Surf Lessons 3

Free On-line Surfing Lessons for Beginners

Scared of board sports? Freaked by the ocean? Got two left feet and feel a tad unbalanced at times? No worries...Start here by choosing your first surfboard and then keep clicking to go from kook to ripper in no time flat.
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More Free Surf Lessons for You

* How to Choose The Right Beach
* Learn How to Paddle
* Learn How to Duck Dive

Surfing / Bodyboarding Spotlight10
Jay's Surfing / Bodyboarding Blog
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Surfboard-soul Connection
Thursday June 18, 2009
Board design and shaping have been a bone of contention in the surfing community over the last decade. But I see the biggest problem in that the surfer and his board are becoming more and more distant as design techniques progress. If we are to go back to the beginning, Hawaiians came together as a community in shaping and building a new surfboard. The finished board was a family treasure and its launching into the water was a community event. Even as materials changed and surfboard shaping became a business, surfers and shapers often stood together in the shaping room in a sort of refinement session where they communicated about the surfer's goal for the board.

The advent of the "almost shaped" blank saw shapers become "scrapers". Mass produced surfboards have brought down some prices, and surfers have lost some contact with their surfboards...that soul connection that inspired me to keep my surfboard in my bedroom so no harm would come to my precious possession. I fixed every ding as it happened and tried to keep it fresh for as long as possible. A new surfboard was like adopting a child. In my mind I gently whispered, "I'll take good care of you, baby."

Today, surfboards have become disposable, and even with attempts at creating more "green" surfboards, it's the attitude of surfers themselves that has changed. We really can't blame the industry for becoming more streamline and more profitable. In reality, it's surfers who own these companies and surfers who are using shaping machines and surfers who are buying up all this stuff. There's no avoiding progress and new technologies and such (and no real reason to), but we can try to stay true to the tradition that gave birth to our culture and art. We need to keep that attitude that surfing is an art first and that no matter where the board under your feet came from, it is the way you connect to the energy of the wave. That's the soul connection. Cherish it and nourish it. Don’t toss your old board. Fix it up. Give it to a kid. Donate it to a cause, and please fix your dings.

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Chicago, America's Next Surf City?
Sunday June 14, 2009
That's doubtful on many levels, but the city government is making progress. This past week, city officials voted to allow surfers access to specific beaches with the aside that they "Surf at Your Own Risk." Up to this point, wave riders risked massive fines for attempting a session as if 20 degree air temperatures and surf potential that makes Texas look lile Bali (was that a clear simile?) weren't enough deterrents to would be surfers. Now, however, the city that helped change Obama from Hawaiian bodysurfer to Presidential golden child will now let folks trudge through the city scape with their flotation devices like rafts and bodyboards and, of course, surfboards to grab a few cold ones. Chicago has a surf shop and a Surfrider chapter and sometimes even some surf, so why not?

According to this Time Magazine article, this is part of a push to extend surfing's influence inland, which is a valid observation. Global companies like Billabong and Quicksilver and Volcom see the writing on the wall. They know that expansion means going beyond nature's coastal boundaries. After all, that's where the cash potential lies. It's an untapped resource up to this point. But in reality, surfing is happening in bodies of water everywhere. Stand-up paddle boarding, wake surfing, kite surfing, surfing in rivers and giant lakes and Arctic seas, and even some action happening in truly viable wave pools. This might be a sea change moment for ocean surfers: the great shift inland for surf culture. It's an interesting thought.

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Surf into Summer
Sunday June 7, 2009
Okay folks, it's summer and the weather is perfect to learn how to surf. Don't be afraid. Guys are surfing in in Duluth, Minesota. They are paddle surfing in California. Ladies are shredding Florida. The cultures of Australia and Hawaii are brimming with surf stoke and Europe is riddled with surf stoked locals in tiny bathing suits. Eight-year olds ae paddling in to waves and dudes in their nineties are longboarding all morning. Whether you want to just get some exercise out in the ocean or get out their and really rip, this is the time to learn how to surf. You might have a week off or if your lucky enough to be a kid, heck, you've got two months to learn how to surf. Surf. Surf. Surf. That's how my mind works. Let's get you started:

Learn How to Paddle

Learn How to Catch a Wave

Learn How to Stand Up

Learn how to Ride

You might say that websites are teaching surfing are just adding to the already congested lineups arpound the world, but the bottom line is that it's better to have more accomplished surfers that are safely intergrating into the masses rather than kooks who are serve as a menace to the established oreder. In learning how to surf, you learn how to pick a beach that is uncrowded, to paddel clear of more advanced surfers, and to respect the local surfers where you travel. These are fundamentals that make surfing "fun" and "mental".

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Talk the Talk
Tuesday May 26, 2009
Learn to Talk like a Surfer
If you plan on learning to surf this season, be sure to learn to walk the walk before you talk the talk. But if you are on the fringe looking in and are trying to understand the waveriders' lingo, here is a cheat sheet. Surfers utilize a highly stylized and descriptive array of words and phrases in their communication. Learn new ways to linguistically interact at the beach. There is more to a surfer's lexicon than "dude."