• Share everything , Play fair
• Put things back where you found them, Clean up your own mess.
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
• Don’t hit people, and Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Be aware of wonder.

Fulghum makes the statement that if any one of us takes these concepts and extrapolate it into “sophisticated” adult terms … and apply it to family, life, work, or the world … that it will always hold true and clear and firm as a solid base for good moral living. I believe him, and it’s quite possible that this author and Unitarian clergyman has single-handedly provided surfers all over the world the true key to zen-like surfing! If you take the ideas he has written about, and apply it to the manner by which you surf, and the attitudes that we carry as we surf … well, wisdom also lies in the surf amidst the flowing waves of the ocean.

Share everything: We all know the image of the lone surfer ripping down Banzai Pipeline by him or herself. The isolated surfer carving long sweeping turns at a point break at sunset is also a common dream for the log riders. However, if you talk to almost every surfer, their most treasured surf sessions are peppered with a common element – good surf AND good friends. Surfing as a rule is all about sharing the good times with other people. Hooting and hollering, cheering each other on when waves are good and wipe outs are gnarly. Irrespective, it’s all about sharing the good times … you get some good waves, and you revel in the experience. And sometimes, even if you had it all the way, you let your friend HAVE the wave. It’s part of having fun … sharing, that is, and it’s only fair! Oh, just so we are all clear about this … ‘dropping in’ on another surfer falls under the “Don’t take things that aren’t yours” category!

Clean up your own mess: This particular gem would solve almost all of our environmental and ecological issues as a planet! Put things back where you found them AND clean up your own mess. A simple solution would be the 20 foot rule. Simply ensure that you take care of the area around you within 20 feet! You don’t have to go out of your way to clean up after everyone and everything … but as you walk around, to and from surfing, make sure you pick up the trash and garbage you see along the way! Take care of you, the environment, and the planet around you 20 feet at a time!

Don’t hit people: When you have a six foot spear being propelled by tons of water, hurtling down a spray of ocean water … it sometimes is an unfortunate reality that we surfers may occasionally collide with other ocean dwellers. It’s inevitable, it’s painful and it is something that we all have been a part of (as hurtler or hurtlee, either way, it hurts!) in the water. However, by not observing proper ocean rules and good etiquette, we could endanger other people and creatures in the water more than we need to! An inattentive surfer and a careless surfer can be equally dangerous out in the water, so don’t hit people inadvertently by not being aware of the rules and proper water manners! AND WHEN YOU DO get to the point where you hit someone or ALMOST hit someone, do the right thing and ensure that you say “sorry” no matter who was at fault. At the end, we all have to learn to take care of each other out there!

Live a balanced life: As participants on a lovely dance between board and water, balance is always weighted heavily in our minds. Balance. But there’s more to it, since surfing alone cannot fulfill us. We need play, work, love, life, and learning to round us off … always. Even when the waves are good, we need to know the balance as to when good is something we need or something we are blessed with. I know surfers in the Great Lakes area who WAIT months and months at a time for ONE wave to come, and they revel in it with such joy and pleasure when it comes. I also know of surfers who curse surf sessions in Hawaii when they do not catch all the waves they can at a surf break or if they don’t get perfect chest to head high waves all the time. Balance. (It also needs to be placed with ‘perspective’ eh?)

Be aware of wonder: Touch the water … feel the ocean. Be amazed at the beauty around you! After one particularly uneventful surf session, where I caught half a wave that debatably actually caught me, I was murmuring to myself how the session had been barely worth my time. At that point, a giant green turtle popped it’s head out of the water – as if on cue – and made me laugh in a startled surprise. He was reminding me to never take myself too seriously, and that beauty, especially in the ocean was not just in the waves. Sometimes, we all need a reminder … So Fulghum the wise clergy was right all along.

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Sure, you often see beginner surfers out in the break being pushed into waves by surf school instructors, and they do catch waves with giant smiles on their faces … BUT the real work comes when you don’t have anyone pushing you into a breaking wave anymore and you have to work for each hard-earned wave. Once on your own, you have to earn each aching muscle with every paddle into a wave; building up stamina as you go. And if you are lucky enough, you may overhear the energizing cheer of “Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!” from somewhere nearby, a hopeful sound from some regulars at the line up, providing you with spiritual support and some tough love. It’s a call for more effort, more drive, and a whole lot of muscle!

To help you build those crucial paddle-centric muscles, iJustSurf.com has put together a quick set of 3 important exercises that will get you pumped and ready for hours of paddling readiness!

1. Push Ups: The grand-daddy of obvious exercises, this simple but effective workout builds chest muscles and shoulder strength that give you a great boost in paddling into waves. Since a majority of work when paddling happens in and around your shoulders, push ups are crucial for building a strong support system for your paddling guns! Push-up exercise, if performed correctly, increases upper body strength and brings about more abdominal and hip stability, a definite plus in surfing!
2. Chair Dips: This is an excellent overall exercise to do for building core surfing muscles. Simple and easy, dips force you to lift your own body-weight, which in turn stresses your upper-body, which builds muscle. Much of the “power” that drives you into a wave is from the balanced and strong strokes supported by your triceps. By strengthening these muscles as well as your core, dips ensure a longer and more steady stroke rhythm for those surf sessions!
3. Vinyasa Flow: That’s right, it’s a yoga sequence of moves that focuses on strengthening your core surf muscles, taking the form of smooth and flowing breath-synchronized movements! Starting with plank pose (similar to the static push up pose and then lowering your body), then cobra pose, you work your way into downward dog, and then repeat the sequence from plank pose.  You will see your paddling as well as surf “pop-up” become smoother and faster, and become more graceful in no time!

Remember to take your time with these exercises, ensuring that you are easing yourself into the routine; working your way into a steadily increasing set of repetitions! Surfing muscles are quite different from other muscles, often requiring you to use sets of muscle groups you have never used in conjunction before!

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Not quite.

Surf Yoga is a growing phenomenon amongst surfers with an interest in yoga, and yoga practitioners with a taste for the extreme.

These two disciplines go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

First – the chocolate; As 9-time World Surfing Champion Kelly Slater has proved again and again, yoga is an invaluable part of any surfer’s fitness training routine. Surfers yoga takes an age old system of stretching, poses, and meditation in a new direction; targeting the motions that surfers use to balance, with a focus on strengthening the muscle groups that are used for the “take off, ” the “pop up,” and turning maneuvers like “cut backs,” “hitting the lip” and “tube-riding.”

The mental discipline and physical benefits, combined with a heightened consciousness of body, mind and spirit, have been a key part of Kelly’s success, and many other competitive surfers.

For those who have already been practicing yoga – the peanut butter to our chocolate – surfing is a new and exciting way to get a full body workout, and embodies some of the same philosophies that yoga does; oneness and harmony with natural surroundings with an emphasis on awareness through practice and personal betterment.

That’s right! Surfing is for everyone, regardless of age, sex, race, demographic, or any other qualifiers you can attach to the sport. The truth is: surfing is a deeply personal pursuit, and not everyone gets into it for the same reason. But one thing does remain consistent for just about anyone who has been at it for a while, a deep emotional connection with the ocean, and a respect for her power, which is both awesome and humbling. With surfing, the rewards are huge; your first wave, your deepest tube ride, your longest ride.

In yoga, the rewards are also huge; physical fitness and mental focus which benefits you in every aspect of your daily life. Chocolate and peanut butter.

[By Kelcey Parker]

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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You have to practice this one until it’s just right. It is the next hardest thing to learn right after the proper paddle technique. One of the hardest things to UNLEARN in surfing is an improperly learned pop-up! You have seen it many times at your usual surf breaks, surfers who constantly go to the knee first and then stand up from there. In theory, this is actually two pop-ups. Once to the knees, and then the body has to brace again for another pop-up onto a standing position. This is a major cause of most beginners’ inability to catch the wave before it breaks … the two step pop-up.

One of the most flawless pop-ups I have seen in consistently done by a girl at my local break. Pay attention to this one because we all could learn something. She paddles into the wave (make sure you have learned THAT before you concentrate on learning this stage), places both hands on top of her surfboard – slightly below where her armpits are – and executes a half push up. At this point, she looks left and right (looking is always important) … and like a pendulum swings her entire lower body under her arms (just like a pendulum). With a slight twist to the left (she’s goofy footed so she faces left) she lands both feet and executes one of the swiftest and sweetest pop-ups known to surf-kind.

The swing through is the most important part – although all of it is critical – for it determines how much time it takes her to go from full horizontal body contact with the surfboard, to only pivotal contact with just her hands, to a standing pedal contact with the board, and then into maneuverability. The shorter time spent in that transitional stage, the better. The less intermediate contact from prone (lying down) to standing, the more control you will have.

Think of it as those twist monkey toys you had as a child, the kind with the two sticks that you squeezed together and made the marionette-like animal on the string spin around. The movement is the same. You will be using your arms like a support system to ‘pendulum’ swing your way to a standing position. Knees need not be involved as an intermediary.

BUT this takes practice and patience. And a good portion of both at that! Don’t take the shortcuts, they could develop into some really bad and counter productive habits later on. A slower pop-up prevents many from getting into bigger waves and different breaks … out of sheer fear or panic alone. The more confident you are that you can quickly get to your feet, the better.

Good. So what about some tips?

• The surfing popup is essentially an explosive pushup …
• Practice several popups on dry land every day, as this repetitive motion establish arm strength and muscle memory
• Grabbing the rails instead of laying your hands flat on top of the surfboard makes it easier to slip off and give yourself a fat lip or botch a takeoff
• ARCH YOUR BACK instead of lying flat on your surfboard. An elevated chest gives you paddling speed, more muscle control, and a quicker pop-up
• Place your hands flat on the board anywhere from your armpits to the bottom of your ribcage, whatever is comfortable
• It’s easier to do a popup while you’re paddling into a wave before it has broken … the action of the popup pushes the wave down the face and gives you speed
• Try not to end up on your knees. This is a tough habit to break for most people!

Oh, before you go and practice, remember that each and every surfer’s popup is slightly different and a bit customized for the individual, but for all intents and purposes the technique is the same at its core. Now go surf!

We took an informal poll amongst serious and week-end warrior surfers and the verdict is in … surfers love surfing and laughing merrily with their friends in the line-up, but there is a certain sense of disgust when a member of the pack brings new people to the break, or tells other people how to get to the break. It’s just that “there is already way too many people out in the water as it is.”

This moral imperative, this social dilemma if you will, divides more surfers than the whole ‘longboard’ versus ’shortboard’ debacle. It all started when we received an e-mail from a reader asking for directions to a local surf break … a “how do I get there and where do I park?” sort of thing. It triggered responses that ranged from “tell them to park here”, to “why on earth would you send more people there???”. It was ugly.

Every surfer has a stance on this issue, and we are not about to light a fire keg and tell each and every waterman what the correct answer is, since primarily there isn’t one. It’s a matter of personal preference you see … a personal choice. If a cute boy or girl asks you for a good surf spot, and you’re sort of diggin’ on them … what do you say? Uh-huh. Like we said, it’s a powder keg sitting on top of personal choice.

But wash away all the veneer of so-called localism, forget how crowded the surf breaks could get, ignore the over-eager newbies, and increasingly present surf schools … and what is this really about? What does the surfer in you really say? At the heart of it all we agreed that the Dick and Jane books from kindergarten take precedence yet again: share. Yup. Share.

Share the waves, spread the joy, be the wave.

As much as it ‘could-probably-maybe-short-term-increasingly’ send more and more people to the already crowded spots, the bottom line is that all those people will be, if not already ‘are’, friends. Friends that we can share the good times with, the loud laughter with, and even at certain moments … the waves. The crowds thin out and thicken over time; much like the waves and the tides the coming of the masses is often cyclical. Once you get past the apparent demise of a once private sport or pursuit … it’s all about having someone nearby that you can look to after a massive wipe-out, or a wicked drop and bottom turn, and being able to say “Did you see that?!?!?!”

We know that it’s a thing of beauty to hear only your breath and your own splashes as you drop in on an isolated wave, with not a soul in sight. The silence being your only witness to a perfect session. And although the lone surfer in a beautiful wave may be a thing of the past, you now have more people to laugh and share with. Think about it.

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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