Learning to surf

Is having a single lesson dabble just going to be a cold, frustrating waste of time and money? We’re off to Cornwall in April and there is a surf school down the road. Part of me thinks it might be fun.

In all honesty, probably. Having said that, it’ll depend a lot upon your expectations, the weather, the surf obviously etc. I’ve only ever known one person stand up first time out so if you’re happy riding some waves on your stomach and maybe, MAYBE having a stab at standing then, like me when i started out, you’ll still love it. Course if you live nowhere near the water It could be a huge mistake if you get hooked. I used to regularly see two guys from the Midlands at my local S. Wales break. Turns out it was their local break too. Just a mere 2 hours away………….

The danger is you’ll start and love it so much you wont be able to choose between biking and surfing. Luckily trails are always there for when the surf isn’t!
However, its the hardest sport I have ever tried to become competent at by far.
I’ve moved to be closer to decent surf and get to go once a week/2 weeks if possible but after 6 years im still still struggling to progress onto a shortboard! Doesn’t stop the best feeling any sport can give you though when you are sat out back bobbing up and down on the waves at first/last light whatever the weather. Very addictive indeed.

Give it a go and dont get frustrated with progress just enjoy the experience. Its great however good you get.

Not a waste. Had my first 2 hour lesson last year. Great fun and did manage to stand and even started a turn. Was a warm day and the waves were perfect for learning.

At least your welsh break probably had waves so 2 hrs from the mids was fine.

Me and my mates used to drive from Cambridge 2hrs to East Runton on the Norfolk coast to bob around in mushy white water and turds

To the OP, it will be cold especially in a rubbish hire wetsuit, you (probably) won’t stand up much and yet it will be the highlight of your holiday – and if it isn’t, at least you’ll know.

If i do it, my level of expectation will be set low. I’d be leaving Mavericks be until at east the 3rd lesson.

hire a foamy and go have some fun,

take a couple of lessons and hire a foamy for the rest of the week.

or keep an eye out on gumtree, they always come up cheap now and again.

april can still be pretty cold in the water, ok if the sun is out but probaby still winter suit territory.

Whereabouts in Cornwall will you be?

Get the biggest board you can (easier to paddle and take off) and make sure you wear a rash vest, it can make quite a difference when paddling. Practice at home popping up without going by your knees.Find out how to read weather maps for swell and wind direction (check out Eyeball etc), be prepared to put in a lot of hours practice.
Beautiful sport.

Don’t expect to stand on your first lesson, great fun though.

It’s also hard work so be prepared for a good workout.

I did my first lesson two years ago and now hooked, very true you might just start to enjoy it more than MTB 😉

Do some training between now and when you go,swimming,press-ups,pop ups and do plenty of stretching so that you’re nice and supple when you get dumped by a wave. 😆 It’s great fun.

Whereabouts in Cornwall will you be?

Just west of Padstow.

april can still be pretty cold in the water

Thought it might.

This thread needs Surfmatt 😀

Cheers, Rich

Just West of Padstow? Try surfing at Porthcothan Bay.

Yes, get a big board, a slab of a (good Longboard) makes it all easier. I didn’t find foamies any easier.

It will be ****** cold.

If you see a guy there about 50 with swarthy skin and shoulder length grey hair and a short grey beard shout “Hello Tim!”

He’s the man….

Had my first surf lesson last spring and another in the summer. Was standing by the end of the second lesson. What a great feeling! Both of my kids could stand by the end of the first lesson!
I found fitness and endurance helps. 2 hours being buffeted in cold atlantic swell is pretty tiring!

its bloody hard. first go i could get to feet but kinda holding on a loosely. as soon as i let go i was off. feet obviously in wrong place. no lessons just out there.

i was on a mates borrowed longboard. excellent fun but bloody knackering.

I started out over ten years ago. I’m still shockingly bad.

Expect to start doing mad things like getting up at 4am, driving for an hour to meet some mates at the beach, only to discover the “sure thing 3′ offshore clean set” is either totally blown out, or someone’s ironed the sea during the night. So you go to work, (an hour the other way) and then come back in the evening to view the millpond.

If you get hooked, you will move to the sea, or buy a flat there and probably a t5. Even if you buy the flat you’ll stil sleep in the t5 as you can park it at the beach.

You will discover a new respect for the sea – it’s weight, power and unpredictability. A realisation that the way it takes you is not through drowning but with cold. Slowly, peacefully. It’ll scare the living daylights out of you, but you’ll always come back for more.

You’ll start looking at proper wearer forecasts with isobars and NOAA bouy info. These things determine if you head North or South, to the North Sea or the Pembrokeshire Coast. So what if it takes all day to get there, maybe just maybe there’s a wave.

You have been warned.

hire a foamy and go have some fun,

take a couple of lessons and hire a foamy for the rest of the week.

I started out over ten years ago. I’m still shockingly bad.

+1

Sea temps won’t be warm, but in a winter wettie (at least 4mm on the body) you’ll be fine. Boots will be a very good idea too.

Air temps should be warmer by then, which makes the whole experience feel warmer (you don’t spend all the time with your entire body in the water).

Give it a whirl, A lesson is a great place to start you can always book another if you like it. I tried for a good few weeks to teach myself and then got 2 x 2 hour lessons over a weekend and I was away, standing at the end of the first day and quite a bit of control by the end of the second day. Progress can be very slow if you don’t have the time to do it all the time.

Its incredible addictive.

The cool kids will scoff, but bodyboarding is more accessible than surfing, so maybe have a think about that if you have limited time on the water.

Just west of Padstow.

Pretty good spots around there, Constantine/Boobies depending on the tide if an off-shore wind, or Harlyn around mid to high if Constantine is blown out.

Not a waste at all, you’ll probably be stood up in well under 2 hours if there’s half decent surf. It was about 4ft with an offshore breeze when I learnt which is pretty much ideal, and I was up the first time I tried.

The lesson was just a big class, touristy, surf school on fistral beach affair so wasn’t expecting much, it pretty much an allong the lines of, here’s how to paddle, practice for 15min, back on the beach for how to pop up, back out again, and you’re up. Most people managed to get stood up.

I then moved to Saltburn and learnt that actualy it’s not wave height, it’s period that makes a good swell, and the north Sea doesn’t have the fetch to generate a 13second+ period, so even 4ft height waves are harder to catch than 1ft mush in Cornwall that’s traveled all the way form the Caribean.

If you get bitten by the bug don’t get a foamie, they weigh a ton and aren’t very quick. Just get the biggest board you can find on gumtree. I’ve a bic magnum, near indestructable, pretty light, 1/3rd the price of a handmade board and if/when I sell it, it’ll probably be only a weeks foamie hire less than when I bought it.

^Fiat
I’ve driven hundreds of miles in Australia in pursuit of waves but settled on Phillip Island as a fave spot because it had breaks facing different directions so whatever the swell and weather were doing you stood a chance of catching something somewhere. Over here I quite like Croyde for the same reason, three good beaches in close proximity but all providing a slightly different offer.

Should you get into it, don’t overlook ‘Takeoff Boards’ they’re a lot cheaper than custom and Richard in Redwood rates them for value and longevity.

It’ll change your life man*, swear to god…

…as a keen, committed and also shite surfer I should probably tell you to go build sandcastles or something, given there are too many people in the water as is. But it is the most fun you can have standing up.

*This is true, if you get into it, though not necessarily for the better if you value partners, kids, careers etc.

The cool kids will scoff, but bodyboarding is more accessible than surfing, so maybe have a think about that if you have limited time on the water.

Nah, if it’s big and mushy, do it. Just make sure you get fins.

I sponged in Bali because it was more powerful than anything I’d encountered in the UK where I longboard. Given the option of struggling with a strange board and potentially standing up in large, powerful and mushy surf, or having fun on a sponge, I went for the sponge and had a wicked time.

OK, it probably would have been more fun on a stick, but that’s assuming I could get to my feet and turn in time on a small, unfamiliar board.

I love to watch surfers and would love to do it.
However , is there a hobby that requires so much effort for so little return?
I guess when you get that perfect wave it makes it so much better. Have spent the last 2 days watching surfers and I would guess the longest anyone was standing up was 10 seconds.

There are times I’ve sat outback on at my local, vaguely consistent break (the south coast isn’t the most reliable in the world) while admiring the cliffs of the Jurassic Coast and watching the mist rise over the downs. I may have only caught one or two waves that morning, but the sense of being alive that comes with it is addictive.

Pimpmaster, I knew there had to be a reason!
As an aside my Q.I book I got for Christmas says if caught in a rip to tread water for 90 seconds and not to swim along the coast. Can anyone vouch for this information?

Pimpmaster, I used to get the same experience during my abortive attempt to become vaguely competent at surfing.

However, it was in South Africa, so the ‘it’s so good to be alive’ was tempered with, ‘I look like a turtle to passing sharks’.

“I love to watch surfers and would love to do it.
However , is there a hobby that requires so much effort for so little return”

you could awlays have a punt at windsurfing – (however it’s a bit like surfing in that you have to stick at it till you get good enough and then the conditions become a limiting factor on when you want to go – and you have to buy/carry sails etc as well as a board) – however where else do you get the opportunity to dive through a quite expensive sail at high speed as you hit it harness hook first and the awesome understanding of a) – how hard water is and b) – you do actually bounce if you hit water at an angle at speed

you could awlays have a punt at windsurfing

does anyone actually windsurf anymore? I thought kitesurfing had pretty much killed it off?

Only managed a couple of days in the water last year despite only living 30 miles from north cornwall. all it takes is a couple of good waves to remember why though…

admiring the cliffs of the Jurassic Coast and watching the mist rise over the downs

Dorset coast? Whereabouts?

OP – do it, it’ll cost you a few quid but it’s well worth it. Pick up a foamy second hand. I never really like the beach till I started, can’t wait to go now.

I picked up a Roger Cooper minmal 7’8″ off Gumtree for £100 including leash in a fetching pink and a soft roof rack, but I might well pick up a big foamy to ‘warm up’ on.. if you aren’t near the sea you lose even the near non existent skillz after about a week away it seems. Eldest boy had a couple of lessons, and has a tiny foamy CBC thing that he stands and turns on way better than I do (but he weighs about 3Kg).

if you aren’t near the sea you lose even the near non existent skillz after about a week away it seems

nah, once your over that learning curve its just like riding a bike.

only 3 times in the water last summer and I was still able to reo til my hips ached.

Lived on the Gower for a year, never got to stand up but loved just paddling about, guess I should have got a canoe 😳 back in the day there was a kid from Leicester* who won a surf comp whilst on holiday in Cornwall & went on to become european champion in the 80’s so anything is possible 😉

* just googled him – Paul Russell, now professor of oceanography at Plymouth

However, it was in South Africa, so the ‘it’s so good to be alive’ was tempered with, ‘I look like a turtle to passing sharks’.

😆

Dorset coast? Whereabouts?

Compton, Isle of Wight. Technically probably not the Jurassic Coast, but it describes the cliffs there very well – all on the same geological belt, or something. 😉

you could awlays have a punt at windsurfing

It’s a lot of kit that the Germans seem to update weekly (so a bit like mountain biking in that respect…)

I did a few times while working abroad but found it bloody hard work (got planing, occasionally into the harness, going for the footstraps, tacking, gybing – even managed a heli-tack once). Good fun in warm water with a selection of kit readily available and rigged-up; certainly not something I was keen to continue on returning to cooler climes.

My understanding of Rips was to paddle at 90degrees.

But I’m not really much of a surfer.

Compton, Isle of Wight.

In Dorset? Yes – I highly recommend it.

(Shoots self.)

My understanding of Rips was to paddle at 90degrees.

depends. somewhere like bantham or saunton, jump in the rip by the rocks to get a nice easy ride out back…surf back in, jump in rip. repeat all day long.