As a long-time surfer, I’ve met so many people who have tried surfing, yet unfortunately, they didn’t continue with this sport. Most people start to learn to surf one summer, then never surf again because surfing is such a hard sport to learn.
This is why I often tell people that is the hardest sport to learn, however putting in the time and effort to become a competent surfer is worth it, because surfing is so fun.
Surfing is the hardest sport to learn. Surfers need to develop a threshold of fitness just to even start to learn surfing. Building fitness while learning to surf requires dedication and most people will want to quit during this time. Surfers build a tolerance to cold, plus high degrees of surfing balance and coordination that can take years to learn.
It’s difficult to learn surfing. To read a more in depth analysis on why surfing is the hardest sport to learn and more specifically, what are the hardest things about surfing, please read to the bottom.
Having trouble learning to surf? Here are some high-quality surfing tips from a real surfer.
20 Reasons Surfing Is The Hardest Sport To Learn
- Learning how to surf safely
- Surfing Requires a certain threshold of fitness
- Surfers need dedication and perseverance
- Surfing in cold water can be uncomfortable
- Learning how to check the surf conditions is complicated
- Navigating rips and currents takes knowledge and fitness
- Surfers need to know tide levels and movements
- Surfers know how wind directions affect the waves
- Surfers know swell directions and size
- Surfers study meteorology
- How to choose the right surfboard for different conditions
- Surfers learn about sealife and how to avoid getting bitten
- Surfing etiquette is needed amongst other surfers
- Surfers know the different wave types and how to ride them
- Standing on a surfboard takes a long time to learn
- Maintaining speed on a wave
- Turning on a surfboard (cutbacks and maneuvers)
- Surfers need patience
- Surfing is frustrating at times
- Surfing is a dynamic sport that will humble you
Surfing on a shortboard is the most advanced, here is how you can learn to ride a shortboard in a short period of time.
Surf Safety
All experienced surfer have their limits. Learning where your limits are comes with time, it’s a good idea to choose smaller waves that are less powerful when learning to surf. Surfing is more crowded areas with other surfers, taking a friend surfing with you is a good idea too.
Surf safety is so important for beginner surfers
Surfing Fitness
- Swim for 500 metres
- Tread water for 30 minutes
- Hold breath under water for 1 minute
Before you grab a surfboard and paddle out in 10 foot waves at pipeline, you need to meet a few fitness requirements first.
I’d say having the ability to swim at least 500 metres without stopping and treading water are a valuable threshold for surfing fitness for beginners. Treading water for 30 minutes without stopping should be a baseline level of fitness for beginner surfers.
Being able to hold your breath for a while under water is a valuable ability to train before surfing too. Maybe 1 minute holding your breath.
Surfers Are Dedicated
Surfers have a saying when the surf is bad. ”Just going for a paddle” is what surfers say to one another when the surf is so bad that it might not even be worth surfing. This takes dedication to go for a surf in cold, windy, poor conditions with no chance of getting a good wave.
Not every day you check the surf it will be good conditions for surfing. In fact, most of the time the surf will either be too small, too big, too choppy (closeouts) etc.
Being a dedicated surfer means that you will turn up, no matter what the conditions are, even just to check what the surf is like.
How you can go from beginner surfer to intermediate surfer fast. Here’s a full article on it.
Surfing in Cold Water
Sure surfers have spring wetsuits and steamer wetsuits. Wetsuits will keep you warm while you are in the surf, however, when you get out of the surf in cold conditions, that’s when you’ll feel the cold.
In the middle of winter I would feel my hands freeze in place while carrying my surfboard home every time. My toes and fingers would go from a tinge of blue to an orange color.
And when I would get home to a warm shower, the warm water in the shower would burn from the contrast in temperatures.
Surfing in summer had it’s problems too, often the sea had not warmed up to the outside temperature in the early stages of summer.
So, the ocean was so cold that it burned, while out of the surf the weather was quite hot. Surfer would often complain about getting ”icecream headaches” while surfing in the early months of summer.
Check The Surf Conditions
Surfers need to know what the size of the waves are, to know if they are capable of handling such size waves. What the tide is doing, keep in mind a surf session can take four hours at a time, so knowing what the tide will be like in an hour or two makes a difference when surfing.
Surfers need to know where the surf banks are, the wind direction and strength, the tide and direction of the swell. All these factors are important to checking the surf effectively.
It can take a year or two for most beginner surfers to have the ability to check the surf properly. Knowing how the waves will look in the short term future takes a skill only surfers have.
Surfing With Rip Currents
Surfers need to learn how to use rip currents to their advantage. A good surfer can use a rip to get out the back of the waves quickly and without expending much energy.
Knowledge of how to spot the exact location where to enter the surf, what route to paddle along, to utilize the rip current to it’s maximum effectiveness. Experienced surfers can take a long time to master this aspect of surfing.
How Tide Levels Affect Surfing
Most surfers don’t need to search the internet to find out what level the tide is at any moment. Surfers can simply look at the beach and can tell immediately. Experienced surfers can tell whether the tide is coming in or going out too.
The ideal moment for most surf breaks is when the tide is low and coming in. This usually (not always) makes the surf better.
How Wind Directions Affect Surfing: Onshore v Offshore
You’ll notice some surfers picking up a handful of sand to throw it in the air, so they can figure out which direction the wind is blowing. These types of skills and knowledge take time to learn, this is a barrier to entry for most beginner surfers.
When the wind is blowing towards the shore, this is called an onshore wind, onshore winds are usually bad for surfing conditions.
Offshore winds are winds that are blowing out to sea, this usually holds up the face and can sometimes help create a barrel through the face of a wave. Offshore winds are preferrable to onshore winds.
Either way, too much wind is usually bad for surfing conditions.
How Swell Affects Surfing
Surfers need to learn how to see which direction the swell is coming from and how big it is. Surfing knowledge takes a long time to learn, and when you accuire this knowledge, it will enhance your surfing experience.
The direction the swell hits the surf bank, the headland, will all determine how good the waves from this swell is for surfing. No people who are new to surfing will have this knowledge unless their best friends are teaching them.
Surfers Study Meteorology
When I was a teenager surfer (grommet) I had one friend who would study the meteorology maps and forecasts every day. He would give the rest of us surfers daily updates to whats happening out in the ocean.
For example, if there’s a hurricane hundreds of kilometres from your beach break, most people would ignore this, but an experienced surfer will have the ability to estimate what day this week the swell will hit your area and what direction it will be coming from.
With this advanced knowledge of how meteorology will affect your surf break, surfers can can estimate which end of the beach or which surf break would be best for this type of swell etc.
Look, it’s complicated, but knowing when a big swell is going to hit and where, you can plan to check the surf at that particular spot in the future and be prepared. Very few beginner surfers have this knowledge and it can take a few years to learn.
Choosing The Right Surfboard
Most beginner surfers will only have one big surfboard that is built for beginners, whereas an experienced surfer will know what size and shape surfboard to maximize the enjoyment of most different surf conditions.
This is one of many reasons why surfing is one of the worlds hardest sports to learn.
Surfing With Sealife
Beginner surfers can get themselves in some difficult situations out in the surf with sealife, because they just don’t know how to avoid the wrong sealife. Surfing is a hard sport to learn for many reasons, this is one of those big reasons.
My beach would get blue bottle jellyfish whenever a north east wind, combined with a swell from the same direction. Knowing to wear a full body steamer or just avoid surfing at all on this day, is something that comes with experience.
Most beginner surfers will just jump in the surf and get stung many times, this is why surfing is such a difficult sport to learn.
Surfing Etiquette
Learning how to surf is about having respect for other surfers out there. Beginner surfers who don’t know proper surfing etiquette, will get themselves into arguments out in the surf and will struggle to make friends.
Basic surfing etiquette is knowing who has right of way on a wave, knowing who has priority on a wave is so important to having a fair surfing session with other surfers.
Learning how to respect other surfers is a major issue in the surfing community. Keep in mind how little good waves come through per hour, the most annoying thing to experienced surfers is when a beginner gets in the way of a good set.
It’s called dropping in, when a surfer catches a wave that they do not have priority to catch. This can ruin the wave for the surfer who has right of way and is unfair for everyone involved.
Different Wave Types
Surfing is a hard sport to learn because reading waves is so difficult. If you spend too much energy paddling for every wave, you’ll have less energy for catching the right wave.
Experienced surfers can spot the difference in every wave that goes past them. This knowledge comes from knowing how the surf bank will react to that particular wave as it goes past.
Grommet and beginners cannot tell the difference between waves, they simply don’t have the experience. This experience can only be learned through time. Surfing is a hard sport to learn.
Standing on a Surfboard – Surfing Pop up
Why is it hard to surf? Is what some people ask me, and the one of main reasons is just how difficult it is to pop-up on a surfboard. So many people learning to surf get stuck at this point and quit.
You’ll have to dedicate time to learning the correct way to pop up on a surfboard, and be aware of just how hard it will be to get good at standing up while surfing. This is where surfers get to learn patience, the hard graft of getting good at surfing is a barrier that most don’t cross.
Be strong, I believe in you
How Do I Increase My Surfing Speed?
This is another sticking point for most new surfers and why people ask ”Is surfing hard at first?”. Once you conquer the first hurdle of standing up on a surfboard, you’ll notice that losing speed will be an issue for you.
Speed is always an issue for surfers, the speed from popping up on the surfboard to going down the face into the bottom turn is a crucial point in your surfing journey. If you cannot pop up smoothly, then transition into a bottom turn with speed, the rest of your turns will suffer.
Maintaining speed is such a difficult aspect of surfing, this is a good reason why surfing is so hard to learn.
How Do You Cutback in Surfing?
When you get through the first two barriers of standing up and maintaining speed, you’ll now reach the point of learning to carve up the face of the wave.
The easiest move to make after mastering the bottom turn is the floater, I do recommend you work on each move one by one and gradually step up to more difficult maneuvers over time.
Cutbacks are dynamic moves depending on the size and shape of the wave. The surfer will need to put a large amount of pressure on their back foot, while balancing into a carve. It’s not as easy as it looks guys.
Surfing is a Way of Life – Surfing Patience
Waves don’t consistently flow through evenly, us surfers need to wait through often long ‘lulls”. A lull is a time period when no big waves are coming through, surfers have no choice but to wait for whats called a ”set”. This takes patience.
One of my best tips on How can a beginner get better at surfing? is learning patience. You might have to go surfing for months before even catching a decent wave. This can be frustrating for the average surfer, could even make you quit.
Patience in surfing is one of those virtues that few have, you’ll either learn to be super patient or quit surfing altogether. Sitting out in the ocean through a long lull can feel like an eternity, this will teach you patience.
Learn To Avoid Surf Rage
Once I was surfing at Palm Beach with a bunch of friends, when a guy who wasn’t getting his fair share of waves went into a rage and decided to take his anger out on me for some reason.
He paddled over to me and slapped me in the face while we were sitting out the back in the ocean. These guys are a hazard when you are surfing, and yet another reason why surfing is hard to learn.
This guy later apologized to me on the shore, but in the moment out there in the surf, it wasn’t a good situation for me to be in. Surfing is not only dealing with the natural conditions and the sealife, but also dealing with other surfers.
Why Surfing is Good For The Soul
Surfing will humble you. No matter how big of an ego you have today, spend a few months out in the surf and your ego will get washed away. If you have read to this point, you’ll hopefully understand in more detail just how hard surfing is as a sport.
Hopefully this doesn’t discourage you, because that is not my intention. The purpose is to allow you to know exactly what you are getting yourself into.
Happy surfing.