It is a fun sport … which accounts for all those people lugging their waxed-up sticks to the ocean on a regular basis. There is no doubt that it is fun! The booming water sport attracts hundreds upon hundreds of new people to the ocean on a daily basis, luring them with the promise of the next greatest sport to try. And people come in droves, happily donning surf gear and paddling out into the clear blue … after all, like you said, “how hard could it be?”.

This is Step 1 in Learning to Surf: thorough research! How hard surfing will be for any beginner depends on how thorough your research is about surfing, and how much research you do regarding equipment suited for you and your surf breaks. Before you even get in the water … before you even wax your first board … it is important that you understand some of the surfing basics.

Surfing basics are easier to discover for beginner surfers with the help of knowledgeable surfers, namely from a reputable surf school or a non-retail oriented surf shop. After you have exhausted resources from the internet and on-line articles about surfing, and especially after you have frustrated friends who surf with a million-and-one questions … the surf school instructor or surf shop expert is the next line of information. Their information will be especially useful since they have the inside track on local breaks and local surfers … something internet research may not provide for you!

By being open to what surf instructors and surf shop experts have to reveal to you, what type of gear you may eventually get, and the types of breaks you begin to surf may vary. In any event, being an open person and listening to the people who know the surf community will lead you to a rich research experience and get you on your way to the next step in learning to surf!

As a final word to starting your research, do not buy into surf fads and jump on the surf industry’s commercial assault of the surf community. You do not need the biggest, baddest, newest, or greatest. You just need an open mind, a caring heart, and a sense of adventure and fun!

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Long term newbies must not only learn about the physical and mental nuances of riding a surfboard, but they must also understand the effect that their surfing has on other surfers, in addition to how their beginning style and mannerisms fit into the particular culture at any given “new” break. Where to sit at the lineup, where beginners should sit, and the etiquette obeyed by surfers at that specific break are just some of the finer points of what to look for … long term newbies need to figure out how to fit in, and present themselves as an informed new comer. Someone to be welcomed, and not shunned due to the danger they present.

Consult some surfers in your local surf breaks, and almost all of them can name (often in unison) a handful of surfers that they regard as dangerous or potentially dangerous. By watching carefully at specific line ups, you can often spot surfers that are repeatedly avoided by the regulars during takeoff. Although never thoroughly ostracized, they are clearly not welcomed into the fray. Often times, these surfers are clearly snaking waves, dropping in on other surfers, or just plain out endangering others. Look carefully, you can spot these “surf dangers” easily and quickly.

The long term newbie needs lessons, this is a fact. And if not the slick surf lesson hawking hucksters at tourist spots, then who?

The key is something that we all learned long ago, in kindergarten. Look and listen; Dick and Jane knew this right from the start. LOOK at the surf breaks when you paddle out; try to look more than trying to surf immediately. Look at what regulars do before they surf, look at how they paddle out and through which areas, look at the break and find peaks and shoulders that surfers sit at, look at what surfers do and how they do it.

And then there is LISTEN. Seek out a number of local surf instructors and ask them questions about etiquette and manners in the line up. Often times, they view this as respect for the lifestyle and the surfer, a nod to their abilities and their playground. After all, you are discovering how to better interact with them … not clumsily stomping through their home turf. Listen to their stories, because somewhere within the encrypted stories and warnings are the tell tale signs of what to do and what NOT to do at their break, or other breaks.

If you can look and listen to the wisdom within those surfers’ stories, then yours is the ocean and all that is in it. Go forth and LOOK newbie surfer … and LISTEN. The waves are calling, and you just may be a long term newbie making your way up to a regular at some break, where that fun-loving bunch will welcome you with open arms, and a lot of hooting and hollering!

This post is the second in a 2 part article about newbie / beginner surfers, surf school instructors, and the art of surfing. Part 1 is located here .

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Perhaps the power was too strong for a 4th time out surfer causing over-stimulation in da head and blanked out da mind from thinking. I could not even stand up, but I was catching the waves, or perhaps they were catching me.

That was key, I felt, so I practiced being in da white wash and wiping out. That was kind of fun and necessary I felt; like being desensitized. I was able to stick out a 2 hour surf session, giving full credit to a healthy regimen of hiking – I was in good cardio condition.

You develop strange relationship with awareness of self out in the water.

On the fifth day, I went back to Ali’i Beach. The initial outing turned out to be a good day … no fear … but this time was different. I had a strange feeling going on from somewhere inside me, but I kept pushing through it. I paddled out into the water and out to the lineup, and there it was as clear as day – some kind of turmoil. Things became crystal clear out there; you leave the world behind and enter this place of only one thought, surf. Maybe this helped to eliminate other thoughts, and helped to see the remaining feeling related to the moment of my internal mini turmoil. This little flicker of fear in my chest … what was it?

You can’t talk much out on the water, and time for your mind to process is always disrupted by the next set of waves that come rolling in. So kept quiet and thinking about what to do. I never felt this before and my urge was to power through it … much like the way I dealt with my own fearx about paddling out and surfing for the first time.

But this tiny flicker sidelined me; it kept me past the break, and drifted me further than any other surfer away from shore. And that’s when it hit – a rogue 6 foote wave came rolling in and the cresting wave broke right over me. I readily surrendered to the flicker in my chest after tumbling in the biggest washing machine I had ever been party to.

I paddled back into the steady and sure sands of the beach. Sometimes you just can’t paddle out and you may not understand why. I say, listen to your body. My own internal system was warning me, but since this was a new feeling, I operated based on past experiences. I disregarded the warning sign from da soul. It was almost like a premonition as to what would happen. But, I must encourage others, you have to keep going out.

Friends keep asking if I have the passion yet … that feeling inside that calls you back to the ocean no matter what. Honestly, by my 6th day of surfing, I only had the desire, not the passion. It was still feeling like a chore to be out there. Work. Not fun yet. Last one in the water, just dragging my butt, not entirely enthusiastic about the process, but making myself go out.

That day, my 6th day of surfing, I paddled out with power, and as soon as I reached the line up and saw a good wave, something happened. I did not even stop to sit up on board just turned and started paddling. BOOM! I ’m on the wave, and I’m up and riding for a while too! A moment of disbelief washed over me, then a pure moment of joy replaced it. I was cheering my own accomplishment; I became my own applauding audience.

Oh yeah, and every wave after that I was on and upright, to some degree. Somehow I obtained more paddling strength to catch the weaker waves of Puaena now. The quieter waves also made it possible for me to pop up on my board now with less distraction of dealing with overpowering waves.

How sweet is that? Surprised and having a blast now! Riding tandem waves with other surfers, laughing and smiling.

Oh yeah I got it, the passion has arrived.

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