Learn To Surf" Natural Surf Technique for beginner surfers. Equipment, how to pop-up, catching wave

Hi, I'm Frank Rona, founder and private surf coach for Natural Surf Technique. I started surfing 35 years ago and I've been teaching since 1989, so I'm celebrating my 25-year anniversary teaching and coaching surfing. Over the years that I've been teaching, I've worked with 7,000 different people, and that's over 15,000 lessons I've taught. What I've found to help most is a solid technique to start with. So today I have my 9'6 and my 7'6 soft top. These are the boards that I use for teaching when I'm down here working with beginners, even some of my intermediate surfers. And what I want to do is go over some visual points, where to lay on the board, how to mark your visual points, and then get you in the water and bring all this to life. What I do is I mark the middle of the board for the balancing spot. That's a natural balancing spot on a surfboard is the middle. No matter if you're riding a 7'6 or a 9'6, you always mark the middle of the board. Then I'm going to put an eyeline. So my eyeline's right here. When I lay on the board, all I'm trying to do is find that because that's going to give me my visualization that when I lay on the board, I'm in the right spot. If you're too far up or too far back, you're not going to get proper paddling glide, which is very key to catching waves and conserving energy. So now I'm going to show you the slide up technique. Most professional surfers and experienced surfers all use this technique. I promise that it's going to do you wonders as far as learning to surf and get to your feet properly. Now I have my middle of the board mark. I have my eyeline mark. So when I lay on the board, I want to slide down the board through the middle and I want to concentrate on my front knee coming into my chest. That's going to allow me to get the front of my foot to the middle of the board. So I come in onto the middle of the board with my sternum meeting the middle and I have my eyeline here. And the important part is keeping my feet together. I want my knees and feet together. A lot of people have a tendency to have their legs go out. And what happens when your legs go out, the tail lifts too much. When the tail lifts too much, the nose goes under. So remember, when you paddle into a wave and you want to have good technique going up to your feet and proper balance, this is very key. So the hand position is really crucial. The heel of my palm is in the middle of the board. So when I lift up, I'll have natural balance. The key here is to keep your head up. And when you lift up, you're trying to stay down the middle of the board. I'm not grabbing the rails. You notice that I'm pushing off flat off the board because what I want to do is create space between my body and the board. So when I lift up, I will be balanced. So I go from here, pull forward, slide through, and I come up. I'm favoring over the front foot. I have my stance shoulder width apart. I'm staying on the instep of my back foot. This is going to help me compress and extend and help the board progress faster. So there's pumping. But when you first come up, you just want to get your balance. So there's a couple of things that we need to talk about as far as paddling out into the water. You need to know that there's a turtle roll that is involved. And basically what you're trying to do with the turtle roll is as you're paddling out, you're going to have waves coming at you. And if the wave is big, you're going to have to get through that wave without letting your board go. Once the wave gets to me, I'm going to take a deep breath. And then I'm going to lower my chin down onto the visual eyeline spot as close as I can. And from here, I'm going to reach as far as possible on my paddle. And what this is going to do, it's going to create a better glide speed. Your timing is crucial here. You always make sure you're watching the wave. When I see a wave coming in, you have to keep your eye on it all the way till it gets to you. When you're watching over your shoulder, you're seeing the wave come in. If the wave's bigger on this side, I'm usually going to ride to the left. If the wave's bigger on this side, I'm usually going to ride to the right. So from this point, I'm going to go out. I'm going to catch a whitewash so you can learn how to start on the right foot and practice what we've just learned on the beach. On the first wave that I took, it was just the whitewash. What I did was I walked out halfway. I waited for the right wave. I turned my board. I laid on my board in the right spot. Watched the wave as I was paddling to catch it. And once I caught the wave, I put my hands to the right spot and did my slide up technique that we practiced on the beach. And in the second one, I paddled out. I did a couple turtle rolls. Once I caught the wave, I rode to the left because it was bigger over the right side. I rode it for a little while. I straightened the board off toward the beach. And as I was losing my balance, I fell back. This is a safety thing. You always want to make sure that you push the board toward the beach. You never want your board in between you and the wave. Wave hits the board, board smacks you. So if you like the video and you want more information on learning to surf, visit Amazon and get my book called Natural Surf Technique, celebrating 25 years. Hopefully, this video helps you with your surfing. And good luck.