110: 3 Unconventional Surfing Tips To Catch More Waves and Learn Fast

Podcast - SURF MASTERY

Surfing Tips for Beginners: The #1 Technique to Catch More Waves Instantly

Join the Wave Catching Academy: https://learn.surfmastery.com/wave-catching-academy-1

• Jason struggled to catch waves despite three months of experience.

• Most surf schools overcomplicate the learning process.

• The key to catching waves is matching their speed, not paddling harder.

• Three beginner tips:

  1. Change perspective: Think of surfing as dancing with the ocean, not fighting it.

  2. Wave selection: Choose strong, smooth white water waves with clean water in front.

  3. Stop paddling: Let the wave push the board—jump forward instead of paddling.

• Focus on these fundamentals before worrying about standing up.

You Tube Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpEKf1cbT4Q

Summary:

This episode breaks down how beginner surfers can catch more waves with less effort. The story follows Jason, a struggling surfer who had been taught the wrong way. By focusing on timing and simplifying his approach, he caught more waves in one session than ever before. The key takeaways: shift your mindset to see waves as dance partners, learn proper wave selection, and stop unnecessary paddling. These three simple changes can drastically improve a beginner's ability to surf successfully.

 Welcome back or welcome to the Surf Mastery Podcast.

Welcome back or welcome to the Surf Mastery Podcast, the podcast that helps passionate lifelong surfers to catch more waves, surf with more speed, style, and grace, and to gain wisdom and confidence in the water. I am your host, Michael Frampton,

and today's episode is for the beginner surfer who is struggling to catch waves. And for the long time listener who's tuning in again, we've got a long form interview coming up with Professor of Philosophy Aaron James, all about surfing philosophy later this week. So make sure you're subscribed and keep an eye out for that one.

But let's get into today's episode.

Let me tell you a quick story about Jason and then I'll go into three actionable tips. So just before COVID hit, I was doing a lot of surf lessons and surf guiding in Southern California and I got a call from Jason who'd just discovered the show and he'd heard an episode where I had said that after four weeks of surfing as a new surfer, you should be catching unbroken waves out the back.

And he realized. Just how far behind the curve he was. So he gave me a call, he was 42, and he had been surfing almost daily for 3 months, after having a few group lessons at his local surf school. And uh, he basically felt like giving up a lot of the time, And he said some days he just felt like giving up and that surfing just maybe wasn't something that he was physically capable of.

But at the same time he was hooked on surfing and felt extremely drawn to surfing and the ocean. So we booked a session.

So I met Jason at a local beginner friendly surf spot. And the first thing I do with a new client is just observe. So I watched Jason flail around for about five minutes on his Seven foot soft top and I knew what was going on So I waved him in.

He basically had the complete wrong approach and uh, it's a pretty typical story actually Especially for those who have started later in life, a few lessons at a local surf school that specializes in the tourist experience or teaching school kids and then watching a few YouTube videos and Yeah, you can go pretty wrong.

So as he was coming in I went to the car and got the nine foot soft top. He needed that.

And as we sat down at the beach I said Jason mate, well done. You look, you're very confident in the water but I've got good news and I've got Best news. The good news is, is that you're doing almost everything wrong. And he said, I said, oh, okay, hesitantly. I said, no, that means there's plenty of room for improvement.

And the best news is, is that you got a huge smile on your face, despite all of that. So we had a quick chat about him sticking with a bigger board for a while, and then we, Talked about the difference between catching waves and matching waves.

And we just watched the surf for about five minutes and talked about wave selection. It's a big one, actually. Most beginners aren't taught choosing the right whitewater. But it's very important. And then our goal for the last 40 minutes of the session was to catch as many waves as possible with as little effort without paddling.

So I went out with him in waist deep water. And gave him plenty of tips and talked him through the process. He said at the end, he caught more waves in that 40 minutes than he'd caught in the last three weeks.

So let's break down the main things I taught Jason on that day into three tips that you can use. So tip number one is to match waves, catch waves. So this is a bit of a perspective change. The goal is not to catch waves. Waves are not running away from you. They are coming towards you.

Another way to think of it is, you've got to accept the invitation to dance. The language we use, the way we speak about and think about a thing, Things the language we use and the way we speak about and think about things Shapes our perspectives and our beliefs and therefore our actions

so next time you go for a surf, think of it as dancing with the ocean, and match the wave, don't catch the wave. Tip number two, is white water needs flat water. So this is about wave selection. Choosing the right waves. This is not often talked about when it comes to beginners catching whitewater, but not all broken whitewater waves are equal.

If you're struggling with consistency, Chances are that you're choosing the wrong waves and you're not looking at the details of which waves you should be going for. The key here is to look for the waves with the smoothest water in front of them. The water in between the wave and the beach needs to be nice and smooth and flat.

The more boils or rips or little waves in front of the wave or waves going across or The more backwashes there are, the harder it is to catch the main wave that you're looking at. Just like a mountain biker that's looking at the details of where the front wheel is going, looking at the terrain, so too should you be looking at the details of the water in front of you.

So remember, white water needs flat water. Tip number three, stop paddling. That's right, if you are new to surfing, you need to stop paddling for waves. All you need to do is go into Waste Deep Water with an 8 or a 9 foot soft top. No other board is appropriate for a beginner. You point the board towards the beach.

Have your hands in the center of the board on either rail. Wait until the whitewater hits the tail of your board and then jump onto your board and forward towards the beach at the same time.

That's it. That is all you need to do. That is how you match the speed of the wave. Catching waves is all about timing.

It is also really important that your surfboard is 90 degrees to the wave. Not 89 degrees. Not 91, 90 degrees perpendicular. to the wave.

Don't look at everyone else paddling. Don't let anyone else tell you you need to paddle. If

you need a visual on this, there is a link to a YouTube video in the show notes. And at the time when this episode comes out, that video is also at the top of my Instagram. It's just a quick little video of my kids demonstrating it.

So to summarize, match waves, don't catch waves. White water needs flat water. And stop paddling.

Now, if you are sick of the frustration and the shame that goes along with not catching waves, and you really want to learn how to catch waves,

Finally, there is a formula to effortlessly catch waves in weeks, not years, without feeling like a kook, guaranteed.

Join the Wave Catching Academy, now. There is a link in the show notes to find out more details and to book. Registrations are open until the end of this week. There are also links to that on the website at surfmastery. com.

If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and if you want more surfing tips including free pdfs And blogs, etc. Surfmastery. com is the place to go and of course there is the back catalogue of timeless episodes of the Surf Mastery podcast on Spotify, Apple, etc. Thank you for tuning in.

Until next time, keep surfing.

The Surf Mastery Podcast:

For the passionate surfer—whether you're a weekend warrior, a surf dad, or an older surfer—this podcast is all about better surfing and deeper stoke. With expert surf coaching, surf training, and surfing tips, we’ll help you catch more waves, refine your paddling technique, and perfect your pop up on a surfboard. From surf workouts to handling wipeouts, chasing bigger waves, and mastering surf technique, we’re here to make sure you not only improve but truly enjoy surfing more—so you can get more out of every session and become a wiser surfer. Go from Beginner Surfer to advaned.