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Surfing Lesson 2 - Strengthen Your Paddling Abilities

Now for the part you will find yourself doing most when starting out, paddling.

So you have a surfboard and your ready to go. Your board should be rather large as the first article indicated, and float well.

If your board is too small, it will sink below the surface a bit, and create drag in the tail end, meaning it will take more effort when paddling.

Either way, you now need to get feel for your surfboard, big or small, before taking on the surf and swell.

Find a calm section of water, a beach with no swell or even a river, it is not necessary, but if you can get your position right on the board before going out and getting hit by the swells, you will get through the breakers more easily.

Once your ready to paddle in small surf, start in calmer water to get the feel for it, walk out a bit, and then lay on your board so your chest is just above central, and your weight is in the middle, once you feel stable, lean forward to level out the board.

You don't want to lay to far back on your surfboard, because your nose will rise up blocking your vision, and the tail will drag slowing you down.

Once you get to choppy water and whitewash, keep your chest raised off the board as much as possible, it will help the nose of the board rise over the little stuff. If that nose goes under you will loose momentum, and possible even get pushed backwards.

Paddle with cupped hands, and deep strokes for maximum speed. The more resistance you feel the faster you will go, however you will also use more energy.

While you might use more energy on your strokes, you will get out faster, and have to deal with less sets of waves, so in reality you will use less energy overall.

By now you should have a feel for your board, so your ready to head out through the breakers, check out the next lesson on Duckdiving and rolling your board.

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