3 Mistakes I Made as a Beginner Surfer
I made these mistakes in my surf journey so you don’t have to. I’m not a pro by any stretch but I’ve learned a thing or two about surfing in the four years that I’ve been doing it.
Baby Sarah’s early waves
Stay in Your Beautiful Lane - I had taken a few lessons and had gone out on my own a few times. One morning in September, I saw gorgeous waves that were about 3-4’ high. Not super big for some but they were a lot bigger than I had anticipated. I struggled. I took a few nose dives, and then when I was paddling back to the line up, a wave sucked my tail under and snapped my board on the sand. I heard it under water too. I left the beach that day with a broken board, a fear of surfing, and doubts about myself. Instead of charging for waves, I would sit too far on the shoulder where I thought it was “safe”. I was missing the power of the wave because of one day I went out above my abilities.
Wax Your Board… Then Wax it Again - Wave of the day and I missed it because I didn’t wax my board enough. I planted my foot on one spot where I didn’t apply enough wax and whew! I went tumbling. Get a thick base coat of wax on your board so you jsut have to apply some fresh wax on top. You do want to rewax it after a while, so leave it in the sun to let the wax melt before carefully scraping it off.
Stop Having Fun - I got so frustrated by my lack of progress and my self-doubts after one bad surf-day. I kept thinking that I didn’t have what it takes, I didn’t have the natural ability that people praised me for, and I couldn’t achieve my dreams of being a surfer girl. Surfing became somehting I had to be good at but I was too scared to fail in public so I wasn’t having much fun. Then I turned my wipe outs into giggle sessions, invited people who were better surfers to surf with me so I could learn from them, and focused on having more fun in the water. This helped me progress the most as I continued to put myself out there.
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