I started surfing when I was 30 years old. I missed out on the experiences of having my twenties to travel the world to find perfect waves and enjoy indescribable surfing-outs at remote locations. Still, I wouldn’t change a thing. I appreciated the learning process more than an averaged surfer. My first experience was a summer roadtrip on the central coast in California. A few friends and I rented some boards and drove around to find waves. None of us knew what to look for. We ended up surfing a well-known beginner’s surfing beach, a nice beachbreak with no actual lineups, and a white water only beachbreak at a state park with no one else but the four of us. Surfing at the state park was one of my favorite sunset surf sessions to this day.
Over the years, I have written many tutorial emails to friends who want to give surfing a try. Here is tutorial post I put together for the next surfing learner. It is the introduction guide that I wish that I had on my hand when I first started.
Where to Surf
Surfing learners should go to well-known beginner surf spots most of the time. Within 90 minutes drive from San Francisco, the best bets are Linda Mar, Bolinas, Princenton Jetty, Cowell, and Pleasure Point. When the swells are small, one could try Ocean Beach, Rockaway, Waddell, Davenport Landing, and low tide Middle Peak at Steamer Lane. My favorite combo when I was learning was Linda Mar and Ocean Beach. Between those two spots, I could find rideable waves 350 days a year.
Cycling through these spots should give you plenty of water time, getting familiar with equipments, observing the good and the bad parts of surf culture, exploring the California coast, and respecting the ocean.
Once you get enough experiences to level up to be an intermediate surfer. I would recommend the classic book Surfing California. Our land has changed, there are way more people in and out of the water, but waves still break more or less the same as they did 100s of years ago.
Gears
A surfer learner should start on a stable surfboard that has plenty of volume. It usually means a beat up longboard or a foam board. The board of choice should be at least 8 ft long. My personal favorite is the trusty Costco Wavestorm. I started on that board, and I still love surfing it on closeout days. Taking out my waterlogged wavestorm on a summer day to catch waves on some uncrowded sand banks in San Francisco is one of the purest surfing experiences regardless of skill levels.
Getting a quality wetsuit and booties will keep the coldest person feeling cozy in the coldest winter months. I run as cold as anyone I have met in my life. My hand and feet would go numb walking around in the summer months in San Francisco after the sun goes down. They are also going numb as I am typing this blog in my home office. Yes, the heat is on. I had always thought that this part of the coast was too cold for me to spend more than 15 minutes swimming. Putting on a quality wetsuit changed all of that. They work better than advertised.
The water temperature could go down to the high 40s in winter. I wear a 5/4 with a hood. Many people wear 4/3. Here is a little-known fact: the thickness matters less than the dollar amount you spend and its wear and tear. In the summer, the water temperature is better but still cold. Any 4/3 wetsuit, even a cheap one or a few-years-old wetsuit, is enough to keep me warm and happy all session long.
Surf Forecast
Surfline is the standard surf forecast tool every surfer uses. Magicseaweed is a good alternative because its free version offers a week ahead forecast while Surfline’s free version is only one day ahead. Cross referencing information from a wind specific forecast site, such as Windy, is helpful for a more nuanced forecaster.
The basic concepts governing wave qualities are wind direction, wind speed, wind gust, swell direction, swell height, swell period, tide, the specifics of the breaks (bathymetry).
The only way to reliably predict quality surfs is by accumulating countless experiences in analyzing onscreen metrics and seeing surf conditions in person. Every break works differently. It is not hard to acquire that pattern recognition for the breaks you visit often. Surfline’s overall indicator “epic/good/fair/poor” is not accurate often enough. Instead, I use the raw numbers on wind, swell, and tide to make my own forecast. Surfline could easily have a better prediction model if they collect user feedback and implement a simple nonlinear model. It should work really well for the popular breaks.
Catching Waves and Popping Up
In the beginning, everyone wants catch a wave, pop up, and ride away as one with the ocean energy. I would advise perseverance and enjoy the process no matter what. I learned everything through watching youtube, from surfing on white water to catching small unbroken waves and enjoying clean 4-6 ft waves at Ocean Beach. You can take classes, get help with surf coaches, ask friends, or just go out surfing a lot. You are going to improve as long as you are having fun in the water.
I am going to list some tutorial videos to get you started. If you are serious about learning, these will just be your starting points. You will probably watch a thousand hours worth of surf contents. It will help your surfing. Having a mental picture of what your body should be doing is likely to allow your body to develop those muscle memories.
- Paddling Tutorial 1
- Paddling Tutorial 2
- Paddling Tutorial 3
- Paddling Out on a Longboard
- Surf Simply Tutorials: Catching Unbroken Waves
- Surf Simply Tutorials: Paddling To Spot X
- Surf with Amigas: How to Popup
Here is a trick speeding up the learning of the dreaded popup: practice on a yoga mat. When I was learning in the first 6 months, I calculated that every 2 hours I spent on the water, I have about 20 popup attempts. I was always messing up my popups. I started doing 100 popups a day when I was on a trip not anywhere close to the ocean. In that few weeks, I ended up with more popup attempts than I could have accumulated in a year’s worth of water time. I actually came back from the trip popping up too fast and had to learn to slow down to better time my popup with the breaking waves.
Gaining Proficiency
Moving beyond the absolute beginner stage, the next best thing is learning the vocabulary of what you don’t know. I would recommend watching the 110% surfing video series cover to cover. You could easily get into a youtube rabbit hole to get sufficient exposures. Here are some links to prime your recommendation engine:
- How the world’s best surfers pop up
- Shortboard Pop Up
- Take Off & Heavy Drop (goofy version)
- Catching More Waves
- Bottom Turn
I have been following these basics to reach my personal surfing goals.
- Get into the water often
- Watch surf videos and visualize
- Apply fitness exercises to increase overall flexibility, upper body strength, core stability, and injury prevention
Surfing Clips, Reads, and History
Surfing media has a lot of hidden gems, especially if you are new to surfing. There are personalities, adventures, innovations, and everything in between. Going through the history of surfing is a joy in and of itself. I probably spend just as much time surfing the internet on surf culture.