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Learning to surf with Surf Spot "...Why don’t we have a go at surfing, it looks well cool. I like that board, look at those graphics!.."
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| INTRODUCTION
No matter what draws us to surfing one thing is certain, at some stage, (before even squeezing into a wetsuit, and whipping a board under our arms ready to run down to the waters edge) we will have seen pictures or footage of someone who really rips in the water. Now days, with the increased focus on the sport through ‘Funky Advertising’, surfing has become ever popular and it is rapidly attracting participants from even the most land locked parts of the country. With the use of internet surf predictions the ‘weekend warriors’ are able to judge whether or not it’s worth even putting board in a bag ready for a journey to North Devon or Cornwall. This makes the sport a lot easier to take up without having to give up well paid jobs to live by the sea.
So what does this all have to do with me? Well that all depends on how much you have been influenced by what you’ve seen and your motives behind wanting to surf. If your reasons to surf include: keeping fit, having fun, meeting new people, acquiring new skills, challenging yourself, improving your performance or just escaping the rat race and letting off steam, then you are more likely to remain well motivated in the sport and accept the advice of other surfers and coaches who have some valuable skills & advice to offer.
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 | Just what are you trying to say? Well before rushing in to any sport that can be especially costly for an initial layout it’s always a good idea to educate yourself first. By this I don’t mean that you need to pack yourself off to study at college or university, I just mean talk to surfers who don’t necessarily have a commercial interest in your choice of equipment. This isn’t always as simple as that I know; having lived in the depths of Essex for 18 years before moving to Cornwall I can relate to the difficulties of finding some genuine neutral advice. |
| Now by saying this I am by no means saying that all people that work in surf shops are not good people to talk to, sometimes they are the best people to talk to, although I would recommend not relying solely on what one person says, or indeed on the advice from just one shop. Possibly the best person to give you advice is a surf coach, although there may not be many of these about where you live, the British Surfing Association have a database of all of their qualified instructors. They also have a pretty comprehensive website that has a forum section which can be very good for sharing information or asking questions about almost anything that is surfing related. |  |
 | WETSUITS The first thing to consider in any sport that we take part in is the safety of ourselves & those around us. Although some sports appear dangerous the risks can be reduced by using the appropriate equipment, this can be location specific or indeed, ability specific. If you are surfing in the UK then it is essential that you wear a wetsuit. A wetsuit not only helps to keep us warm in the water, it also provides us with some important buoyancy. Having lived by the beach for a few years now I am going to take this opportunity to say to all of the loving parents out there, “There is no point in buying a wetsuit that is too big so that your little cherubs can grow into them, you may as well slap a coat of lard on & chuck ‘em in, it’s a whole lot cheaper & just as effective!” A wetsuit must be fitted so that the neoprene is “snug” on the body, any areas of bagginess in a wetsuit will fill with cold water & prevent the suit from keeping you warm. (Your core body temperature only needs to drop by one degree to suffer the effects of hypothermia; two degrees and you suffer the risk of not recovering! ) I know that this can make things costly, and it might not make the suit feel as comfortable and easy to get on as expected, but is an important fact when fitting you or your loved ones with what is in effect safety equipment. Would you buy a crash helmet that’s too big, to grow into? |
| Wetsuit construction Buying a suitable wetsuit can be a challenging task, with so many different brand names and design features it’s sometimes difficult to know where to start. This next section is aimed towards identifying some of the jargon used in wetsuit design and construction, and explaining what it means and how it applies to you. When surfing in the UK it is always advisable to use a wetsuit, as uncomfortable and restricting as they seem, they do play an essential part in maintaining & improving our performance in the water. If you get too cold, the speed that your body reacts to the messages your brain sends slows down and cause you to make more mistakes, more mistakes generally mean higher levels of stress & frustration and less enjoyment. Therefore it is important that we keep ourselves warm enough. Throughout the UK we have water temperatures that range from as low as 8-9 degrees C in the winter, and up to 18-19 degrees C in the summer. Because of the range in temperature one wetsuit alone would not be suitable for all year round. For this reason wetsuit designers have developed a range of suits with varying thicknesses and designs to suit the different seasons throughout the year. |  |
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| Full length wetsuit: A full length wetsuit is the most seen suit in UK waters. Offering the most protection from the elements, full length wetsuits have been designed for winter, spring & summer conditions the main differences between the suits being the thickness of the Neoprene used to make them. You should expect a typical winter wetsuit to be made from 5:4:3 Neoprene, this is a breakdown of the thickness of the material used in mm. The thickest and most well protected area for any wetsuit should be the torso (at least 5mm for a winter suit), this way your body’s vital organs such as the heart, kidneys, liver etc. can be kept warmest so that they continue to function normally allowing you more time in the water. The area of second most importance is the thigh or upper leg, here there are major arteries that carry warm blood to and from our legs & feet, in a typical winter wetsuit expect this area to be around 4mm thick. Finally the thinnest part of the suit (3mm in a winter suit), these areas would generally cover the arms and lower legs; they need slightly more flexibility and rely more on warmth from the rest of the body. |  |
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| Over-lock stitchingis the most basic form of stitching used to join the seams in a wetsuit. Usually found on “budget” or “cheap” wetsuits, over-lock stitching joins two pieces of material together by stitching over their edges. Although the seams can be seen from the outside, all of the stitching is hidden away on the inside of the suit. Over-lock stitching will leave a protruding seam on the inside of the wetsuit and will open up slightly when over stretched causing them to leak water. |  |
 | Flatlock stitchingstitching is commonly found in most summer wetsuits. It is formed by joining two overlapping edges of material. The finished seam lays flat on the inside & outside of the wetsuit making it more comfortable against the skin. Flat-lock stitching can be seen from both the inside and the outside of a wetsuit and looks similar on both sides. Wetsuits that are flat-lock stitched may leak some water through the seams, although not as much as a suit that is over-lock stitched. |
| Blind stitched (Glued & Blind-stitched - GBS)seams can generally be found on most good winter wetsuits. Material is glued together along an edge and then stitched without the stitching piercing the outside layer of the neoprene; this makes the join nearly water tight and therefore the warmest method of stitching. A blind-stitched seam looks similar to a flat-lock stitched seam although it would usually appear to be narrower in width. Blind stitched seams allow the stitching to be seen from only one side, usually the outside so that there is no stitching on the inside of the suit , which makes it the most comfortable method of stitching as well as the warmest. |  |
 | Taped stress pointsTaped stress points are usually found where two or more seams join together. The purpose of taping the stress points of a wetsuit is to add strength to the areas that are most at risk from over stretching, usually when being put on or being taken off. By taping the stress point’s manufacturers prolong the life of the suit & prevent the seams from parting where they may receive a lot of stretching |
| Fully taped seams are a good way of preventing any water penetrating the seams and adding strength to the whole suit. The tape used is a thinner neoprene that may vary slightly in diameter up to about ½ inch wide and is glued over the top of the seams to add to the strength of the stitching. Fully taped seams are especially useful in winter wetsuits; they make a suit more comfortable by covering any stitching and they also increase the effectiveness of a wetsuit by making it even warmer. |  |
 | Liquid taped seams are usually found as an alternative to fully taped seams. Rather than using the traditional neoprene tape, some manufacturers use a latex based glue to cover the seams. The advantages of this are that it is more flexible than neoprene tape and makes a better seal over the seams so it makes the seams water tight and as a result of this it makes the wetsuit even warmer. |
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 | What shapes to look for in your first surfboard.. Before buying a board it helps to know a little on how they work. If you place a surf board in the water you will see that it almost sits on top of the surface, as soon as you climb up onto the board you will find that it sinks into the water. When you initially start to paddle the board the water that you are paddling through is “displaced” or pushed away from the board, as you begin to pick up speed and you catch a wave, the board appears to skim across the top of the waters surface or “plane” at an increased speed. …..In order for any craft to plane across the surface of water it requires two contributing factors, surface area & speed. When you have enough of both of these factors you in effect create “lift”, in this state your craft reduces the friction between its bottom surface and the water, and as a result it will travel much faster by planning across the surface rather than pushing its way through the water….. |
| ….As irrelevant as this may seem, this is one of the most important facts to consider when choosing a surfboard. If you are new to surfing, regardless of how fit you are there is a great deal to get used to and think about, all at the same time as trying to maintain your balance on the board and all of that before you’ve even managed to stand up! You will learn to surf quicker if you choose the right board for your physical size and ability. A great board to learn on is a board that has plenty of buoyancy, and a big surface area, for example a long board or minimal. I’ve included a few other features that are worth looking for in the following pages. |  |
| A wide or rounded nose -A wide or rounded nose - This essentially is very helpful when it comes to catching waves. When you lay on your board the heaviest part of your body is your head & chest, because of this a wider nose helps you to distribute your weight and keep your board on top of the water making it easier to paddle faster, which in turn makes it easier to catch waves. |  |
 | Soft rounded rails - For those of you have tried snowboarding the term “Catching an edge” is more than likely a familiar (and painful) one. In surfing the same is possible, and although not necessarily as painful it can certainly become frustrating and damaging to our levels of motivation. A surfboard that has softer rails will be a lot more forgiving than a board with razor sharp rails. The reasons for this are simple; a hard edged or sharp rail will bite into the wave opening possibilities of sharp radical turns with good hold & drive in steep waves. A board with softer rails will be more forgiving through a turn and not as “reactive” under the feet, having rails that are too soft will loosen a board up and increase the possibility of sliding out on steeper waves. For this reason when learning to surf it is good to have a board that has softer rails, at this stage in your surfing you are less likely to be surfing steep fast waves and therefore you don’t really need to worry about the board sliding out when you turn, by having softer rails you will at this stage find the learning experience a little easier. |
| A square, or a wide squash tail - Having a greater surface are around the tail helps to improve the boards performance in mushier waves, when learning to surf it is important to get in the water as often as possible, even when the surf isn’t great. By having a square tail or wide squash tail on a surfboard it helps the board to continue to plane, even when it begins to loose speed or when a wave begins to flatten out. This allows a beginner more time to get to their feet, and aids longer rides, even in the broken waves; it also helps to improve the stability of the board at slower speeds. |  |
 | A rounded pin or rounded tail - Having a continual curve throughout the tail helps when learning to turn the board, it does this by allowing water to pass around a continual flowing edge in the path of less resistance. As a result this makes it easier to keep speed & momentum when turning the board. |
| Board length Being one of the easiest dimensions to understand, the length of your board has possibly the most important effect on how you get on in the surf. The common mistake for any progressing surfer is to aim for a board that is too small too soon. There is nothing wrong with surfing a longer board, if fact by doing so most people will naturally surf with greater levels of performance than if they surfed a small board. A longer board generally has a greater surface area; this makes it easier to catch a wave, easier to generate speed without having to do so much of the work yourself and it allows for more control & stability with drawn out turns. For these reasons longer boards generally make better boards to learn on. Taking a longer board out in bigger surf demands higher levels of fitness & good paddling technique, for these reasons they are often a good way to gauge your ability as to where you should be surfing. If you find it too hard to get out beyond the breakers on a big day, then look for reforming waves on the inside sections or perhaps a spot with a little more shelter. |  |
 | Leash This is a vital piece of safety equipment not just for you but also for all of the bathers and other water users around you. There are surfers about who consider themselves good enough to surf with out a leash, but let me remind you now that if you choose to do this & your board flies off out of control and injures someone, it will be you who is liable; further more, if you don’t have insurance you could suffer some pretty severe consequences through the courts. (There have been people caught out like this so beware, we have become a sue culture with the no win no fee legal aids taking anyone they can to the cleaners!) As a guide your leash should be at least the length of your board, in bigger heavy surf sometimes a longer leash would be used. There are varieties within leashes of the same length; I always use a leash that has swivels at both ends to reduce the risk of it coiling up in the water and tying your legs together. Another point to consider is where you want to attach the leash, around you ankle or above the knee (longboards can put strain on the knee if a leash is attached to the ankle in big surf). |
| Wax Wax is used on the deck of your surfboard to provide grip for your feet and to stop you from slipping off & loosing control. There are an abundance of different brands of wax out there all ranging in colours, smells and more importantly hardness. For your guidance, the softer the wax the easier it melts (…and it makes a right mess if you leave it in the boot of your car!). If you are surfing in the UK during the summer you will need a surface coat of cool water wax. I always suggest an under coat or base coat or hard wax, this makes the wax last longer and prevents it from falling off when it gets really warm (…as if!) If you are surfing in the UK during the winter months then you will need to use a surface coat of cold water wax, this is because the warm water wax just isn’t sticky enough in low temperatures so it doesn’t give you the grip you need. |  |
| Fins As a rule, the deeper a fin sits in the water, the more stability and hold on the face of a wave it will offer. Fins provide a board with directional and lateral stability. With removable fins you create the opportunity to experiment with different fin setups and positions. I would recommend that if you are learning to surf you stick with a fin that is on the larger size for the board that you are riding. If you are unsure about the fin configuration consider this: The more that sticks in the water, the more resistance there is, the more resistance the slower you go but with increased stability. The choice of fins for any surfer is usually a personal thing dependant on not just the board, but ability of & the way that a surfer wants to surf. |  |
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