Learning How to Surf – Going all the way (out)
Mistake #3. Going “All the Way Out Where the Other Surfers Are” This is an understandable mistake that a surfing beginner makes. You pull up at the beach, and go out where the surfers are, right? Not so fast, Scooter. If the waves are anywhere over chest high, the more experienced surfers will be on […]
Learning How to Surf – Location, location…
2. The Wrong Place – Surfing is like real estate: Location, location, location. The ideal beginner wave offers a long, gently rolling break that crumbles, not crashes. It’s what surfers call (with some disdain) a mushy wave. Better still if there’s a sand bottom – that may save you some paddling. Huntington Beach can be […]
Learning How to Surf – Biggest Mistakes Beginners Make
1. The Wrong Surfboard – I get a lot of students who call and tell me they ‘already have a surfboard’. Most of the time they’ll show up to their first surf lesson with a board that’s too small. A small board makes the most difficult part of surfing – the takeoff – even more […]
Patching Soft Surfboards with a Hot Glue Gun
Did you know you can patch your soft board with a hot glue gun? This also works on fiberglass boards, but for now I’m talking about soft boards, like the ever-popular Costco WaveStorm surfboards. They’re also known as ‘soft tops’ (or derisively as ‘nurf boards’ : ). This is also a good fix for boogieboards […]
The Malibu Theme Park
Published in “Surfer Magazine”, November 1997 THE MALIBU THEME PARK By Jaz Kaner Twenty yards out a dark fin broke the surface. I couldn’t see what it was, but it was moving some water and heading right for me. Then it submerged. It was bad enough that I had to resort to night […]
Surfer ‘Light Bulb’ jokes
Here’s the collector’s edition of…. “Jaz Kaner’s Lightbulb jokes for Surfers” (Originally published in Surfer Magazine, 2001) Q: How many surfers does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Four. One climbs the ladder and the other three brag about all the great light bulbs they had yesterday. Q: How many soul […]
Surfing 101
If I had to distill years of teaching into a few seconds, those are the four biggest points. There are exceptions, and of course, there’s a ton of other safety issues, skills, and fine tuning that a good surf instructor will give you. Surfing can’t be learned from a book – there are too many variables.