The 6 most common beginner’s mistakes

When you finally get a wave and feel that indescribable feeling that you can only experience when surfing, you know it’s worth all the effort. That’s what will make you not give up, try again and again and try harder than ever before. And even if it’s not about the next wave: being in the water, sitting in the line-up without taking a wave, the sun above you, the blue depths below you – that’s freedom! Surfing is simply indescribable, you just have to try it!

Let me tell you: every surfer was once a desperate beginner who experienced the frustrating feeling of being dunked underwater by a wave on a surf vacation after a nosedive or not being able to paddle out because they couldn’t fight the waves. Even a Kelly Slater, a John John Florence or a Bethany Hamilton once started out small. Here, it’s simply a case of sticking with it, pushing through and getting back on the surfboard.

However, a few difficulties can be averted right from the start and make it easier for you to learn to surf – which is why we have compiled a lot of tips for surfing here. Many beginner mistakes turn out to be very predictable in hindsight, which is why it can’t hurt to know a little about the classic mistakes and perhaps save yourself at least a little frustration.

You’ve planned your first surf vacation at a surf camp and booked your first surf course there and expect to be standing up on the board after just a few days and riding the wave like Kelly Slater or Gabriel Medina.

The reality is somewhat different: The first few times in the water, you’ll be happy if lying on your stomach alone works. The body is not used to balancing in the water and has to learn this from scratch. The good thing is that this alone is a lot of fun and your body gets used to it after the first few white water sessions. So now on with the text: The take-off – standing up while surfing! You will try to stand upright on a surfboard that is about the size of a tanker and ride waves that are not even waves, but white foam. Too far back on the board, too far forward, not even standing up, the wave is already over – at the beginning it’s all about biting through and learning to walk.

But when you stand up for the first time, even the smallest white water wave feels like an overhead barrel – absolute bliss!

Everyone knows that one guy who tries to learn to surf on a shortboard. This is a classic mistake made by beginners who overestimate themselves (we affectionately call them “papas fritas” on the island, by the way) and therefore reach for a surfboard the size of a toothpick that they picked up (probably completely overpriced) on eBay. However, every surf instructor at a surf camp or surf school will (rightly) hand you an incredibly large softboard that looks a bit like a whale and tell you to go into the white water first instead of paddling straight for the big waves. The impression is probably similar to having a Ferrari in front of you but being forced to get into your mother’s Fiat Panda. However, it suddenly doesn’t feel like that on the first wave, but still feels like the Ferrari – with the advantage that you can really drive it and it’s much more fun than missing one wave after another in frustration because the board is too short.

Because you can only learn the right jump into the take-off, the right weight shift over your legs etc. on a big board – and much faster. Follow our take-off training tips for your next surf and you’ll get on your feet faster in the future.

Once you’ve mastered the white water, you’ll want to paddle out to where the green waves are breaking. You thought the take-off on a surfboard was the hardest part of surfing? Then wait until you try to get through one set of breaking waves after another, forming a stronger front than a group of protesters in front of a nuclear power plant. But then, finally, the magical gap you’ve been hoping for – until a wave breaks directly in front of or above you and tries to pull your board out from under you or hurl it high into the air. Welcome to the washing machine! The best thing to do now is to make yourself small and compact and try to relax.

When you have finally made it behind the breaking waves with your board, you feel like you have discovered paradise: this wonderful calm, completely free of constantly breaking waves. Welcome to the line-up.

Until a set comes through… Still completely exhausted from paddling out, a 2-3 meter set suddenly comes towards you, which no longer looks as small as it did from the outside, but simply huge and terrifying. You have no idea how to catch this wave – you don’t really want to. Oh fuck! All you can do is paddle over it and sit it out in the water, if you still have time. Hello absolute freedom, you’ll probably enjoy it a little longer. Or at some point, after a certain amount of time, you’ll get over yourself and take one of the waves – there’s no other way back. (Unless you have your own personal helicopter).

The only thing that surfers hate more than flat times is surfers dropping them into the wave . Preferably a local who has been surfing at this beach for a long time or perhaps even grew up here. Dropping someone into the wave means taking the wave away from another surfer when they are already in the wave and is considered an absolute mortal sin. This can sometimes happen very quickly and you should avoid it at all costs, but it has happened to all of us at one time or another during a surf.

As a beginner, you probably won’t know this, but you should learn it as soon as possible. If you’re at a surf camp, just ask on site if they can explain the surfing rules or surf etiquette to you again. Otherwise, it might not end well – whether on Fuerteventura or anywhere else in the world.

Insults or a rematch in your next wave are definitely not uncommon. However, not all surfers are so aggressive. Many also show understanding in the line-up as they remember their own difficult start. A smile works best and then you should follow it up with a sincere “Sorry!”, this can work wonders. An important point anyway: respect and friendliness in the line-up are essential, then you’ll also get a few good tips from the other surfers: “This wave has got your name on it. Paddle, paddle, paddle!” You should always follow the tips from locals. This guarantees a stress-free surfing vacation and you will also become better known in the line-up over time and your next surf will definitely be more enjoyable.

Just like a dog on a leash, you always hold on to your surfboard: with a leash. Sure, the natives of Hawaii only started out with a board under their feet and here and there locals are still leash-free – but this is only for absolute pros, empty spots and good swimmers. You should avoid this completely. Unless you want to spend hours floating in the sea because you can’t manage to swim back to the shore or are responsible for the black eye of your friend who is unfortunately standing in the path of your surfboard that has gone off on its own, you should always make sure that your leash is correctly attached to your ankle.

Otherwise, your surfboard will turn into a rocket during a wipeout, shooting straight towards the beach and endangering many people. At best, this works out well, but it can also lead to a lot of chaos and injuries.

If you don’t want to go on the water with a softboard (anymore), you can also use a hardboard. However, these need wax! It’s unbelievable how many people have tried surfing on their surfboards without wax. The result is not very nice to look at:

You won’t have a chance to put a foot on your board and will instead look like a drunken seal sliding across the surfboard. You’ll never have a good surf, but you’ll give the others in the water an indescribably funny spectacle. Take your time and wax your board.

We hope we have been able to explain to you clearly what you should look out for when learning to surf.But don’t worry – everyone makes mistakes. Especially in a sport as demanding as surfing. At our surf camp on Fuerteventura, our surf instructors will do everything they can to ensure that you can celebrate success quickly and have as much fun as possible on the beach of El Cotillo or one of the other countless surf spots in the north of Fuerteventura. And once you’ve caught the surfing bug, the rest will come naturally sooner or later anyway!

FreshSurf shows you how to do it right!

After a surfer has overcome the hurdles of standing up and riding waves straight ahead, there follows a period that can be described as the novice stage. In this stage, surfers learn the fundamental knowledge and skills of the sport. Every surfer, from Hans Wurst of Local Beach to Kelly Slater, has had to overcome this stage to achieve consistency in their performance.

The skills addressed here are the ability to position yourself correctly in the line-up, to get the waves, to paddle intensively, to perform the take-off in a controlled manner and to ride the wave continuously – from start to finish. Attention: I haven’t said anything about the performance of surf maneuvers here, learning these will follow in a later development phase.

The typical performance of a novice is that he paddles many, many waves and only gets a few. Once he gets a wave, he does a very slow take-off and rides the wave straight through the middle, straight towards the beach and jumps off the board again before the wave is even close to its end – all due to the aversion of not getting washed

Many errors occur around take-off and can be divided into two main categories.

The right positioning makes take-off easier

Beginner surfers often try to paddle the wave from the shoulder of the wave rather than the peak. This is usually due to a lack of self-confidence or the fear of “messing up” the take-off. They therefore choose the supposedly safe way – but unfortunately it is not possible to get a wave if you are not positioned in the steep part. I recently witnessed a father in the water who advised his son to sit a little lower to catch waves because he was too far out on the shoulder. The direction he was giving was correct, but his chosen terminology was wrong. A beginner needs more specific instructions. It would have been more effective for the surfer if the father had said: “Paddle a little closer to the peak and paddle the wave where it breaks!” This would have given the beginner surfer an idea of where he should position himself and this advice would have been conveyed and received more positively.

Breaking through or overcoming the edge of the wave makes the take-off simpler

Most beginners get caught on the lip of the wave during the take-off, which in turn causes them to lag behind the wave or get “smashed”. What they need to learn is that with every wave there is a kind of edge that needs to be overcome in order to perform the take-off correctly. Of course, this edge is ultimately the lip of the wave that breaks when the wave breaks. In shallow waves, this edge is narrow and easy to break, but the bigger and more hollow a wave breaks, the harder you have to paddle to get over the edge. Once this edge is broken, the drop is much easier to perform. In order to overcome the point at which you are “caught” by the lip of the wave, a beginner should paddle 2-3 strokes “on the off chance”. In other words, make 2-3 paddle strokes more than you think you need.

Correct positioning at the peak and overcoming the “edge” are therefore fundamental aspects of building self-confidence when it comes to surfing. These two aspects determine the faster or slower development of a surfer.

We help you to avoid the most common mistakes, learn to surf with us:

Even more surfing knowledge: Everything you need to know about surfing