Picture the scene: you get up at the crack of dawn. Birds chirp as you pack the van. You reach the beach, facing a whole day of as many waves as you can catch. Cue the tropical percussion, cue the bronze bodies. Summer’s here and you’re going to make the most of it.

Nothing left to do now but dive in. Let The Beach Boys get you in the mood. Gasp at how clear, blue and awesome the sea looks.

For a lot of surfers, catching a barrel is the best part of any session. If you don’t know what that is, look at the loops below.

They seem to last forever, right? Totally seamless. In reality, these moments are brief but exhilirating.

If you’re not so experienced, you’ll have a lot of brief and maybe not so exhilirating moments. Like this.

Keep practising. Stay positive. Don’t worry, soon you’ll rock like these guys.

When surfers are really good, they can start getting weird, but weird in a really cool way. Like surfing at night with a flare:

Or surfing in the snow. (More Beach Boys, but this time for comic effect)

Maybe you don’t have a beach near you? Or you just can’t afford to fly off to some exotic location with surfable waves? If you’re really crazy about surfing, you shouldn’t let that stop you.

Want some more? Check out the surfing channel.