Surfing ques?

Question

im 17 and want to learn how to surf so i have a few questions...

is 17or 18 to old to learn how to surf or is it a good age? is it easy to catch up on like learning the basics and if i work at it alot it will become much easier? should i take some type of lession or is it an easy to learn yourself type thing and you learn from your mistakes? what are the best locations to surf in besides hawaii and cali? is there surfing in japan? and i also what to learn to snowboard some time in the future so should i learn to snowboard first or it really doesnt matter?

thanks

Answer 1

17 is a good age to learn. Don't waste your time with taught lessons. Surfing can't be taught. no one can tell or show you how to turn. You have to feel it. You have to find good waves for surfing and go out there and try and try again. Snowboarding wont help you unless you're riding halfpipe. Snowboarding will only waste your time and money that you should be putting towards surfing. For the price of a snowboard setup, you could go on an epic trip somewhere. yes there is surfing in japan, it probably sucks most of the time until they get a storm and then it's probably really good for two days a year. You probably live in ohio and are daydreaming. Go to college in california and travel on school loans. You may have to pay for it the rest of your life but the surfing will pay off.

Answer 2

Lot's of questions!

I started surfing at 14, but I had been swimming in the ocean and back bays since I was little tike. I learned to surf, and sail pretty much on my own, because that's just the way things were in the '60s.. Today, people are learning to surf from toddlers (my 8 year old graddaughter for example) to 40 somethings. I love the growing popularity of surfing, as long as they learn the 'right way' to surf, that is to respect and love the ocean and use proper surf etiquette.

Learning to surf is more than just standing up on a surfboard. If you are going to surf, you should be a competent ocean swimmer. Not just good in a pool, but able to swim in the surf, and when the undertow and rips are strong. I have seen lots of good pool swimmers get rescued.

Once you get that far, I would recommend some surf lessons. Go to a REAL surf shop (not a bathing suit store that sells some surfboards). The folks there will rent you a board and hook you up with some lessons. If you are fairly athletic with okay balance, you will learn how to stand up fairly easily. Much more important, is for you to learn surf etiquette. A good instructor will make sure you understand the "rules" so that everybody else in the water doesn't want to kill you before you get good at surfing.

As far as snowboarding compares to surfing, both activities require some good balance and flexibility. Beyond that, they are apples and oranges. With all that said, snowboarding must be really cool (not for me, however, snow is something I only like to see on Christmas cards), and I am sure that the conditioning and balance skills developed snowboarding sure can't hurt.

There are quite a few places that just have NO SURF, or only have ride-able surf a few times a year. However, most of the Atlantic and Pacific Coast of North and South America have ride-able breaks for portions of the year. The quality of the breaks varies, and can be research on Surfline.com. Yes, there is surfing in Japan, and the British Isles, and most Pacific Islands and so on and so on and on.