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Got myself a 7.6 foam board .off to Porth in 2 weeks and am gunna try. Can catch green waves body boarding and love my snowboarding so I think it'll be fun learning. I'll get lessons too I think. Good plan?
Sounds good to me, I'm cheating and heading to fuerteventura at the end of the month to learn 😀
Take the fins out and practice your pop before you go. It’s what most surf schools seem to spend ages on the sand doing.
positioning and timing are key, to far forward on the board and you’ll catch the nose and eat sand, to far back is more common and you’ll just push water and not catch a thing.
modern foamies are great. Water is still relatively warm.
Proper looking forward to it
Porth, Newquay?
not many waves there, but Newquay bay will hold most conditions. Gets busy though.
Yeah obviously will travel but figured quite means I won't get in the way
One of, if not the hardest thing I've ever tried to learn - mentally, physically and emotionally.
Enjoy! 🙂
get a lesson first on popping up, then practise and practise and practise, then enjoying falling off...
awesome buzz when you catch your first one
Sounds good! Be ready for the snowboarding to be of zero use for a good while, if ever! Your coaching background and being able to understand and take on board what's being thrown at you by your instructor, adapt and try again will be much more useful - and having been in waves before and know you're not going to drown if you get tumbled!
As and when you get there, (maybe not this week coming) treat the bottom of the wave like the middle of a bermed turn, strong legs, pump for speed, look where you want to be. Same principles for bikes, snow and waves.
Have fun!
If you're heading that way, and are totally new to it, a stop off at The Wave on the way down to learn the basics would seem like a potentially good plan.
Porth, Newquay?
not many waves there, but Newquay bay will hold most conditions. Gets busy though.
Lovely place (spend many a summer holiday there as a kid), but the best boarding beach is Fistral at the other end of Newquay. I'd definitely get lessons - I used to skateboard loads as a kid and I snowboard but, other than being able to balance, surfing is very different – just learning how to catch a wave and stand is hard and lessons will be a huge benefit.
fistral can be epic on its day, but if it is, it'll be a bearpit.
watergate to the north has a lot more space, bit more chilled and you don't have to cross newquay traffic to get to it.
I learnt to surf on great western beach in Newquay, there used to be a little surf school down there - no idea if it’s still there.
when we weren’t having lessons, we’d just head over to fistral and hire a board - as mentioned above, it’s complete pandemonium, but just go with it.
wesward ho! Was alright too…. Again, nice little surf school there, and not quite as far.
Its the hardest, most amazing pastime. Go for it!
Lessons help but in reality the only thing that really helps is going in the water A LOT!
Also, remember that just like bike parks have "ettiquette" so do surf breaks. Learn the rules and don't get in the way. Surf schools dont always clue people in to this.
This is a good starting point......
A Beginners Guide To Surf Etiquette: The 'Unwritten' Rules Of Surfing (houseofsurf.co)
Mawgan Porth is a good bay to learn in, not as busy as some of the others. If you've got time, get on your paddleboard in a river or lake a few times before you go but don't take your paddle, just lay on the board and paddle with your arms. It's getting out to the waves that takes it out of you most when learning, no matter how fit you might be.
Try hiring something at least 9ft to learn on. It will feel much smaller when your out there. Make it as easy as possible so you can enjoy some rides!
Its the hardest, most amazing pastime. Go for it!
Lessons help but in reality the only thing that really helps is going in the water A LOT!
This. The only time I ever feel like I can surf is when I spend 2 or 3 weeks going to the beach every day*. If I can only make it down a few times a year then I feel like a complete beginner again.
*and on the day that I can actually pop up, control the board and enjoy it for the briefest time, the surf disappears...
@Jedi - Good luck Tony. Might be worth a drive down to Perranporth beach too, it's only 20 mins from Newquay. We were there in the summer having a play on the bodyboard with the kids, there were some great waves, and some decent surfers. It's a big stretch of beach with lots of room for everyone.
As a keen Snowboarder, have you given Wakeboarding a try?
having had a few lessons there is really only so much someone can teach you. mainly as you are on your own when you are catching a wave and everyones level of flexibilty/balance is different. if you can snowboard/skate it`ll be easier.
just go and have fun. bigger the board the easier it`ll be to start with. my 8ft (ish i cant remember exactly) board is suprisingly tricky.
Get some lessons for sure. I don't think it really matters which beach you get the lessons, you will only be in the white water and at this time of year you should be able to find space at most beaches. 7'6" is small for your first board. 8'6" to 9' is going to get you onto more waves and be more stable giving longer rides. More time stood up gives more time to learn and practice. Pretty much everybody buys there first board too small. Rent a bigger board and see what a difference it makes. Enjoy and have fun but it takes so long to get really good, you just have to enjoy the journey. I am 20 years into surfing and have come to the conclusion about 18 months ago that I have to move to the north coast of Devon, its going to be another 18 months untill that can happen due to school age kids.
I can catch green waves bodybuilding so just want to do it standing now 😆
Trying to learn to surf broke me. Physically, mentally and emotionally. The idea is great, reality is terrible.
Trying to learn to surf broke me. Physically, mentally and emotionally.
I've been surfing for nearly 30yrs and I still have days like that. can be one of most intensely frustrated pastimes out there, but when it all comes together there is nothing quite like it.
As others have said a 7'6" for a first board may be a bit frustrating to learn on. If you struggle with the 7'6" try hiring 8 or plus foamy. A shorter board looks cool on the beach or in a car park but they ain't no fun to learn on.
Enjoy it. Its an amazing thing for headspace. Theres not much you can think about while surfing..
I wish i could surf as many hours as I ride a bike as I might be a bit better at it. Skewjacks Sennen 1987 is where it all started for me.
I started in around 1995 at Polzeath my instructor was called Wailin (stick thin with bum length blond hair). I wish I had secummed to the fact that its the only thing in life that makes me truelly happy years ago. I have had 2 courses of intermediate lessons over the last 2 winters and it has made a massive difference to my ability and made loads of friends as well. Staying surf fit is difficult unless you can surf at least once a week but there are lots of things you can do to help.
I've twice had surfing lessons. I think the first time was Devon, it was a full day and too much. We then had a half day on Harris, which was perfect. The waves were better and the beach was stunning. Still can't surf, I would need to have a good week of practise I reckon to start to get the hang of it.
^^^ you just need to watch PB a bit more for tips.
Whilst we're on 'my life in surfing', just 22 years here of stand up, starting in my *cough* very late 30s. Got quite quickly to the "can surf, just really shitly" stage and I've kind of pretty much flatlined about there, line now dipping with age alongside much else (but I remain happy to take on challenging conditions, spots).
Everyone I met when i was getting into surfing, travelling car parks of the UK (when I wish I'd spent more time with my kids) has pretty much moved to the coast/away from the UK. Even I bought a house above some good reefs about 12 years ago, where I don't spend enough time. And yet, and I can't stress this enough, I remain really shite. But then I lack the OPs coordination and ability to learn skills.
Anyway - that's a warning as per the PB clip, swear to god it can change your life, just not necessarily for the better. So my main advice is not to learn if you value your close relationships, work, life away from the coast, ability to honour any appointments when there's good conditions. But failing that,
I can catch green waves bodybuilding so just want to do it standing now 😆
Well at least you're not bodyboarding [joke, joke]. Anyway, going from lying down to standing up is one of the things you can get wired before your first lesson. Get on youtube and search "how to pop up" videos, and drill repeatedly until you can do 20 in a row, good technique, no biggie.
I really should try to get some sort of intermediate coaching. And if someone really wanted to learn asap then coaching in a wavepool would be the way to go. Another topic.
I think you can learn to surf at any age but unfortunately not in a week or two. You really need to live near a break. That's why I moved to windsurfing many years ago as Cambridge didn't really rank very high on worlds greatest surf spots!
Anyway having just come back a few minutes ago from my third and pretty fruitless attempt at Wingfoiling, I reckon even Keanu would have had his work cut out learning to get up on foil in ten minutes!
I can catch green waves bodybuilding
That is impressive , don't the other gym goers complain about the flooding
I think if you can catch green waves already that will help in phase 2.
On a really big board the pop isn’t that hard
I learnt to pop on a very floaty 6 foot 6 pop out. Four 1 hour surfs per day for 4 days. I was fit then and it really helped. I then plateaued for years in positioning in the water. I lived in land which makes it hard. I only ever really road one green wave properly. But it was a great moment in my life
😆 🤣 😂
I'm thinking what's the worse that can happen
..I'd drown ..
Weekends like the last one make all the crap conditions the UK throws at us worth while. Surfed sunday afternoon in 20 degree plus sunshine with big clean waves and Monday morning at Westward Ho in the fog but just as clean. Bigger than forecast definetly and monday there were sets of 15 or so big strong waves with a tiny lull, got caught inside a few times and spent most of my energy on just surviving. Was so foggy on Monday you couldn't even see the waves form the waters edge just able to hear them. My arms are like spaghetti today.
Let us know Jedi how you get on, unless you master it first time in which case you can keep it to yourself. Nobody needs to know a mountain biking & surfing god.
Surfed sunday afternoon in 20 degree plus sunshine with big clean waves and Monday morning at Westward Ho in the fog but just as clean
missed sunday but got in yesterday morning at watergate. some fun waves but the banks weren't really doing it. couldn't find my summer suit so cooked in a hooded 4/3..
Banks didn't work near high tide on Sunday particularly well, as awlays was getting really good mid morning yesterday when I had to get out to go to work.
I'm still no good but I have learned a couple of important things that I didn't see on YT vids.
- When doing the pop up, I tended to grab the sides of the board with my hands to push up, but for some reason this doesn't work at all for me. I can only do it if my hands are flat on the deck. Maybe it gives an extra few cm to let me get my feet on, I don't know.
- Last time I went out (Llangennith, with some fairly big waves for me) I realised where I'd been going wrong. I thought I could start by surfing straight towards the beach, but what's always happened is either that I go too slow and sink, or if the waves are big enough I slide down it fast, then slow down and sink or get swamped. Then I realised that going along the wave like proper surfers do actually makes you go much faster so you can hydroplane. This may make me sound like an idiot but I didn't realise it was more or less essential, at least for me where I've been.
Comparing with snowboarding or skateboarding, a surfboard (or at least mine) is a lot more wobbly side to side, so be prepared for that.
Trademarked UKSurfSkills yet?
On a really big board the pop isn’t that hard
I don't pop anymore, I creak. Slowly. Often the surf is flat by the time I've got to my feet.
When I finally worked out what was going wrong at Llangennith, on my last few waves, I realised I had forgotten how to pop, and I was a bit overwhelmed by the extra speed so I ended up riding the wave on my hands and knees.
From memory an angled take off helps buy time. Your more likely to stay in the green post of the wave if your slow getting up
My other memory is that there is a moment when standing is easier. If the board starts to drop down the wave, if you go to stand you aren’t lifting your weight, just fitting your arms and legs into the hole left by the descending board
Or is that just b@£-:;”&£
Never been on one but I like the look of these shorter but very wide foam boards, a bit like a fatboy flier, easier to turn but stable for your pop up. When up, make sure your right foot (if you're 'natural') is at 90 degrees and your left foot is at 45. Spend a bit of time lying on the board to get used to the right position where you're not breaking or pearling, also learn to sit on the board. Wave selection is important to avoid knackering yourself going for dumping waves that can't be ridden.
Never been on one but I like the look of these shorter but very wide foam boards, a bit like a fatboy flier, easier to turn but stable for your pop up
i dislike them. horrible corky little things with fat rails.
I’m keeping this thread at the top so that when Jedi posts a video of him emerging from a stand up barrel I don’t miss it