Hello all! First time poster, new surfer! ...my question is, when I am paddling for a wave many times I feel like I am literally not moving at all and the wave will either crash on top of me or I'll miss it completely. This doesn't always happen I do catch waves but I may be catching them out of sheer placement and luck. What would cause me to basically paddle in place? ...I'm not a body builder but I'm decently strong, it must be my crappy form. Any ideas? Also, my board is a 7ft2in fun board incase that helps.
I think that paddling strength and technique is the most important skill that you can focus on as a beginner.
The good news is that you don't even need a swell or any waves at all to get better at it. If you are in shape and you are a new surfer, what you need to understand is that the level of paddling power and paddling technique that you need is waaaaay more advanced than you even realize, and its much more complex than simply being "decently strong".
You need to commit to training yourself to become a better paddler first before you try to become a better surfer. Go out on flatter days and paddle as much as you have time for. Go hard and go long. Paddling is as much about your body's ability to convert energy as it is about overall muscle strength. Physically "strong" surfers don't always paddle well...but "fit" surfers do. Your path to surfing nirvanna begins with hard physical training, there are no shortcuts. Period. I would also agree that a good surf coach is very important when you are just beginning to surf; send Robbie a note at
[email protected].
I would also recommend jumping onto Craigslist and buying a used longboard, a 9 footer would be ideal, but don't go below 8+ feet. Keep the 7'2 for paddling practice for now, but use the longboard for surfing. Eventually you will be able to step down to the 7'2 for surfing.
For the beginning surfer I think that 99.99% of surfing is paddling well. Focus on it and commit to becoming a great paddler and the rest becomes MUCH easier.
Regarding placement, that is, where you need to be in order to catch a wave, check this video out:
The best advice I could give you on learning everything else you need to know is to use the search function on this message board. If you have a question about a topic, it has most likely already been answered here at some point.