Surfing Standup Method for Beginners with David Dorn
Hey, welcome to Surf Club Maui we’re going to give you the run-through on the stand-up technique that we’re going to use today in the lesson, so follow along and watch the technique.
Okay when you’re getting on your board we’re going to get on the deck of the board with the nose forward, we’re going to climb on the side of the board and swing our legs onto the back.
Next thing we’re going to do is measure out. so I want you guys to push your toes level with the back of the board, so if necessary slide back so they should just be touching the back of the board there. okay now try and lay in the middle of the board okay, so the boards not tipping left or right.
Put your elbows down so you can rest and take the weight off your shoulders for a little while. But when you’re ready to paddle, you’re gonna make some turtle hands like that, put your fingers together. Arch your back, and I’m gonna do an alternating turtle stroke, let’s try that.
Nice and slowly. Just your hands will be dipping in the water up to your forearm. okay, when a wave comes you might want to do a little push-up. Hold the nose down and let the nose of the board go through the wave. Come back down and keep paddling. Now if you need to turn, you can paddle more on one side
Okay if you have to turn quickly you can even paddle backwards on one side. We’re going to practice that,
Okay, now the instructor’s going to tell you when it’s good to catch a wave. So we’re going to paddle out to where the waves are breaking turn around and have the waves behind us and the beach in front of us. We’re going to wait for a wave to come, and we’re going to be looking over our shoulder waiting for a wave to come, and when it’s about 10 feet behind us or a couple of board lengths behind, we’re going to slow paddle, follow along, slow paddle.
Okay, when the wave is picking up the tail of the board we’re going to paddle quickly. When the wave hits the board, keep paddling.
Now hands down, we don’t have to stand up right away, we can lean like a bodyboard, steer with the wave, head straight towards the beach.
We are going to stand up. Putting our thumbs together. Slide your hands under your chest. Push up to the knees.
Holding the nose down with our hands, and you can stay like this for a little while too, lean to steer the board, when you want to stand up and bring your back knee forward, front foot between the hands, I have four points of contact here, I’m gonna turn the back knee out and slowly stand up. and keep my knees bent.
Okay, this is the surfing position, I’ve got my arms out for balance, my knees bent, if I want to go a little faster I can push my weight to the nose, to slow down weight back. Just like a skateboard a little bit of leaning on the board will turn me, left for left or right for right.
The best way to finish a wave is to sit back down on the board if possible, hands down, lay down, and use your hands for brakes.
Okay, let’s do that one more time, the stand-up sequence itself.
Paddle, let the wave hit, keep paddling, have a little bit more, thumbs together, hands back,
push up, hands pushing down on the nose of the board, look straight ahead at the beach. Back knee forward,
front foot between the hands. Take your time, slowly bring the back knee out, crouch like a frog, and then slowly standing up.
Good, now the best way to finish the wave is to sit back down,
but, if you fall you want to fall correctly, so never dive headfirst.
If you’re going to fall go feet first so we can jump off the board and bend the knees and jump then that’s a safety stop .
Okay if you’re falling backwards you’re gonna do the starfish when you fall backwards. When you’re gonna fall back, slap the top of the water we don’t want to go deep.
okay now the third one, if you get pitched off the board headfirst by mistake, you’re gonna cover up like a turtle okay, so if you’re under the water or if you’re upside down turtle, you make a little turtle shell around your head like that.
Come up slowly, if you come to the surface, always come up with your hands first, like a dolphin coming out to the surface break the surface. That way if your board is there or anything else, other surfers can see you and you can push your board away safely.
All right, now another important safety feature is, always use your board leash, before we leave the beach before coming back to the beach you can always use the leash on your back ankle. If you don’t know which is your back ankle it doesn’t matter, put it on one ankle, and you’ll figure it out later.
We have one more rule here “Don’t hit the island”, so you’re surfing in on a wave, the wave might take you all the way to the beach, so don’t hit the beach. What we’re going to do is you’re going to jump off. So make sure there’s no one around, before you get to the beach you’re going to carefully jump off, bend your knees and stop.
Now if your board is flipping around, always keep your eye on your board so you can push it away if necessary.
All right that concludes our stand-up technique hopefully you guys had some fun, we get to try it out on the water now.
So take care and see you on the water. Aloha.
