This playbook comes from my own experience and the classes I took in each region. I have had the chance to surf in Hawaii, Venice Beach, Ireland, Britanny, Costa Rica and Pays-Basque. # 🌊 Safety measures ## The 4 zones on a beach - There are 4 zones on a beach - The beach (the sand): which is the first safety zone - The white zone or the foam: which is where the waves are broken already. A good place to learn surfing. - The waves - The ocean (behind the waves): the second safety zone ## In case of a problem - If you have a problem (current, fatigue, etc.): - First, remain calm to keep your energy - Second, there are several things you can do or try to do in order: - 1. Body surfing to the shore to the first safety zone. - 2. If that doesn’t work, swimming to the sides to find a calmer spot - 3. Swimming below/through the waves to avoid getting crushed and going to the second safety zone. Once in the second safety zone, you can stay and ask for help or move to the side and body surf to the shore. - If one of the strategies doesn’t work, remain calm and focused. Don’t try to resist the current. Just try the next strategy and keep going. ## Signs to communicate while surfing - 👍 👌 🤙: these signs each mean “everything good” or “good wave” - 🙅‍♂️: means you should go back to the shore/out of the water now (weather, floating objects/animals, etc.) - 🙌 🙆‍♂️ : agitating your two arms (not just one arm) above your head to signal that you need help. SOS. Or another way is to use just one arm that you move toward the top of your head. - 🫸 : depending on the direction of the arms it can mean "go more to the left (or to the right)", and "go closer (or further) to the shore". ## How to position yourself in the water - Don’t be in the line or axe of any other surfer. Because the surfer would get on you while surfing or if there is a bad wave. Dangerous situation. A good position is to surf next to each other. Not in front, not behind. - When surfing always keep a distance between surfers more than both the length of the board + the length of the leash (which is usually a bit longer than the board). 3 meters between two surfers is usually too small. ## 3 ways to fall safely from your board 1. If there are other people in around you, get down on the board and just put your legs in the water on one side. Avoid putting the knees first, there are easy to injure even on the sand (and it could be worse if there are rocks below). This way to fall helps keeping your board close to you so that the other surfer isn’t touched by your board. 2. If there is no one around, just let your self fall on one side of the board (on your back or your belly) or on the back of the board. Situations to avoid: - Falling straight because you will fall deeper and there could rocks below. - Falling in front of the board because then the board would fall on you. 3. Sit on the board at back of the board and keep your legs wide opened. ## 3 Golden rules in Surfing 1. Always look at the ocean 2. Control your board. This includes having a leash that is longer than your board. You can read more on the surf etiquette, to have more details. 3. Never in front, never in back, always side by side. Like a couple. Cf. “How to position yourself in the water” # 🛟 Before surfing ### Tides - You need to know when the tide is. - Good place to get accurate surf forecasts: https://www.surfline.com/ - Before surfing, you want to check the beach at low tide first, to see where the rocks and sand bars are, for safety reasons. ## Picking a board - The taller you are, the longer your board should be. - The wider you are, the larger your board should be. - A smaller board means more agility but also less stability. ## When starting the session - Choose a fix point on the shore so that you can check that the current doesn’t slowly move you elsewhere. ## For beginners - Names to talk about a board - Tail: back of the board - Nose: front of the board - Rails: side of the board - Determine your front and back feet - To determine your front and back feet, you can try jumping up from your board several times and see how you position your feet naturally. Depending on which foot you bring in front, you will be “regular” (left foot in front and right in the back, usually right-handed people or people with a stronger right foot) or “goofy” (the opposite). - It's usually easier to learn to stand up on your board in the foam (when the waves are already broken) than a wave that hasn't broken yet. # 🏄‍♂️ Surfing - Catching & riding a wave ## 1. Choose which wave you want to surf - This requires practice and observation. - You want to catch the waves that are going to break properly, and the waves that will give you enough speed to start your ride. - Usually, you want to wait for the series of waves (called in French "les vagues de série" ou "la série"), to catch longer and cleaner waves. These waves come one after the other for around 3 to 5 waves. - If the wave is already starting to break, it is usually too late to surf it. If you still try to take it, the wave is probably going to break on you. ## 2. Identify which direction the wave is going - The wave is going: "left" or "right" (when you look from the ocean to the shore) or "both left and right" (sometimes if the wave breaks in the middle you can have a part going left and a part going right). - Usually you start to have some foam in some part of the top of the wave. Once you see the direction of the foam at the top of the wave, you'll know the direction of the wave. - Once you know the direction of the wave, you know which direction to follow to gain speed and navigate the wave. - You never want to take a wave straight. You either go left or right. Otherwise you end up the foam and you can't move/can only go straight. ## 3. Position yourself in the wave - You want to be positioned near the darker zone of the wave, the zone that has the most speed (called in French "le bol"). - If you are a bit far from this zone but you still have a decent position, it makes sense to position your board and paddle towards this zone, even if the wave is going in the other direction. You can do that to gain speed at the beginning of the wave and then change direction to follow the wave's direction. - If you are too far from this darker zone, you won't have enough speed to catch the wave. Wait for another one. ## 4. Decide on how you want to navigate the wave - This can be done by looking at the wave and looking at were you want to go. - Each wave is a little project. Where you look is where you go. - The goal is usually to start going in the direction of the wave (to avoid ending up surfing in the foam too soon), and then when you start to loose speed to do a "cut-back" (turn) toward the foam to regain speed. ## 5. Position yourself on the board before starting to paddle - Lay down on the board. - Left/right of the board: - Make sure that your body in the center of the board and aligned with the board, not too much on the left or right side. - Tail/Nose of the board: - Your toes should be able to grab below the tail of the board. - On a 7'6 board, you want your (own) nose/chin to be below the bottom of the logo on the board. It's another way to know that you're not too putting to much weight on the front of your board (to avoid nose diving when catching the wave). - Keep your feet close to each other at the tail of the board, so that you keep weight on the back of the board. This also helps avoiding noise diving when catching the wave. ## 6. Start to paddle - 3-4 meters before the wave comes, start paddling to gain some speed. - You want to accelerate your paddling as the wave is getting closer, so that your last movements before standing up are the strongest. - The number of movements is less important than the strenght of each movement. - You want to keep looking at the wave and where you're going (instead of looking at your board) while paddling. - Stop paddling & stand up at the same time when you feel that the wave is carrying you and giving you more speed. - The less time there is between your end of paddling and your beginning of standing up the better. ## 7. Stand up - Stability on the board - There is a small center line that goes from the tail to the nose of the board. When you stand up, you want to have the middle of both feet crossing this line. - The back foot should be parallel to the tail. The front foot should also be parallel or maximum with a 45-degree angle. - You also want the distance between both feet to be around the width of your shoulders. - You want to have your front foot a bit more front than the handle (for long board), not more. More front and you will nosedive. Too much in the back and you will be too slow on the wave. - There are 6 techniques to stand up on a board. The best twos are to: 1. For advanced surfers: - Put your hands on the two sides of the rails. - Then you push up with your arms. - And you bring your feet slowly along the board and get up. 2. For beginners and intermediate: the 3-step stand up on a surf board. 1. 🐍 Instead of putting your hands on the rails, put your hands closer to you below your pecs on the board. This allows more stability and is less tiring for the push-up. You go into a cobra position (a bit like yoga) and bring the pelvis more to the front of the board. 2. 🦵You bring the back foot along your other foot with the thumb first (to avoid injuries). This will help a lot when you stand up. 3. ⬆️ You jump on the board. And let’s go. 4. 🏄‍♂️ Keep your legs flexed and use your arms to give movement/direction. - You can count to three while standing up to go at the right pace. Respecting this mechanics to stand up is important to have less moving parameters while practicing. - Practice several times on the beach before going in the water. - While standing up, like before catching the wave and when paddling: keep looking at where you want to go. Surfing is like driving: where you look is where you go. ## 8. Follow your project in the wave & change directions - Keep looking at where you want to go (and don't look at your board). - If you need more speed: - Put more weight on your front foot. - You can also pump on your feet to regain speed - If you need to turn: Put more weight on your back foot and use your upper body & arms to give directions. - If you go towards the foam, you'll gain speed. If you move away from the foam, you'll slow. ## 🤫 Tips to surf better - 🧘‍♂️ Stay calm. Don’t try to stand up to quickly or too slowly. Follow the flow. - 👀 Avoid looking down. Look in front of you. Where you look while surfing is where you’ll go. If you look down, your board will start to nosedive. - 🧎 Avoid using your knees as an intermediary step to stand up. It’s easy to get used to it, but then it’s hard to get rid of this habit. - 🦵Flex your legs to have a lower center of gravity and thus more control while surfing. - 🏄‍♂️ Use your arms to have even more stability and better direction control (and more style 🤙).