Most people spend their first lesson in the white water, and that is exactly right. But there is a moment, usually in the second or third session, when you ride a wave that has not broken yet. Surfers call it a green wave, and you will never forget it.
Before you paddle out
A green wave is a wave that is still building, before it tips over and turns to foam. It is smoother and faster than white water, and it carries you along its face rather than shoving you from behind. It also asks more of you: you have to be in the right place, at the right time, already moving.
So the first job is to be comfortable in the foam. If you can lie on the board, paddle straight, pop up and ride white water to the beach three times in a row, you are ready to try. If not, there is no hurry. Every coach here learned in the same white water you are standing in.
You will still be on a soft board, eight feet long or more. It feels huge, but its length is what lets you catch a wave early, and its foam deck is what makes falling off it painless.
Catching it, step by step
- Sit just outside the white water, where the waves are lifting but not yet breaking. Your coach will show you the spot.
- Pick a small, slow wave. Let the big ones go. There is always another.
- Turn and paddle early, long strokes, before the wave reaches you. Most first tries fail because the paddling starts too late.
- Feel the lift. The tail rises and the board starts to slide. Two more strokes, then hands flat on the deck.
- Pop up and look where you want to go, along the wave, not down at the board.
The pop-up, slowly
Practice it on the sand twenty times before you go in: push up, bring your back foot under you, then your front foot between your hands, knees bent, arms out. Do it slowly until your feet land in the same place every time. Speed comes on its own.
When it goes wrong
Before any of that, learn where not to be. Always surf between the black and white flags, where the lifeguards are watching, and ask your coach to show you the rip: the calm-looking channel where the water runs back out to sea. If you are ever pulled out, stay on your board, raise an arm and wait for help.
It will, many times, and that is part of it. When you fall, fall flat and away from the board, and cover your head with your arms as you come up. Then climb back on, turn round and paddle out again. The only bad wipeout is the one that makes you stop.
