If you have decided to learn how to surf, you know you just can’t wait until you are out in the water catching a big wave. But to do so, you first need to learn how to get up on your surfboard and stay there long enough actually to ride that wave. While it looks easy when you see experienced surfers on their boards, you know it will take plenty of practice before you too can ride that big wave all the way onto the beach. Here are three tips to keep in mind to make getting on your surfboard easier.
Practice On Land
Before you ever take your surfboard out into the water, spend plenty of time practicing the proper techniques for getting up and staying on your board while you are still on dry land. First, lay down on the board and position yourself as if you are about to do a push-up. A key to successfully getting up on the board and staying up, is balance. When you’re ready, lift yourself up with your hands, making sure you continue to look straight ahead rather than down at your board. This will help you stay balanced as you move through the practiced motions. When you first start practicing on land, you may feel like it doesn’t equate to what it’ll be like on the water and thus, you may not consider it a worthwhile practice. However, the more you practice on dry land, the more natural the same movements will feel while being on the water.
Look Toward the Shoreline
A lot of new surfers tend to look at their feet when they are trying to get up on the board. Interestingly enough, keeping your head up with your eye on the shoreline can help your body balance better. If you look down or try to go back and forth between looking straight ahead and down at your board, this will throw off your balance. Similar to the effect of balancing on one leg and looking at an unmoving spot away from where you are standing, keeping your eye on the solid ground that is typically parallel with your eye can help you stay balanced when getting up on a surfboard.
Take Surfing Classes
While practicing on your own will help you learn the skills needed to enjoy surfing, taking some time to sign up for surfing classes given by a reputable surfing school such as Aqua Surf can get you up on your board much faster. Once you start working one-on-one with an experienced surfing teacher, you will not only learn the proper techniques for riding your surfboard, but also learn lots of little-known tricks and techniques that you can use to ride your board safely.
Put Out Your Hands
When you watch surfers riding a wave while having their hands out to their sides, you probably think they are doing this just for show. However, that’s not true. Instead, they know extending their hands out to the side is a great way to help them keep their balance on the surfboard. But before you do this, remember that when you prepare to go from kneeling on your board to standing up, bring your knees forward in one quick movement. If you don’t, you’ll wind up leaning backward and falling off your board.
Once you learn about surfing from experienced teachers and spend plenty of time practicing on your own, you will be able to ride those big waves, look good doing so, and impress the beachgoers who are in awe of your skill.
