Surfing Guide

For some people life is about making a living and founding a family. For others it is all about trying to stand upright on a plastic plank while Mother Nature does her level best to hurl you upside down into the primeval sea as if reproaching you for having had the impertinence to crawl out of it in the first place. Anyone who hasn't spent the last forty years living under a rock can tell you that surfing is implausibly glamorous, hip and heavily marketed. It's as if everyone who has ever thought 'hmm, yes I do look pretty nifty in Speedos' has immediately been signed up by some all-seeing surfing talent scout.

What's fascinating, however, is that for every bronzed beach-god sunning themselves in the Hawaiian surf there will also be a bedraggled bloke shivering in a car park in Wales. Take away the glamour, the suntans, the fashion statements and the groupies (or so I'm told) and people will still follow the surf with a zeal verging on religious mania. That alone makes it worth a whirl.

Surfing started out way before the Beach Boys and was probably once the preserve of the natives of Hawaii. Denizens of Hawaii will tell you that surfing is a near-mystical experience in which you become 'one with the wave'. Those of us who first wet our wax in less glamorous locations can assure you that it is easy to become one with the wave but that's only because you tend to disappear into it the moment you try to get to your feet. So let's get real. Surfing is fun to try, and don't whatever you do be put off by the too-cool-for-school image of it, but on the other hand it's not a half day on a beginner's board that is going to transform you into Laird Hamilton (whaddya mean 'who?'!).

Surf's up

First, don't just rush into the waves with the nearest board to hand. If you haven't done this before then make sure you have professionals to keep an eye on you and ask if they have 'soft' boards before you agree to go. Soft boards are more like hard foam. They are less glamorous, they don't perform as well and you can't hang around rubbing wax on them and looking cool because they aren't even shiny. What they are, however, is, erm, soft. Well, softer than the real thing anyway and when you've been banged around the head by a wave brandishing your own board you start to appreciate that kind of detail.

Practice your 'snap' in easy waves. Bring your hand up to your ribcage, lift your head and shoulders up and then snap your right foot (presuming you're not left-footed) straight up under you so that your chest is resting on your knee. Now turn both feet sideways so they face across the board and you are up. Keep nice and low and stick your bottom out as far as it'll go. Now get out there and do much the same thing. You'll fall off of the first forty or fifty times, but the first time you are up for even a couple of seconds your friends won't be able to shut you up about it.

So where do I go from here?

Once you've mastered the basics the sky's the limit. Literally. Sure, there are moves like the floater or the tailside (dude), but it's the aerial that wows the crowds. A aptly-named man called Christian Fletcher is credited as the mutineer who brought skateboarding moves to surfing and 'wasted' the best part of the wave by using it for take-off instead of riding it. You need to build speed by racing down the face of the wave then up to the lip to take-off and catch some air. It doesn't count if you don't land upright, by the way: that's not called an aerial, just a spectacular wipeout.

When you first fling yourself onto your board and start paddling to catch a wave the chances are that you will feel unbalanced and tip from side to side or find yourself too far back down the board so the nose rises up from the water (a common mistake called 'corking'). Then you'll unbalance further as you shift your weight around trying to find the neutral spot, only to be taken unawares as the wave catches you and passes you by. Save time and hassle by starting off in flat water, lying on the board so that it floats flat. Then mark where your shoulders and chin go on the board with surf wax (so you can wipe it off later). Now, when you try to catch waves, you already have a body outline to line up with as you take your place on the board.


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