Extra Tips

Look over your shoulder when paddling for a wave. Taking a few looks behind you is the only way you can know if you need to paddle more, or paddle less, or even stop paddling for a while, according to the wave’s shape. It also also keeps you from “dropping in” on people (if you don’t know what a drop in is, see “Surf Ethics”). If you look behind, you will know if the wave was either too steep (Stage C), too weak (Stage A), or just right (Stage B), thus understanding why you failed or succeed in catching an unbroken wave.

So many beginner surfers don’t take a look back at the wave and mis-time their paddling. They either get the wave crash over them, or they catch a white water wave. You simply cannot learn from your mistakes if you don’t look behind and see what actually happened.

The bigger board you have, the easier it will be to catch unbroken waves. Catching “green waves” is about paddling fast enough to match the speed of a wave. The sooner you can “catch the momentum” of the wave, the sooner you will be able to pop up and surf. Since big boards paddle much faster than small boards, they make it easier to catch green waves.

Better surfers catch more waves because they move a lot. When you see a lump in the horizon, ask yourself: is it a bigger wave that’s going to break further out, or a smaller one that is going to break closer to shore? The more experience you have in reading waves, the more proactive you will be and the easier it will get to paddle around and position yourself to catch unbroken waves. For more information about wave reading, see “How to Read Waves”.