When starting a new hobby, some people take a course, class or just learn by themselves.

When we start learning surfing, some people go on surf camp vacation and some learn on their own.

Just for general information, it is crucial you know – there are levels, especially

when you learn an extreme sport.

Do not forget you enter Mother Nature's zone, so in a way, she is playing with you.

Before I flew to Portugal on my first surf vacation in 2015, I looked for accommodation and found out there are surf

camps and courses you can take. I love to learn on my own when it comes to sports, but today as an instructor, I understand it is so

important to learn a skill as complex and extreme as surfing. So I found out that in Europe, they categorize 3 levels.

Why is it so important you know that?

As a teenager, I was always into sports, and in the past decade, I taught kids and adults in a variety of sports,

like climbing, swimming, windsurfing, and personal training. It was always an interest for me to understand

how our body and mind work while doing sports.

As a new surf instructor in 2016, and while doing my B.Ed. of physical education, I understood you have to

understand the basic skills to simplify the learning process.

It does not matter how old we are. We start with the basics!

Why am I telling you this?

I meet a lot of beginners and intermediate surfers who skipped some crucial basic skills, like – turtle role,

looking back while paddling, or even knowing how to use their weight in white water. These skills are the

foundation of advanced surfing. Moreover, they get frustrated because they need to learn something from

zero when in their head they are advanced (which they are in a way).

To advance your surf level, you need to know what to expect so you can have reachable goals!

Why basic?

When we have a learning process, we need it to be as easy as it

can be. Surfing is not easy. The basic skills like popping up are

already a bit complicated skill on the ground, so think about what

happens when we hit the white water.

There is quite a lot of things we need to think, feel, and act at once

in the water. On top of that, doing all of that and wanting to

succeed! When teaching in school a new skill to all ages, especially

the young ones, we always start from the easy and achievable

goals, so why not with us grownups?

LEVEL 1

What to expect from yourself in level one?

First, It will always be in white water, and up to 2 ft green water. Do not skip the white water, I will explain in another post why you shouldn't.

Once you control your board – pop up, time your jump, look back and see the white water, turn right, left, and

know-how to stop your board. If you do that in all of the sessions on each wave, you are getting close to the end of level 1!

In each of those skills, we need to be patient and do it quite a lot for it to be automatic.

White water

Is the best environment for basic skills. Many surfers start in green waves immediately. Well, it will be like

jumping into a marathon without running 5 or 10 k first. When we learn a new skill, we learn it in simple and easy conditions,

like learning the pop up on the ground before on the surfboard on the water.

A lot of surfers want to do things fast, but fast is the last element you want to be thinking of. We need to teach a new skill slowly

and accurately as much as we can. Think about it for a second. If you do enough pop-up in a year (post on automatic), you will be shortening your

responsiveness because you know what to do and how, so it becomes automatic.

More than just pop-ups…

Safety and more

A beginner surfer not only needs the basic skills on the board, but he or she also needs to learn subjects as –

what equipment you surf on, weather, and most important SAFETY!

If you taught yourself how to surf, great! However, please do take a lesson for safety! It is an extreme sport

and your surfboard can hurt you or your surroundings!

Check our vids on turtle role, sweet spot, duck dive, and how to stop a surfboard.

Till the next post,

Coconat.