age and use-ability. He wanted one of them to be sent by courier to London for some friends of his to ride in a charity cycle race. All that had to be done was to wrap the bike in cardboard and the courier would collect it.

Naturally we let Rob package it.

The courier arrived at the allotted time and was dismayed to find that while the frame of the tandem had been wrapped in cardboard he wouldn’t be able to take the bike until every part was completely covered by card or wrapping of some description.

Rules are rules, he said.

Undeterred, Rob, covered every single part of the tandem in accordance with the courier company’s wishes. When the courier returned to pick up the bike he was initially reluctant to take it but he had to concede that Rob had complied with his request.

Rules are rules after all.

The bike was delivered in time for the charity ride and you can see the sterling work that Rob did in the photo opposite.

Now the point of this is not to ridicule Rob or even the jobsworth courier company but to make a point about the barriers and roadblocks that are put up, sometimes by ourselves but often by others, that stop us achieving our goals.

Rob, bless him, overcame the roadblock of company bureaucracy which we all come face to face with at times.

The courier overcame his misgivings and (hopefully) kept his job.

And my father in law never let blindness stop him from cycling (hence the tandems) or running – in fact when he was younger and still had a little bit of eyesight he would use road markings to guide him.

The road markings in the middle of the road – he would run on B-roads in the early morning when there wasn’t much traffic!

He also had a PhD in Physics (Low Temperature Physics and Super-conductivity since you asked) – think how hard the maths and the equations would be when you can only make notes and read them in Braille. He certainly didn’t let any roadblocks, metaphorically or physically, get in his way.

With surfing, especially in colder waters, there are plenty of roadblocks that you can let get in the way if you want to.

Too cold, too windy, tide not right, too much swell, not enough swell and the frankly laughable when you consider the nature of surfing: “….but it’s raining”.

So this weeks tip?

Just get in there. Don’t even bother checking the surf (or if you do don’t look too long, just make sure it’s safe). Suit up and run in there.

If it’s flat have a paddle and work on your fitness & paddling technique.

If it’s onshore and the conditions aren’t great just concentrate on getting the next wave. And the next one. And so on.

And the rain? I promise you, you’re gonna get really wet anyway.

The great advantage of surfing crumby waves is it will often be uncrowded so you end up with a higher wave-count and you will maintain your surf fitness for when the good swells do roll through.

So next time you want to surf but the forecast isn’t too good? Just rock up, suit up and hit the waves.

You might be surprised how much fun lousy surf can be.

A Simple Guide to a Surf Forecast

Tyson Greenaway

You’ve spent hours packing your kit, everything is ready, your wetsuit is dry, lunch is packed and you head to the beach to find the surf is absolutely………….

flat.

It’s happened to us all regardless of experience but there are a few things to minimise the chances of getting caught out by poor surf conditions.

Luckily we live in an age where up to the minute data is provided over the internet from swell buoys and weather stations around the country (and world) so we can now reasonably predict when the surf will be at it’s best and when it’s best to avoid.

Where can I get a good Surf Forecast?

The internet is awash with hundreds of good weather and surf forecasting sites but where do you start?

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Magic Seaweed

Sometimes called TragicMislead but this is unfair. What you get at MagicSeaweed is all the data in one spot tailored to your own surf break in a very simple format. You get everything from swell height, wind direction and speed, swell period and tide times.

Magic seaweed is a great place to start to give an overall feel of what the surf will be like on any given day but like all things the devil is in the detail. [/themedy_col][themedy_col position=”b”]

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Wind Guru

One of the criticisms of Magicseaweed (again, unfair in my view) is of the wind data that it aggregates and then presents for you.

Seasoned surfers head to WindGuru where the wind information is excellent. The information is raw and not presented as prettily but once you get used to it you will find everything you need here.

The precipitation guide (not that you’re worried about a bit of rain are you?) near the bottom of the page is fiendishly accurate.

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Surf-Forcast

Shhh…. this one is a bit of a guilty secret for the surf nerds. This is principally because it has a row of information dedicated to wave Energy.

And what does that mean?

In very simple terms if the wave energy is less than 50-100kj then surfing is going to be really hard. The waves literally won’t have enough power to push you along.

100-1000kj is surfable and more than 5000kj is absolutely off it’s grid – best avoided.

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Arghhh, my internet is down, what do I do?

Calm down. This grizzly preview of a post apocalyptic future with no broadband probably won’t last long. In the event that you should you find yourself in a godforsaken hell-hole with no internet, or Cornwall, then there is still hope.

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First head to a newsagent…..

Buy a newspaper and look for the weather page. Most of them still have a pressure chart where you can get an idea of what the surf is like.

In the example to the right you will see a high pressure, marked ‘H’, over land (very good – settled weather, light winds, winds circulating in a clockwise direction) and a low pressure, marked ‘L’, in the Atlantic (stormy weather, strong winds rotating anti-clockwise).

Here you have a storm out in the ocean creating waves and blowing them towards the Uk with a high pressure overland creating sunny weather with light winds.

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This is the dream scenario for the Uk (and Ireland) and should result in good surf.

One word of warning though. A wave travels at roughly 30mph so you will need to allow about three days for an open ocean swell to reach shore.

Plenty of time to read the rest of the paper.

If you want to read more about surf forecasting think about buying Tony Butts excellent book, Surf Science, an Introduction to Waves for Surfing.

How to choose your first surfboard and wetsuit .

Tyson Greenaway

When you’ve got a few surfing lessons under your belt and you are hooked then your thoughts will probably start turning towards getting your own surfboard and wetsuit.

Head into a surf shop and you will likely be met with a bewildering array of surf gear but if you ask for advice most are willing to oblige.

And if they don’t head to one that will. If the surf shop has been there for a few years then they will most likely be able to offer excellent advice and steer you in the right direction but here are a few pointers to get you started.

Wetsuits

Choosing the right wetsuit will depend almost entirely on the climate at the surf where you will predominantly be surfing. Unless you live in the tropics you will be surfing in a wetsuit at some point during the year. For water that is 15-19℃ then a 3/2mm thickness wetsuit will be ideal. For 10-14℃ then a 5/4mm thickness wetsuit will be comfortable. Below 10℃ and 6/4 thickness is what you will using.

As a rough guide you can expect to be wearing neoprene booties as well as a wetsuit in temperatures of less than 15℃ with neoprene hoods and gloves making it more bearable below 12℃. Of course there are some surfers who swear that you won’t need booties unless its at least 8℃ and that a hood is only for when there are chunks of ice in the water. To a degree you will have to make up your own mind but, in Britain for example, it’s not very often that you hear someone complain that it’s too hot.

The main thing to consider is that for every extra bit of neoprene that you wear there will be a drop off in performance – do you want to surf in booties or do you prefer to feel the surfboard underneath your feet (but numb toes)? Only you can decide that.

A key point in deciding on a wetsuit is the ‘fit’ or ‘cut’ of it. Try not to get sucked (or rushed) into buying the latest or most fashionable brand and instead go for the one that fits the best as this will be the warmest – and who knows, it may even be the cheapest. Cut will vary to some extent from brand to brand. For example Xcel tend to fit stockier people better, while O’Neill are often a good choice for those with a more slender physique.

Any little ripple or fold of neoprene when you try it on in the shop will just fill with water in the sea and make you more cumbersome and colder. The wetsuit that fits you like a second skin and follows all of your body contours from ankles to wrist to neck will be the warmest and most comfortable.

Unless it’s too tight of course. And you will know if it is, you won’t need anyone to tell you.

Surfboards

So you’ve got a shiny new wetsuit that fits beautifully and is as warm as toast. Time to go on a surfboard hunt.

When you are starting out remember – Foam is your friend (foam is the stuff at the core of every surfboard).

You want to make everything as easy as possible for those first few sessions and nothing ruins a surf like not being to catch enough waves or a surfboard that’s not buoyant enough to stand up on. That sleek looking surfboard that you’ve spotted on eBay might be cheap and look pretty but unless it’s big, wide and buoyant it will be a nightmare to learn on.

For adult women then 7’6″ to 8ft is recommended. For adult guys then 8ft to 9ft is the way to go. In both cases they should be at least 20” wide, preferably over 22”.

Kids don’t have to be quite as discerning as they have youth, flexibility and agility on their side. Somewhere between 6ft and 7’6” depending on their size should be ample. Again the boards should be around 20” wide or more.

Consider learning on a 100% foam soft surfboard (often called a softboard) before moving onto to a traditional construction fibreglass surfboard as you feel more confident. It is, of course, possible to learn on a fibreglass surfboard but on the rare occasions that a surfboard knocks into you then a soft board, for obvious reasons, is far less painful.

Hopefully this has given you a few pointers on what to look for when choosing your first surfboard and wetsuit but remember to ask for advice wherever you end up buying them. Most people who work in a surf shop live and breathe surfing and will be only too happy to help.

How to stand up on a surfboard – the easy (ish) way

Tyson Greenaway

The best way to stand up on a surfboard, without doubt, is to utilise the ‘pop up’ method. This is where you catch the wave, perform a press-up and then whip your feet into place in one seamless motion.

This is an explosive body movement and understandably not everyone can do this when they first come along for a surfing lesson. It requires a good power to weight ratio, strong shoulders and good balance but if you don’t have these then all is not lost. There is a slightly slower but equally effective technique called the ‘two phase’ (sometimes the ‘knees method’) that is great for surfers who maybe aren’t quite strong enough yet or perhaps not as fit as they used to be.

We encourage everyone to try the ‘pop up’ first as this is the gold standard but the outcome for either method is the same: to stand on the surfboard and get a good long ride to the shore.

I was looking at some footage of one of our surfing lessons the other day and this young surfers technique really stood out. She’s not quite strong enough to do the pop up consistently but she illustrates the ‘two phase’ technique beautifully well.

How to stand up on a surfboard using the ‘two phase’ technique

As always choose a nice looking whitewater or gently breaking ‘green’ wave and catch it as you usually would then:

lift your chest off the surfboard with your hands placed firmly of the deck just below your shoulders
bring your knees up the deck of the surfboard and place them just behind (about six inches) where your hands are
bring your front foot through the gap between your arms and place it in the centre of your surfboard between your hands – lift your head up (seriously, it makes it a lot easier) if you need to make more space for your leg to come through
move your backside over the surfboards rail as you twist your shoulders
keep your head centred over the surfboard as you let go of the rails
tahdaaaaaah – your standing up!

Check out the video for a better visual representation and please leave any comments below if you have anything to add.