Westbound Boarder

I’m new to this whole surfing thing.  I’ve lived in LA for more than a year now, and the deal I made with myself before I moved here was that I was going to learn to surf (to make up for the fact I couldn’t snowboard as often).  But countless surf sessions and YouTube videos later, I wasn’t getting much further.  Yes, it was time for a lesson.

Last weekend I hooked up with Bill Sharp at the Huntington Beach Surf School for a little “Surfing 101.”  As much as I love LA, I always enjoy the opportunity to leave my little Santa Monica bubble every now and again.  And if you’ve ever been to Huntington Beach, you’d know why.

I arrived to my lesson a few minutes after 10am (normally I pride myself on being timely, but I had a little incident with a flat tire on my way down.  Luckily, I a guy I met on the side of the road knew a thing or two about fixing flats, and I was well on my way to surfdom in no time).  When I arrived, I walked down to the pier and the little surf shack behind Duke’s, and there was Bill waiting, a surf board in each arm, ready to get the day started.

Now Bill’s a pretty sharp surfer (yes, pun intended, thank you).  He spent his childhood years learning to surf in Durban, South Africa and began competing at age 14.  In Bill’s words, us California’s don’t even know big waves (what?! You mean the wicked 3 foot white waters I mastered last weekend are considered… small?!)  Bill turned pro at age 25, but before long he was back coaching in Durban, both aspiring pros (he coached the South Africa national surf team for years) and African kids who were part of development programs.  The African kids he taught didn’t know how to swim, which caused Bill to come up with an alternate method of teaching – a method that he still uses with beginners quite often today.

It’s called the “push-in technique,” which is where you start in waist-deep water and literally push off the sand and onto your board when a broken wave comes your direction.  Bill believes it is important to take baby steps when learning to surf, so learning on small, broken waves first before you progress to more advanced waves is absolutely key.

Bill began the lesson in a small room with a simple white board.  He went over the push-in technique before he took me out to try it first hand.  He also went over several other topics every surfer should know, such as understanding tides, where to stand on the board, and safety and etiquette.  Over the next week or two, I’ll share some of his top tips for success in the surf.

Now that I knew the ins and outs of surfing in theory, it was time to try it in the water.  Bill likes to work his lessons around the tides and shoot to head out on tides that are better for learning (typically lower tides because you have a higher chance of having nice, long, rolling waves).  So we paddled out to waist-deep water and he got me up and surfing in no time (and of course, he made sure to put instruction in terms of “snowboarding” – just to make sure I completely understood.)  By the end of the lesson I was exhausted, but happy to say that I have now mastered Surfing 101!  Bring on the 15 footers.

Overall, I learned that the key to learning to surf is comprised of three components – you have to have the right board, the right conditions, and the right instruction.  And while my conditions were a little less than ideal, I had a great board and perfect instruction to round out the package.  Now let’s see how I surf…