How to Surf Like a Pro in 25 Minutes

Surfing has to be one of the best sports in the world. It's endlessly creative and mesmerising. It's also a sport that anyone can do, no matter what age or gender. It's a sport you fall in love with. And we're going to show you how. Enter the surf, there are cutbacks, re-entries, you name it, it happens almost instinctively. G'day guys and welcome to How To Rip. My name is Cale Brock, this is Ryan Boehm and together we're going to be teaching you how to surf. Now together, we've about 25 years of surfing experience which we're really excited to pass on to you. What we've done is we've got an easy to follow step-by-step guide, so take your time on each step and you'll be ripping in no time. But before we get into the water, there's a couple of basics that we need to go over, so let's get into them. The first thing we're going to talk about is getting a board that's right for you. We want you to have a board that's great to learn on, but also good enough for you to surf well on when you improve. The best board for this is a fish. Alrighty, now basically a fish is a mix between a longboard and a shortboard. These boards are a little bit thicker and thus more buoyant, meaning they make you float better. Now, the reason we're sticking away from the shortboards for now is because they're a little bit thin and it's going to be hard to paddle and hard to catch waves. The reason we're staying away from the longboards is, although they're easy to catch waves on, they're hard to paddle and negotiate waves with. So we go for something in the middle, a fish. We've put together this table for you guys to see the best sized board for you to get, depending on your weight. To be honest, buying a brand new board isn't necessary. A second hand fish in reasonable condition is perfect for our purpose. Now I'm going to run through the basics on a surfboard. The top bit here, this is called the deck. This is what we're going to stand on. On the side here, we have rails. This is the bottom of the surfboard. On the bottom of the board, we have these three things. These are the fins. At the top, we have our nose. And at the end, we have our tail. Alright, we've already got a surfboard that doesn't quite fit in with our recommendations. That's fine. All that means is that as we go along, we have to make a few adjustments and we'll help improve. Now once you've got your surfboard, there are pretty much only a couple more things you need. The first one, if the water's cold, is a wet suit. Now if the water's warm, you can jump in your board shorts, that's fine. With these, you pretty much get what you pay for. So it's up to you how much you want to spend. The next thing that you need is this thing here. It's called a leg rope. A leg rope keeps you attached to your surfboard, so that if you fall off, you won't lose it. You'll be attached to it. You put your leg rope on your back foot. How do you know which way is your back foot, front foot? Depends on what feels most comfortable for you. When I'm putting this leg rope on, I put it on my back leg, nice and tight, with the string pointing backwards. The length of the leg rope should be about the same length as my surfboard. Now once you've done that, the last thing you need is a piece of wax. And this pretty much makes the deck of the board sticky enough so that our feet can get a good grip. And you just rub it on like that. Now for more info on prepping your board, jump onto our bonus section. But for now, we're going to get into it. One of the biggest challenges that most beginners face in surfing is how to negotiate the moving and somewhat unpredictable ocean. Not being able to do this often results in a very slow learning time. Now we want to overcome this obstacle right at the beginning of the How to Rip program. The best way to feel comfortable in the water isn't just to jump straight out to the surf. We think the more effective way is to take your board out into flat water like this and spend some time just moving around. The more time you spend in there, the more comfortable you'll get before you hit the waves. So let's go in. There are certain movements and techniques in the water that are really important for you to become comfortable with. So that you can be in control in the ocean and ready to catch the best waves. Let's go through them. The first thing we're going to look at is positioning on the board. And it's super important. We want to make sure that we're not too far forward when we're paddling. Because otherwise we're going to nosedive like that. We also want to make sure that we're not too far backwards. Because otherwise catching waves and paddling is going to be an absolute nightmare. We want to be somewhere in the middle. We also want to make sure that we're centred. So that we're not tipping off to one side. Now there are pretty much two things to look for. One, there's a line in the centre of the board. And that's called the stringer. Align that with the middle of your chest. That way you know you're in the centre of the board. Another thing is, you want to paddle just so the nose just sticks out of the water like that. That way it's a nice efficient movement. A quick little exercise to get this skill right. Is to hop off your board and practise jumping back on. And getting yourself into that perfect position. With as little adjustment as possible. Just like this. Do this until you feel comfortable with it. It should take no longer than 30 minutes. The next integral part of surfing is paddling. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. Because they don't spend time to get it right. So then it affects them down the track. So now we're going to show you how to do it properly. So you don't have those issues. Carol's going to demonstrate for us. When you're paddling, you want to have your hands cut. And you want to use big long strokes. You can see as his arm passes through. It's going just below his elbow. That's how deep he's going. His chest is slightly raised. And his feet are together. And it's nice and tight through his core. From here, you can paddle away. A good way to practise this skill is to set up a paddling course. Pick two markers on the beach and paddle between them. Once you feel comfortable doing this. We want you to weave the positioning skill into the exercise. At the beginning of each paddle, start off the board. Then jump on. Adjust to that perfect position. And then paddle to your marker. Do this for at least 30 minutes. Allowing for rest time. The last piece of ward negotiation that we're going to look at is duck diving. A duck diving is when we're paddling out. We duck under a wave and keep paddling. It's a lot faster and less tiring than having to battle against the waves. There are a couple of ways to do this. So let's have a look. The premise of an effective duck dive is to go as deep as possible. So that the waves power rolls over you. The first step is to press down on the board with both arms. You do this by grabbing onto the rails on either side. You then raise up your knee and foot. Place it on the tail and press down. Your body should follow. And you've successfully duck dived underneath a wave. If you're having trouble duck diving. Chances are that your board is too buoyant. Or you're using a long board. And that's fine. You can Eskimo roll instead. Duck diving is a lot more effective. And you'll find that you'll be less tired. And you'll get out the back faster. The best way to practice duck diving is repetition. Try and focus on submerging your whole body as you do it. And getting that downward upward motion happening. Okay, now there's an exercise that we can do. That weaves in all the water negotiation skills that we've learnt so far. First off we're going to start off the board. Like we did before. Jump on and get that positioning right. And then we're going to paddle. Focusing on our technique here. And then we're going to implement the skill of duck diving. Into the exercise. And we're going to do it over and over again. Until we feel really confident and comfortable. Now we're going to take all that we've learnt and practiced so far into the surf. So find somewhere with some nice waves. And then move on. Now how do we know where to begin our surf training? Well one easy way is to ask around in your local area for the best beginner beaches. There are some things to look out for when deciding where to surf though. The best waves for beginners are generally small, gentle breaking waves like this. This however is not a good beach for learning. Because the waves break powerfully over a shallow bottom. Ok guys so now it's time to progress from flat water to a beach with some waves. This is where the real fun begins. We're going to take our surfboard down to the waves. Just to about waist depth. We're looking to catch the white water. White water is once the wave is actually broken. We're going to catch the foamy stuff. We're going to catch it on our bellies. So we're going to paddle hard, paddle hard. Once you feel the waves pushing you, you can stop paddling. And then just enjoy the ride into shore. Now we're going to do this for about 5-10 waves. Or until you feel comfortable. Then we can move on. Now contrary to popular belief, the take off in surfing isn't actually that hard. It mostly comes down to you and your inner senses. We really want to make you familiar with that transition from your belly to your feet. And here are the pointers. Ok, so Cale is going to demonstrate the process for us in the sand. Practice it here. Get comfortable. Then we can go out into the surf and do it for real. Cale is going to pretend that he's seen the wave that he wants. He's jumped on the board and he's correctly positioned. He's paddling, paddling, paddling. Big powerful strokes. You can feel the waves pushing him. He's going to place his hands on the board. Slightly raise his chest. Then spring up, dragging his front foot forward. Good. Now he's up. He's going to stay low. Looking straight ahead. Pointing straight ahead. You can see his feet are about shoulder width apart. They're facing diagonally. They're centred along the stringer. That's perfect. While you practice this, it's going to start off slow but eventually become faster and faster. Alrighty, sweet. What are we going to do now? When you reach a point that you feel comfortable with taking off most of the time, feel free to move on to our next focus point, wave selection. Selecting the right waves and being able to read or predict how those waves will break is a fundamental part of surfing. The right waves will allow you to maximise your length or quality of ride, enhancing your surfing experience. In the beginning stages of surfing, you'll simply enjoy the feeling of catching white water or broken waves and riding those. But the next step is to catch waves before they are broken, so that you can ride along the clean face of the wave. So how do you know which waves to choose? Well, basically most waves break either right or left. That is, on a right-hander, the face of the wave moves to the right. On a left-hander, the face of the wave moves to the left, with a little bit of white water behind it. Which way will you prefer? It's actually up to you and your personal preference. But we as surfers want to catch the waves just ahead of the white water so that we can ride the face. Picture waves as a kind of mountain, with its force concentrated in its centre peak here. This part here is called the shoulder, and to begin with, that's where we want to take off. It'll take a few tries, but the key to taking off on the face is you'll need to paddle harder and be slightly quicker getting to your feet. Riding down the wave on your belly before getting up is a common mistake and will result in a loss of speed and momentum. Don't worry too much about turning your board yet. For now, just focus on getting to your feet smoothly. We strongly recommend you focus on these skills for at least 3-4 sessions before moving on to the next lesson. The next skill we're going to focus on is weight transfer. Weight transfer forms the basis of every single surfing manoeuvre that there is. Aerials, cutbacks, re-entries, you name it, they all start with subtle weight transfer. Now what is weight transfer? It's the ability to transfer the weight from your toes, onto your heels, from your front foot onto your back foot and vice versa. By now you should be confident in your ability to take off on the face of the wave. Now we want to turn the board so that we can surf along the wave, rather than just going straight. This, and all the other turning and surfing, is determined by weight transfer on your feet, legs, and also by where you are looking. The process of turning stays the same for all turns, with varying degrees of intensity. The best thing about this weight transfer is that it happens almost instinctively, and we can help ourselves by focusing on the principle of where you look is where you go. See here Ryan is catching a wave that is breaking to the left. So as he stands up, he looks to the left. Now this is very important. His front arm also points to the direction he wants to go, and naturally his whole body follows. For instance he will be transferring most of his weight onto his heels, helping the board turn. If he was surfing the wave to the right, he would look to the right, point to the right, and now he would naturally transfer most of his weight to the toes. The opposite applies to those who surf with their right foot forward. It can sound a little bit technical, but our main focus here should be to look where you want to go. A good example of this skill in another sport is skateboarding. See here how the heels and toes are used alternatively to gather momentum and direct the board. It is the same on a surfboard, except a little more subtle. The first turns you do will be small and slow, but as always with practice, and as you gain a better feel for the movements required, they'll gradually get bigger and faster. Gaining speed is essential for advanced surfing. We talked previously about transferring weight from your heel to your toe. This applies to speed generation in a big way. The part of the wave that will give you the most speed and power is at the top. To generate speed, you will need to access that power throughout your ride. This begins after you stand up. Your initial movement should aim to take you to the top of the wave, like this. You harness the speed and power from the wave, and then you release it on the way back down. As you go along the wave doing this, you build up speed. Watch these examples. You should be making a note of looking to the part of the wave you intend to go. Look to the top, look to the bottom, to the top, to the bottom, and so on. You can work on this skill until you feel confident in gaining speed. Your movement on the wave should feel smooth and have a nice flow. So what do we do with all this speed? That's where we start to look at the more advanced parts of surfing. All manoeuvres start with a bottom turn, which is like a set-up turn. This turn will be slightly bigger and more drawn out than a speed generating turn we spoke of earlier. Picture yourself like a coiled spring. The spring, when it is compressed, holds a lot of tension, and this is us during the bottom or set-up turn. We then release that tension to get to the top of the wave, putting the release tension or power of the spring into our manoeuvre. During this turn, you should pick a spot at the top of the wave, look at it, and point your front arm at the spot, and your board should follow. There are many different types or styles of manoeuvre that the bottom turn can allow us to do. The basic premise of all manoeuvres at the top of the wave is the transfer of weight back down the wave. Picture yourself sort of rebounding or carving off the top of the wave to go back down. To do this, we need to focus on two main things. One, you need to turn your head back down the wave and point your arm in the same direction. Two, you need to transfer your weight back onto your heels or toes if you are riding with your back to the wave. Guys, this marks the end of How To Rip, but it does mark the beginning of your surfing journey. Surfing has taken us around the world and given us experiences that few others actually get to have. It's a beautiful sport and we hope that you love it as much as we do. Stay safe and keep ripping. Thanks for watching. I'm at a desk inside a room In a yellow house just up the street I'm on a planet with a moon So easy to forget it's there I am part of Someone's explosion Why is this always a surprise to us? We are on a speck of dust I wrote a song on planet earth In a galaxy not worth a thought Near a bunch of rocks just spinning round and round More of them than all of us I got to thinking