Surfing Techniques for Beginners

The most important move when surfing is the pop-up! This is when you move from lying on your belly, paddling, to standing on your board and riding the wave. When you look at the pro surfers it might look easy and effortless, like a mini-explosion. But don’t worry, with three simple steps, and again, practice, you’ll master this technique much quicker than you might think.

Step one: place your hands flat on the board next to your chest without holding on to the rail, then lift your chest while keeping your hips low and looking forward.

Step two: then first bring your back foot forward, positioning it on the board near the centre.

Step three: quickly bring your front foot up to the board, and place it between your hands. Once both feet are on the board, try to find your balance by bending your knees slightly and centre your weight over the board. Always keep your eyes focused on where you want to go, towards the beach, so don’t look down!

The best way to learn the pop-up and to avoid common mistakes is to start making yourself familiar with the right movement on dry land. We see a lot of intermediate surfers struggle because they didn't learn the right movement on dry land first.

Before you jump into the ocean for a surf session, practise your pop-up movement on dry land 10 to 15 times. This helps your body to create muscle memory, and your body will move automatically after a while. It might feel a bit silly at first, but trust us, it will pay off big time!

As you progress your skills and start paddling further out into the ocean, you’ll sometimes need to paddle through those powerful whitewater waves that crash onto the shore. This is where the turtle roll comes in.

It’s a technique where you flip yourself and your board upside down when a wave is coming near you, letting the wave pass over you. You must keep your body close to the board and once the wave has passed, gently flip yourself and the board back over.

At our Kima Surf Camps, we often practice turtle rolls during our pool sessions before heading out to the ocean. Just jump in the pool with a surfboard and one of our surf guides, and learn the turtle roll before going out into the ocean!

Nice! You’re paddling out, feeling happy and confident, and then you see the perfect wave coming. You feel ready, but as the wave is coming closer, you’re not so sure anymore. How do you know which wave to go for? That's where wave reading comes in, an important part of surfing that comes with spending time in the water and actively wave patterns.

Before knowing how to read the waves, it's important to understand the different types of surf breaks, different types of waves, and the different parts of the wave itself. Then you can move on to the key elements of reading the waves:

• Check the surf spot: what kind of break are you going to surf at? What type of wave? And what are the conditions like?

• Observe the set: watch the waves carefully. See how they roll in, are they coming in sets? How many waves per set and how far apart are the sets?

• Identify the Peak: the peak is the highest point of the wave, the part where the wave starts to break and where you want to take the wave.

• Look for the shoulder: the shoulder is the part of the wave that peels away from the peak, the part of the wave that is not broken yet. The steeper the shoulder, the longer you can ride the wave.