Pearling-
Problem: When the nose of the surfboard gets buried in the water and you pitch forward.

Solution: You may be too far forward. Try lying a little further back on your board.
As the wave starts to take you, arch your back a little to put more weight on your legs / thighs.

The wave passes you by or you miss the wave-
Problem: You aren’t catching any waves.

Solution: You may be too far back on the board. Try shifting your weight a little farther forward (but watch out for pearling). It may take a bit of time to find the sweet spot on your board, not too far forward or too far back. You only want the nose of your board a couple of inches out of the water.
Start paddling earlier so you have more speed when the wave reaches you.
Paddle faster and keep paddling until the wave has passed.

Pictured- Soft Top boards with a protection fin

A great indicator of what your first board purchase should be, has a lot to do with how often you will be surfing. Soft tops or foamies (pictured above) are ideal for never-ever’s or beginners. They are easy to surf, buoyant and you won’t get discouraged as you will be catching a lot of waves (even on your very first day!). However, soft tops aren’t ideal for an adult who has fallen in love with the sport and wishes to do it more than once or twice a year. Typically, an adult would outgrow their  soft top surfboard. This brings us to epoxy boards which make an excellent board for a newbie. Epoxy boards are in between a Soft Top and a Fiber Glass board with a thick coating of foam around the fiberglass. Not only are these boards virtually indestructible, they are also a great training board to take a complete beginner to an intermediate level. After you graduate from an epoxy board, your next board purchase will be a fiber glass board. These certainly get dinged up easily and are not buoyant like the soft top or epoxy board. Fiber glass boards are recommended for intermediate surfers and higher. Hope this helps! Catch a wave today, even if only in your mind.

Soft Tops are the best surfboards to learn on.

The Surfboard

The surfboard is the essential piece of surfing equipment. You can’t surf without it. But what is the real difference between a soft top surfboard and a fiberglass board (or hard top)?

If you’ve ever had surfing lessons with a surf school, you already have a good idea of what a soft surfboard is. Pictured above, think of a soft, pliable foam that is similar to a boogie board but long like a surfboard. Soft Tops are incredibly buoyant and helps beginners catch waves more easily.

The difference between a traditional fiberglass board and a soft top surfboard is that the regular fiberglass has a hard outer shell unlike the foamy shell soft tops have. You also need wax for a fiberglass board to maintain traction while surfing.

Check out next week’s post: What kind of Surfboard should I buy?

Why do surfers lover surfing SOOOO MUCH??? Read this book to find out why.

Saltwater Buddha by Jaimal Yogis is a book about so many different topics related to surfing that is delivered in a clear, light and often humorous way. This book will help you to understand why surfer’s love surfing so much and it’s also perfect for those who love the ocean as well. It describes how surfing is a spiritual practice and provides Jaimal’s personal accounts of the lessons learned in the water. It truly is a must read for those about to embark upon surfing or veteran surfers.

Love the waves in November!

Rainbows, Fisherman, Surfers, Oh MY

Well, it really never actually ‘feels’ like winter here on Maui but we do get treated to AMAZING windless days and perfect waves during the winter months, especially November! I live 8 minutes doors to beach from Ho’okipa Beach one of Maui’s best surf locations. Do I ever get tired of this? No Way! I count my blessings each and every day. I think I forgot to mention that there are also tons of turtles floating around while surfing…it REALLY is paradise here.

Surf Shop in Barra de Navidad, Mexico. This is where we SHOULD have gone.

Our Surf Crew L-R; Mike, Chris, Me-Shell, Rachel and Sy. Mike taking images as Federales would not take our picture.

Que Dia! What a Day! We arrived for Reid and April’s Wedding at Isla Navidad “Grand Bay Resort” in Mexico and were super psyched to go on a surf adventure. What a surf adventure it was! There was a huge Mexico swell and our crew was fired up to take advantage of some great waves. Well, to make a LONG story short…the perfect waves were right outside our hotel (little did we know). We went on the guided surf adventure and fell into quite the array of obstacles and challenges along the way. Our Surf Adventure consisted of a surf guide that did more surfing than we did, 8 hours of driving, numerous jellyfish stings to all of us, a broken leash, a near drowning and my hubby got punched in the face. Oh yeah, no one in our group caught a real wave. Que Dia! There was a positive. We had an incredible bonding experience and have lots of funny stories to tell. We did get a chance to surf the next day at Bara de Navidad which was incredible. Thanks Mexico Surf Crew 2009.

The Indoboard is simple, stable and user friendly. Anybody can ride with a few basic instructions and something to hold onto initially. The learning curve is a mere 10 to 15 minutes for most. After that, Indoboarding becomes routinely easy and fun.

Surfing has forever suffered from the lack of repetitive training while in the water. What do you do if you are land locked and can only take surfing vacations? Ride an Indo Board.

If you are serious about cross training for surfing, then the Indo Board is the ideal device to keep you tuned when you are not in the water.

Complete info at Indoboard.com
Click on the website to see pictures.

Surfers have always know that their boards are works of art and to have one that looks like a stealth weapon of some sort is pretty cool, but for nearly $1/4 million!? I think not.