The How to of surfing Waves for Beginners

You have finally decided to get your feet wet, that's great! You will always look back at this moment and thank yourself for learning about surfing waves. Good job.
The first thing that you want to do is find a surf board, now as a beginning surfer the bigger the board the better, but if someone gives you a free surfboard or lets you borrow one, take it, it will work just as well. At some surf spots like Waikiki beach on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, there are board rentals and surf lessons, you'll see that the lessons are given on very long, wide and thick boards, its optimal to learn on a big board because you are guaranteed to catch a wave, and once that first wave is caught its a possibility that you will be hooked for life.
Once you have a board in your possession your friend or teacher will most likely tell you to lay on your board while on the beach, what your doing there is getting an idea of where you should position your body on the board. If you were to split the surf board into 3 pieces you'd have the top, the middle, and the bottom of the board; while lying on the board you will want your chest to be lined up where the top and middle pieces meet; then once in the water you will need to adjust forward or backwards in order to get the best balance and positioning while paddling. To stand up you will place your hands on the board and push/jump up to your feet. Your back foot will be closer to the end of the board and your front foot will most likely be in the middle of the board. As a beginner its best to take a very wide and low stance, so just think squats and do that and your footwork will get better in no time. Now, you will not be facing the top of the board, you will be facing either left or right. Once up and actually riding a wave eventually the wave will want to die, the key to staying on a wave longer is to lean forward at your waist toward the top of the board this will put some weight on your board to continue with the wave. Basically at this point of learning to surf you want to look as ridiculous as possible, wide low stance, hands out for balance and a slight bend forwards for momentum. If you follow these little hints, you will be surfing wave after wave after wave; you may look goofy but that will go away in time and as you catch more waves.

Surfing Waves: A beginning

If a book had been written about the ‘how to of surfing waves for beginners' I would have been the first one to read it; but back then I couldn't read, didn’t understand waves or surfing, and rather enjoyed playing half naked in my cloth diapers in the white wash that climbed the sandy beach. I was young but even at that age I loved the taste of the salty water. It became like an elixir calling me back to the ocean day after day. For the majority of my young life I frolicked like a sea nymph, swimming and diving, and occasionally 'boogie boarding' on the shore breaking waves, but surfing waves? actually standing and gliding on the face of the wave was incomprehensible. I didn’t think that I could do something like that so I didn’t even try. And though the waves continued to roll to the shore in my backyard, and surfers continued to play in the surf, all I could do was watch. I didn’t know one surfer-and the ocean was a big place for a little ‘ole nobody like me.

I wish someone invited me to the party earlier though. I wish someone would’ve said 'hey let's go surf some waves', 'let's go get high...from surfing 'stoke'', 'let's leave all the worries on the beach, and just have fun' but no, no one came knocking on my door. I had to turn 17 before being invited to join this group of surfers-a group that extended across the world, young and old, man and woman, bums and business people, all of whom loved surfing waves, big ones, and small ones and everything in-between.

At first I beat myself up for not taking the initiative to learn to surf earlier but starting then was better than later. I struggled through a whole year of learning to surf, it was the best and most memorable years of surfing, not because I 'ripped it up' but because it took a lot of effort and a lot of 'worthy' pain to actually catch and ride my first waves. Surfing was hard for me at the beginning, and sadly many of the friends I tried recruiting, quit after the first attempt. I don't blame them, there were a lot of scars, almost drowning’s, animal encounters, and missed hours of school and work; but there were also a lot of sweet waves and surfing euphoria. I know that if I had had a ‘how to of surfing waves for beginners’ of some sort I would’ve been surfing the good waves sooner instead of paddling to them and watching them crash in front of me while I floated like a log beside it. Why didn't I stop, paddle out of the surf and dump my surfboard on the sand after breaking it in half? It was because I had felt the excitement of catching a wave, which in time every beginner will experience-the glue that will permanently bind you to surfing. Another one of the great things about surfing are the skills learned, like watching the tides and the currents, listening and feeling for the directions of the winds, learning to respect the ocean, and ultimately knowing where to catch the best waves. Surfing like anything else has a beginning, a place to start, the greatest surfers started at that point, why not you? The 'how to of surfing waves for beginners' will get you into the water with the knowledge necessary to enjoy the beauty of surfing waves, not void of pain and full of orgasmic energy.