The surf journey from beginner to intermediate: 5 ways to improve your surfing
March 14, 2023How do I go from a beginner to an intermediate surfer? This may be one of the most commonly asked questions by the new members of the surf communities. So let’s jump straight into the difference between beginner and intermediate surfing and look at some important steps on how to become a better surfer!
The journey from beginner to intermediate is neither easy nor fast; it’s a journey where you need to put as many hours in the water as necessary. But it’s not just the time spent in your wetsuit that matters, what you do outside of the ocean is just as important for you to step up your game. Although it may be a harder journey than you might expect, it will also be the greatest experience you’ll ever have. There are few feelings that can top the freedom and joy of being one with the elements and feeling the true power and beauty of the ocean.
If you want to learn how to ride with the big guys and gals, here are some key tips that will help you to improve your surfing from the beginner level up to the intermediate club!
What is the difference between a beginner and an intermediate surfer?
Let’s start with the key question: what is the difference between the two levels? You may hear a different answer depending on who you ask since the definition of the levels isn't cut in stone. You don’t go from a white to a black belt in surfing (even if that would have been kinda cool). However, we may all agree on the fact that a big difference between beginners and intermediates is the kind of waves that they ride.
Beginner surfers have one job and one job only: catching waves in the white water. Once you reach the intermediate level you will start catching unbroken green waves, which is a whole other game. It’s almost like you're learning to surf from the very beginning again! Instead of surfing straight towards the beach, you’ll start surfing left and right. Intermediate surfers also need to get more comfortable with reading the ocean and improving their paddling skills.
Are you an intermediate surfer? We talk more about the difference between beginner and intermediate surfers in this post.
How to surf from beginner to intermediate: Our 5 best tips to get better at surfing
We can list a million tips that can help you to improve your surfing skills, but in this post, we focus on some of the most fundamental things to keep in mind when making the beginner to intermediate transition. For more tips on how to improve your surfing, check out this post for 10 things to know when you start surfing and this post for 10 tips for intermediate surfers!
1. Use the right board
We have talked about this before, but it is such an important part of your surf journey to use the right board. As a beginner, it may be hard to find the right balance on the board, to paddle efficiently and do a good pop-up. A bigger and wider board will help you with all of these things since it floats well and is more stable than a small board. It is common to use a big board with lots of volumes when starting to surf. As you progress you can then change out your board to a shorter and more narrow board that matches your improved level.
But how do you know if a surfboard is right for you? Read more about which surfboard fits your level here.
2. Don’t rush your progress – take your time and stay consistent
Look, we get it! It is very common to want to improve fast and ditch your big foamy board as soon as possible. But catching most of the waves on a bigger beginner board is way more fun than constantly getting wiped out on a shortboard – trust us!
Let the journey take time and work on the things you need to improve instead of rushing to get one of the smaller and cooler boards. Watch your friends surf, and talk to your surf coach about what you’re doing well and what your weaker points are.
Then practice, practise, practice! The step to a smaller board will be much more enjoyable when you feel like you truly earned it!
3. Paddle efficiently and master your pop-up – the keys to transitioning from the white water to the green waves
The white water is predictable and safe, which is why you learn to surf there. Doing pop-ups is way easier there than it is in the green waves. Why? Because the wave helps you more than you may realize. You don’t really need to paddle at all when you catch a white water wave, the power from the wave gives you enough of a push to do the pop-up anyway.
When you feel confident with your pop-ups in the white water and catch waves with a success rate of around 8 out of 10 waves, it’s time to go out to the lineup and start catching unbroken green waves! Congratulations, you are entering a completely different game! In the green water, you’ll notice that the wave won't push you, gravity is the only force that is at play here. So you will need to have a strong paddle game to paddle down these hill-looking waves.
Here we list some tips on how to improve your pop-up skills.
4. Learn how to read the ocean
A major difference between a beginner and a more experienced surfer is their ability to read the ocean and predict the waves. Start being more observant when you’re watching the ocean, this is a fundamental part of surfing! Get familiar with the swell size, swell period and tides. Check the surf forecast on apps like Magicseaweed, WindGuru and Surfline.
Once you have some experience with this, it will be a lot easier for you to know when and where to enter the water and which waves you should catch. This is also important to know for safety reasons, for yourself and the other people in the water. It’s very important that you don’t enter the water when the conditions are out of your abilities! Learning how to read the ocean is not a quick thing to master though, your ocean reading skills will require heaps of time both in and by the water.
5. Get familiar with the rules and the surf etiquette
Not only is it important to know when and where to surf, but it is also very important to play by the rules. You are expected to know the rules of the lineup and the etiquette of the place where you are surfing.
There are general rules that all surfers should be aware of, like the priority rule, but some surf spots also have their own local rules, so make sure that you know what’s up at the spot where you want to surf before you go in.
A final note
Now you know some of the basic things on how to become an intermediate surfer. But now what? Well, with the risk of sounding biased, we do recommend you practice all of these steps with the help of a surf school. A surf instructor can teach you what to do on the board, the rules in the water, how to read the ocean and which steps to take to progress in a safe (and fun!) way. If you want to know more about how we teach surfing here at Lapoint, read more about it here.
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