I want to start learning to surf...?

Question

can anyone please tell me the best surf board and just stuff about surfing?

thanks

Answer 1

Surfing is an ocean sport. before you decide to surf, decide to know and understand the ocean. Learn to be at home with its currents, rips, undertows and sometimes BIG waves. The original surfers were watermen (and women, both men and women surfed, but certain waves were reserved for royalty).

I'm a city boy, who was lucky enough to spend his summers at the beach, since infancy. I played in the ocean and back bays my whole life, and by around first or second grade, I was swimming in the ocean and back bays. We jumped off bridges and docks, body surfed and body boarded and eventually, as surfing caught on more on the east coast, we surfed. I started in 1966 riding a 9'6" "Whitehead" a surfboard made in Texas by a boatwright. It was glass blown from a chopper gun, the way a boat hull is made.

I spent almost all of my teen years, swimming, sailing, surfing, scuba diving and fishing. I even surfed in different places the Navy sent me, when it was possible.

There are good things about both long and short boards. I ride both (one at a time , of course). In the mid sixties, like almost everybody else, I started on a longboard. I went shorter and shorter every summer, during the 'short board revolution.' After getting out of the service, I had afew years of sporadic surfing, before I got back to surfing as much as possibly could. (I've driven 650 miles to go surfing!). I found some days that were just too small anything but a longboard. Just riding one size board is very limiting, conditions change daily in most places.

Surfing is an ocean sport, to do it right, you have to be at home in the ocean, with its currents, rips, undertows and sometimes big waves. I don't just mean being good at swimming in a pool, the ocean can be very unforgiving. I have seen lots of really good pool swimmers have to get rescued. You have to learn surf etiquette (so the experienced surfers in the line up don't want to drown you), how to paddle and take off on a wave, and how to ride a wave.

Lessons are usually the best way to start, unless you are an adolescent or young adult with lots of pals who surf who can teach you. Go to a real surf shop. The folks there can hook you up with lessons, and even rent you a board to learn on. Just work on your basics, and after you feel good, think about buying a board, but don't rush into anything.

I have had a lifetime of joy from surfing. It can be dangerous, because the sea is very unforgiving. I have more than my share of breaks, sprains and strains. I've dragged myself up onto the beach a few times slashed up like I had been in a sword fight, but I still love it. The body eventually heals, and the sea is still making waves when I get better.

Some folks have said that skateboarding may help. Well, any balance improving activity can be helpful to improve your surfing. That could be skate, snow, wake or skim boarding, working out on a Indo board, or doing the balance beam. HOWEVER, surfing is nothing like skateboarding. You have to paddle and catch a wave. First, and most important, you have to be at home in the ocean. You need to learn the mechanics of surfing, paddling out, catching a wave and standing up on the surfboard. It is after you have gotten all that down, that your balance becomes important, and if you have good balance (because, perhaps, you skateboard), that will only help you ride better.

Be careful of what you read here on line. There are lots of really well meaning young folks who have neat answers about surfing, but at 55, I tend to classify anyone under 25 as a kid. After I found this site, I figured that I could answer a few questions, and spread the 'good news' of surfing. After you learn to swim and master the ocaen, get your REAL advice from a surf shop, where industry professionals earn their rent money selling surfboards.

My son and daughter-in-law surf (she's from Redondo beach, of course she surfs), my son-in-law surfs (my daughter won't go in the water?) and all of my grandchildren (five, ages 5-8) are all at different stages of learning ocean skills and surfing.

I spent my summers at the shore, or lived in a seashore resort, I live two hours from the closest beach now. That doesn't stop me from surfing. I am going to make the ride on Sunday, to get a couple of hours in the water, have lunch & drive home. For this summer, I have already planned week long trips with my wife and grandkids, when I will surf once or twice every day. I know I'll make lots of day trips (But with the price of gas, I have to cut down on something else). I routinely drive 650 miles to spend a week or so surfing in S. Carolina when it's really cold up here in the northeast. Good luck. Once you try surfing (and learn the 'right way') you'll have fun for life.

Take the time to check out the links, especially surfingforlife.

Source(s):

http://www.surfingforlife.com/history.ht...

http://www.mckevlins.com/nopopstory.htm

http://360guide.info/surfing/surfboard-t...

Surfing is an Ocean sport. Get your info from surfing professionals at good local surf shops! Take time and learn the RIGHT WAY and you will have fun for life.

Answer 2

ask some surf instructor

Answer 3

Hey Jimminy

Learning to surf is easy if you can stand on two feet.  It is said that if you can ride a skate board you can surf, well it is a little harder than that, but it is worth it.

First off you have to find a board that fits you, although a long board is the easiest board to learn on.  A long board is about 8' long or longer and about 20" to 26" wide if not wider depending on who made it.  This is a very sturdy and buoyant board so it is easy to ride.

Second you have to have somewhere to ride it, as a beginner somewhere were the waves are not to big, but ride able preferably somewhere were there are no rocks and the water is at least 4' deep that way if you fall off you wont hit the bottom and if you do try to fall shallow.  It's a turn that us older guys came up with a long time ago here in Hawaii, it means try to hit the water flat on back like a board, if you fall off face forward same thing, never dive into the water because you wont no how deep it is or if there is something in the water that can hurt or even kill you.

Besides your board you will need a leash, a long leash is better for now that way when you fall off and your legs hit the water you wont pull your board right back at your face, been there with a short leash and hit my self right in the face just below my eyes, I still have the scar on the side of my nose.

You will also need some surf wax, there are a few and they are all good and they smell really good, but you will need it to in the board so you stick to it, if not you will slid off usually when someone nice is looking at you.

I don't know where you live, but this will make a difference whether or not if you will need a wet suit or not.  The west coast of the US, the waters there are cold until you reach near Baja Cali, or farther south.  Same thing with the east coast until you reach like Florida.  If you live in the tropics not to worry the waters are warmer.

You know what just go to the nearest surf shop and ask them to hook you up, they will have every thing you need and if they are good they will be honest with and not try to sell stuff you don't need.

Surfing is great, it is peaceful and quiet and rejuvenating.  To stand up on a board and ride it on the water is the best feeling in the world almost as good as s*x and if it is a big wave it gets your heart thumping your lungs gasping and your spirit soaring, adrenaline pumping and that feeling is better than s*x without all the mess and it is addicting.  Let’s not forget about the big tube rides wow that will blow your mind, to be in a solid cylinder of water with the sound of a giant fan getting ready to blow you right to the moon, fricken awesome.

Surfing, it’s not just a hobby, it’s a way of life and it will change the way you live it.

Take care and good luck ….Keep the Faith….PEACE….cya….

Oh yea get a couple of surf movies with long boards in them to watch how they ride them, Big Wednesday, is a good one Jan Michael Vincent.  And Endless Summer is another one.

Then there are the ones of today’s surf movies, but most of them are short boards, ah  just ask the clerk to recommend a surf movie that you can watch.

Good luck again