Basic Skills and Knowledge for Your First Surfing Experience:

Ocean surfing is the fun and vigorous activity of paddling over

the waves away from shore and riding the front of a wave back

toward shore while standing up. Then doing it over and over until

you're too tired and too overjoyed to continue.

Here are some ideas about how to get a good start toward enjoying

the sport of surfing. First, find a good beach where beginner and

intermediate surfers find good waves to enjoy and then find a

good surf shop nearby. As a beginner it may be wise to rent a

surf board for a while rather than to buy one. For one, if you

are athletic you may only be a beginner for a short while and

then you can buy an intermediate board as your first board. For

another, renting a board will allow you to decide for certain

whether the sport is a good one for you.

At the surf shop ask for a foam longboard to start out on. These

are sometimes called foamies or softboards and are far safer and

easier to start out on than a short fiberglass board. The rigid

boards are apt to injure you if they hit you with their hard nose

or relatively sharp fins, also called skegs. On the other hand

the softboards have soft rubber skegs and are less apt to injure

you when you fall off. Further, the foam boards are wider and

longer and therefore more stable. This makes them easier for a

beginner to be able to get up on and stay up on. They are more

forgiving. This means that they will not react as quickly to the

poor balance of a beginner, and thus will allow the beginner to

make mistakes and still be able to recover from them without

being thrown off the board.

While at the surf shop go ahead and ask the resident experts

where a good place to learn nearby would be and ask them for some

tips on how to get up on the board. The surf dudes will be more

than happy to give you some advice and some stories.

Alternatively, you might take a knowledgeable friend or

instructor with you who can give you instruction and tips and

also fill you in on some of the etiquette that surfers practice

while on the water. For instance, you'll want to learn how to

stay out of the way of other surfers and how to wait your turn so

that you don't steal someone's wave.

Paddle out to the waiting area beyond the break of the waves by

lying on the board and paddling with both arms. As a beginner

you'll be surfing smaller waves that you can ride up and over as

you paddle out to the waiting area. Once you arrive you can sit

up, straddling the board, and make some contact with other

surfers who are waiting. Watch what the more skilled surfers do

to catch a wave and picture yourself doing the same.

When your turn comes, lie down again on the board and paddle hard

before the wave reaches you so that you can match the speed of

the wave. As the wave catches you and you feel a gain in

momentum, quickly push yourself up to your feet and centered over

the board, staying low in a Sumo wrestler kind of stance. You'll

be able to keep your balance better that way. Stay balanced, keep

your weight over your feet, and stay on for as long as you can.

Since you are riding smaller waves at this point, you don't have

to worry about maneuvering or about wave crests falling on you.

Just stay on the front of the wave and imagine that there's a

curl behind you and a cheering crowd in front of you.

Try as many waves as you can without becoming too tired. Enjoy

the sport safely and remember that you won't be a pure beginner

for very long.