Surfing, for me at least, is a love hate relationship. A relationship where I love the ocean, and the stoke that comes from Surfing, and hate myself, because I suck.
Sound familiar? Ok, maybe I’m being a bit hard on myself here, but I think most people who surf have, sooner or later, had to make a breakthrough from being that person that walked back up the beach with their tail between their legs, wondering why everyone else is ripping, and you’ve been floating around out there, lucky to catch one wave, maybe having to do the dreaded ‘paddle of shame’ back in more times that you’d care to mention (or admit).
This was me a few months ago. It’s a very frustrating place to be, but, if you can relate to that, there’s good news.
Surfing, like any sport or endeavour, is challenging. It takes time to master, during which you have to deal with your physical fitness, mother nature, and most of all, your mind. It has the tendency to be mentally uplifting (stoked) and terrifying (shitting yourself) at the same time. I think that why we love it. The point in the learning process where you realise you suck is the point at which you’re about to make a breakthrough. Here’s why.
It is said the we go through four stages of competence when we’re trying to master something;
- Unconscious Incompetence – You suck, and you don’t know you suck.
- Conscious Incompetence – You suck, and you know you suck.
- Conscious Competence – You’re confident, enjoying your surfing, pushing your limits and developing new skills (all of which go through the same cycle). Your wave count is good, you’re riding bigger waves and getting out of the water stoked more often than not – You don’t suck.
- Unconscious Competence – You rip effortlessly in all conditions and it comes as naturally as putting one foot in front of another. You’re high–fiving with the pro’s at 25 foot Cloudbreak! – You are a legend.
Some time ago I made the decision to put my effort into getting to stage three – Conscious Competence – at least in conditions I was comfortable in (1 – 6 foot), I knew I sucked. I wanted to increase my wave count for each session, surf bigger waves, feel confident in the line up and, most of all, simply enjoy surfing and making progress.
I have some things working for me, good friends (good surfers) providing inspiration and encouragement, close to the beaches so surfing every day is no problem, I’ve been practising Yoga for a long time so fitness is good, but I was thinking that a coach would be good so I went looking at the source of all knowledge – Google.
I found SurfCoach.com by Martin Dunn, Australia’s most successful and innovative surfing coach, and things began to change for the better.
I learned things like ‘Breaking the Ledge‘ and simple (in hindsight) things like not paddling for waves you can’t catch, raising your leading arm, the board follows where you look. All things I wish I had known when I was younger but are now giving me something to focus on in my surfing development. I’m not exactly tearing it up but I am catching more waves, in bigger surf, and I’m a lot less frustrated. I know now where to go to get focused on the next challenge and where to get the information and technique to master it.
If you are feeling frustrated with your Surfing I highly recommend SurfCoach.com
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