Good starter videos or hints for new surfers?

[bkearney]

Our whole crew can surf, however we are terrible teachers. Every time we go out new friends we do the following:

1. Try and get them to determine their front foot with the push foreward, soccer ball, and write your name in the sand trick
2. Review laying on your back, bring your feet in, and push down with your ankles
3. We shorten the rope, slowly pull them and tell them to keep their arms straight, at their knees

Steps 2 and 3 generally result in alot of waterboarding. If we look on youtube, the starter videos are all "And then pop up" which we have not found to be the easiest skill to teach. Do you all have any tricks or good videos which have useful ways of teaching beginner surfing? Thanks in advance!

 

[vanamp]

On number 2: Everyone has there own method so there will be many opinions on this but we never tell them to push down.   As the boat starts to pull let it pull you into a squat (heels close to butt) and just hold that position until you are on top of the water.  If they push down it usually causes the board to dive.  You can spot this if they keep getting pulled over the front of the board.  

I have a turorial on youtube just search nocoastsurfer. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by vanamp

[Zippymbr]

What we do is tell them how to place their feet on the board with the board flat heels on the board floating on the water.  I then put the boat in gear and when they flip the board up to their feet I slowly but firmly pull them up with the throttle.  I tell them Flip, Knees to chest then stand up.  As soon  as they are up They need to be past the wave or they will never stay up.  Last tip don't let them edge like a wakeboard a surfboard runs flat, catch an edge any you are down.  Thats lesson 1 getting up.  Lesson 2 is to pull yourself into the pocket and learn gas and brake, you have to thing several seconds ahead as its not instant.  Tell them not to worry too much about getting too close to the boat, it always freaks out new riders when they get close.  I think it is easier to get up on a short rope as opposed to a long rope.  We use the ski point not the top wakeboard point to attach the rope.  Get a real wakeboard rope as they have a long and short tie off.

[vaporbluebu]

On 5/26/2020 at 6:58 PM, bkearney said:

Our whole crew can surf, however we are terrible teachers. Every time we go out new friends we do the following:

1. Try and get them to determine their front foot with the push foreward, soccer ball, and write your name in the sand trick
2. Review laying on your back, bring your feet in, and push down with your ankles
3. We shorten the rope, slowly pull them and tell them to keep their arms straight, at their knees

Steps 2 and 3 generally result in alot of waterboarding. If we look on youtube, the starter videos are all "And then pop up" which we have not found to be the easiest skill to teach. Do you all have any tricks or good videos which have useful ways of teaching beginner surfing? Thanks in advance!

 

I have the same issue. Just took out a boat load of teenagers and I can’t get the board to stick to their feet. It now comes so natural to our family that we don’t know how to explain to new riders how to do it. The board just slides across the top of the water and down they go.

[bkearney]

26 minutes ago, vaporbluebu said:

I have the same issue. Just took out a boat load of teenagers and I can’t get the board to stick to their feet. It now comes so natural to our family that we don’t know how to explain to new riders how to do it. The board just slides across the top of the water and down they go.

I have noticed 2 main moments of learning

a) how do I press down with my heels to get the board to kick up. Once they do this once, they can normally get it

b) getting to stand up on the board

For some folks (a) can be 10-15 tries where each try is them getting water boarded.

[Hemmy]

44 minutes ago, vaporbluebu said:

I have the same issue. Just took out a boat load of teenagers and I can’t get the board to stick to their feet. It now comes so natural to our family that we don’t know how to explain to new riders how to do it. The board just slides across the top of the water and down they go.

If the board is not sticking to their feet they are either not pressing down on their heels to flip the board to the bottom of their feet.  Or they are not letting their knees bend and come in toward their chest.  That was one of the biggest things I learned. 
Straight arms all the way up
After you flip the board up (which is right away) let your knees come to your chest so you are in a ball almost.  If you keep your arms straight and stay in this position, the boat will do the work and pull you up.  Too many people don't keep straight tight arms and get pulled over the front of the board.

[JBell]

I'm new to surfing and some of the things that really helped me are:

1-When learning to get up dig your heels into the board so the board pushes onto your feet then sit back until it pops you out of the water. Almost like you are trying to push your butt back away from the boat. Don't try to stand up till you are out of the water.

2- When riding the wave I naturally wanted to shift back and away from the wave. Someone told me to reach forward like I'm trying to touch the tip of the board to move myself forward into the pocket. Also to put my center of gravity more over the front part of my foot.

After I started doing those things it was easy to get rid of the road and make minor adjustments to stay in the pocket.

[vaporbluebu]

8 hours ago, Hemmy said:

If the board is not sticking to their feet they are either not pressing down on their heels to flip the board to the bottom of their feet.  Or they are not letting their knees bend and come in toward their chest.  That was one of the biggest things I learned. 
Straight arms all the way up
After you flip the board up (which is right away) let your knees come to your chest so you are in a ball almost.  If you keep your arms straight and stay in this position, the boat will do the work and pull you up.  Too many people don't keep straight tight arms and get pulled over the front of the board.

Thanks. I think the issue is they are not bending their knees enough and letting them come into their chest. Everyone tries to dig their heels in but their heads just end up going under water and the board slides out and doesn't pop up. I try to show them when I get up that you can stay in a ball until you are on top of the water, but again I don't think their knees are coming far enough into their chests.