Tips To Remember After Your First Surf Lesson

Santa Cruz surfing is growing at an amazingly rapid pace. People from all over are flocking to the beach to give Santa Cruz surfing a try. However, it isn’t always as easy as it looks. Santa Cruz surf lessons are a great way to learn the essential skills needed to have a fun session in the water. While Santa Cruz surf lessons are a great way to learn how to navigate a line up, pop up, and get the most out of your rides, your first session after a surf lesson is equally important as the lessons themselves. As a surf instructor myself, I realize how much information is thrown at a student during a surf lesson. Here are a couple important things one should remember for their first session without their surf instructor.

The Pop-up: Always remember to keeps one’s feet in the center of the board marked by the line, or stringer. To ensure proper foot placement, it is vital that the surfer keeps his/her hands on the board until both feet are firmly planted in the right position over the stringer.

The Paddle Out: In order to conserve energy and thus lengthen one’s session, it is important to know where the best place is to enter and exit the line up, and where the best place is to paddle back out after catching a wave. It is essential for a surfer to spend a few minutes on the beach beforehand and study the way the wave is breaking in order to plan the best place to paddle out.

Navigating the Line Up: Crowds make it increasingly difficult to catch waves as more and more people are paddling out without having a grasp of surf etiquette. For those who aren’t familiar with what surf etiquette is, the basic premise is respect and awareness. A surfer should always respect other surfers around him or her by making sure one doesn’t interfere in another surfer’s ride. This leads to the second part of etiquette: awareness. It is extremely important for surfers out in the line up to be aware of where other surfers are at all times. This will allow for a safer and more fun experience for everyone.

Santa Cruz surf lessons are a great way to learn the proper skills and technique to have fun and be safe in the water. Remembering those skills and applying them for your own sessions can be tricky. Hopefully this post will refresh your memory to make your next surf session that much better! If you have questions, please contact one of our professional surfing instructors here at Capitola Beach Company.