Novice Surfers - mistakes when catching waves
- Posted: Sat, September 12th, 2009
- Post by: Martin
- Posted in: Blog, Learn to Surf
After surfers overcome the hurdle of learning how to stand and ride waves, there is a period in their development which can be called the “novice” stage of development. This is where surfers are learning the foundation skills of the sport and every surfer, right from Joe Blow at your local beach to Kelly Slater, must pass through this stage to create consistency in their performances.
Positioning is critical to catching waves
The skills I am talking about here are the skills of positioning in the line-up, catching waves paddled for, successfully taking the drop, and consistently riding waves from beginning to end. Notice, I haven’t mentioned the performance of surfing manoeuvres, as learning to perform moves, comes later in the developmental process.
The typical novice performance is one where the surfer would paddle for lots of waves, but catch only a few. Once they catch a wave, they usually pop-up slow, ride their waves by going straight through the middle of the wave, and kick-out before the end section, normally because of a healthy aversion to being smashed.
But initially, most mistakes occur around the takeoff, and these can be categorised into two main issues.
1. Novice surfers typically try to catch their waves from the shoulder of the peak, primarily because of a lack of confidence or fear of being pitched at takeoff. If you like, they take the cautious approach, but you can’t catch waves if you aren’t on the steep face of a wave. In the surf yesterday I heard a father advising his novice son to paddle in deeper to catch his waves, indicating that he was too far out on the shoulder. The direction he gave was correct, but the terminology was wrong, as the novice surfer needs more specific instruction, as in his mind, he was thinking he was already deep enough. It would have been more correct and effective if the father had said, “Paddle over and catch the wave from where it initially breaks”. With this direction, the novice surfer has a picture of where they need to go, and with that comes the direction to position themselves in a more positive way.
Breaking the ledge makes the drop easier
2. Most novice surfers get hung up in the lip at takeoff, causing then to fade over the back of the wave or to get pitched. What should be understood, is that there is a ledge at the top of every wave that must be broken through to achieve consistency when taking the drop. This ledge is really the lip that will pitch out as the wave breaks. In soft waves, the ledge is narrow and easy to break through, but in hollow and large waves, it is a significant size that requires forceful paddling to break. Once broken, the drop down the waveface is much easier. To overcome getting caught in the lip, novice surfer should take 2-3 more strokes than they think they should to break the ledge and with that, more consistency when dropping down the waveface.
Positioning oneself on the peak and breaking the ledge are fundamental to creating confidence when surfing, and are foundation skills that will enhance all other aspects in a surfing performance.
Can you be more specific about the “ledge”?
As explained in the blog, the “ledge” is really the lip that pitches out as a wave breaks. When paddling into a wave, it can be a barrier to catching the wave, or if you like the final hurdle that must be overcome to make the drop successfully. And at the beginner and novice levels of development, many surfers struggle to negotiate this ledge consistently.
If a surfer gets caught in the ledge, they usually have to negotiate a much steeper drop down the face because their board gets thrown out with the lip, as compared with a surfer that breaks the ledge, as their drop, is in front of the lip.
Martin I have two thoughts about breaking through the ledge. I am a novice surfer.
1. Is it possible that a surfboard can be too boyant for your weight and so keep you from breaking through easily.?
2. What do you think about positioning on the board. Too far back , not enough speed. To far forward and you get pitched ?
Best regards.
Richard,
1. I haven’t seen too much buoyancy as being an issue when catching waves. There can be issues with board handling when in the whitewater and paddling through waves, but not when catching waves.
2. There are real problems with having a too far back paddling position when catching waves. Laying on your board with excessive nose sticking out of the water slows the surfboard, and in many cases doesn’t allow the surfer to generate enough speed to ctach their waves. On a shortboard, when positioned correctly, there should be approximately 6 inches of the nose of your surfboard out of the water when paddling. Having a too far forward paddling position is usually only for a short duration in most surfers development, because it just doesn’t feel right and most surfers adjust naturally to a paddling position that feels flat and balanced.
Hi Martin,
Your point on catching waves for novice’s (particularly breaking the ‘ledge’) is spot on and is a point I still struggle with at times. I think this is a tip a lot more experienced surfer’s take for granted and forget once the break through this level and forget to pass on when they teach others.
I’ve only just breaking through this barrier and have almost reached the next level but this has taken me quite a while to come to terms with as fear was probably my worst enemy.
What also helped was a better paddling stroke, I was having shoulder pain and struggling with speed before I did some research on stroke and now things are much better.
Paddling into waves and a proper stroke technique are (to me at least) the most basic fundamentals that should be taught/learned to accelerate your surfing progress, these have been the biggest things that have kept me back from breaking to the next level.
A couple of ‘in depth’ lessons and training on these topics would be great.
So far I’ve enjoyed and learned a lot from your content on this site Martin, keep up the good work.
All the best and thank you,
Mick.
Mick,
The reason better surfers don’t teach it is because they don’t think of it. Most good surfers can’t really describe what they do, they just do it. It’s mainly when you are learning that you really have to concentrate, later it’s all about feel. So as a result, don’t be too hard on the advice or lack of advise you get from better surfers. Becasue I coach, I have had to be able to verbalise what I see, and come up with training drills to rectify any issues. Breaking the ledge was a problem for me at one time, but overcoming it made my surfing much more enjoyable.
I will look into describing how to train to better this area of performance soon.
Martin
Martin,
Really awesome advice! I just started out and never really thought about it as breaking through the ledge. It just paints a much better picture the way you explain it. I have been riding a fish that has a little extra foam on it. It’s 22.5 wide and 3 inches thick. I’m 5′10 and 145lbs. I have been struggling though. I got the board for free and can’t afford a longboard right now. I think my problem right now is kind of getting past fear.
I have caught waves before but the fish is so fast before I know it I’m down the wave and no time for popping up. I also realized I am popping up wrong. Practicing on carpet , I was using my toes. And on a shortboard your toes are hanging off the tail in the water. So now I’ve been practicing with my feet up in the air no toes to push off just all upper body.
Thanks…bobby.