Surfing tips for Beginners in Green Waves

Yay, you’ve made it. You’ve persisted and you are past the whitewash. Congrats Gidgets. But now that you are catching green waves you all of a sudden facing new challenges. Some of the most common challenges we hear are

• Can’t go left/can’t go right… why can I only go one way?
• I’m always getting up on my knee first, help!
• Don’t catch enough waves/Can’t get quite onto it/ Keep on nose-diving.

So here’s the first one in our mini blog series of surfing tips for Green Wave Gidgets:

CAN’T GO LEFT/CAN’T GO RIGHT 

You feel like Zoolander. You can only go one way. Most Gidgets find it easier to take off on their front hand – so if you are natural, you probably prefer to go right and if you are a goofy, you are likely to find it easier to go left…Here are a few tips to help you stop being one-way-Gidget.

It’s all in the angle

Try to angle your board in the direction you would like to go on take off. So if you go right, point the board a bit to the right rather than straight to the beach.

Look where you go

Look in the direction you would like to go and point your leading arm into the direction you would like to go and you’ll see your upper board will turn with you. Eg. for regulars, if you want to go left, look over your left shoulder, lead with your left arm. If you are a goofy and you have troubles going right, look over your right shoulder, lead with your right arm.

No pressure

Most importantly, remember it’s totally normal that you have one preferred direction. So don’t stress yourself if you find yourself going only one way. Who cares really? As long as you are having fun, it doesn’t really matter. Get confident on one side first and you’ll see eventually, you’ll start taking waves going the other side just like that…

Hope that helps Gidgets! Next time, we’ll tell you how to get rid of your habit of getting up on your knees first when popping up.

Happy Surfing

Claudia x

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