Catching the Wave: A Beginner’s Guide to Surfing at the 5Cs

By Will Dudding | April 20, 2010 at 8:00 am | Life | 10 comments | |

 

As a recent transfer student who grew up in a landlocked state, I really wanted to learn how to surf. In the last semester, with wetsuit on and board in hand, I’ve attempted to become Arkansas’s best surfer since Clinton discovered how to change the safe search options on  Google images.[1] It’s been a rough road, and I’m not just talking about the misaligned jaw that occurred when I, very much an amateur, ran into the ocean with the board in front of me and let Poseidon lash out and hit me in the face.  Surfing is hard for us college-age beginners because it’s intimidating. On any given day at a popular surf spot, there are amazing surfers that make you feel like you have the skills of a five-year-old. Also, there’s the surfboard to attain, the wetsuit, and how to get it all to the beach. While I’m a long way from going pro, my experiences over the last few weeks shed some light on getting started in Southern California’s most iconic sport.

Getting the Gear

The good news is, getting a surfboard at the Claremont Colleges is pretty easy. My favorite 5C club, On The Loose (OTL), will check them out like library books. You have to put down $150 for a deposit, but you get it back when the board is safely returned. If you have any Mudd friends, you can get both a wetsuit and surfboard through their program as well. For a board, you are going to want to get a pretty long one with a soft top to start out on. Also, until it warms up in the summer, and sometimes even then, wetsuits are a necessity. While On The Loose lacks in the wetsuit arena, many surf shops will rent them to you for as little as $7.50 a day (i.e. 15th Street Surf Shop, Newport Beach).

Taking It To the Ocean

Now that you have the gear, you have to brave the California freeways for an hour to get anywhere. If you have something like an SUV, lay down the seats and problem solved. Otherwise, you are going to have to invest in some kind of roof racs. Although tying your board down with ropes is an option, it’s much safer and faster if you buy the attachment that corresponds with your rack system. In most cases, it will cost you about $100 for the official attachments.

If transportation isn’t an option, you can always rent at the beach. You can usually rent boards by the hour, and a good day of surfing with a wetsuit will usually run no more than about $30-$40. If you can’t get to the beach, On The Loose sometimes hosts surf trips, which you can check out on their website.

When You Arrive

Assuming you’ve succeeded in the above areas, you have now squeezed into your wetsuit and are standing on the beach with your surfboard. If you’re lucky, you have an expert California surf buddy with you willing to show you the tricks of the trade. If not, you might want to suck up your pride and take a beginning lesson to get your feet wet. This can be pretty expensive, anywhere from $50-$100, but it will help you get the feel of surfing which, when you think about it, is a really unnatural thing to do. Also, don’t be afraid to talk to the surfers in the water, chances are they are named something like Zack or Cody and live up to the laid-back surfer stereotype.

Where to go? Newport/Huntington Beach and Santa Monica/Venice Beach are all about an hour away from campus. If you surf, help us out by telling us some favorite nearby beaches in the comments.

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[1] William Jefferson Clinton is my second favorite Arkansan. Johnny Cash is numero uno.

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Will Dudding

Will Dudding is a literature major at CMC. He hails from the Ozark mountains in the mystical land of Arkansas. Will enjoys world travel, the great outdoors, surfing, film, and rock and roll.

 
 
 
 
  • Cara Daley

    Will, can you have this done for Friday?

  • KCW

    San Onofre is a great place for beginners. The water is warmer thanks to the power plant just a little ways up the coast and the waves a long and friendly for those who don’t know what they’re doing. There’s also plenty of space so you don’t have to worry about getting in anyone’s way. San Clemente also has a ton of surf shops to rent from plus a Pipe’s cafe which is the perfect place for a post-surf burger. The only real downside is that you have to pay a nominal fee to get in. If you’re going to be serious about going often you can buy a pass that pays for itself in about 3 trips though. Also, they cap the number of people they allow in so if you’re going on a saturday morning you have to be there fairly early unless you want to sit outside the gate and wait for another car to come out.

  • KCW

    San Onofre is a great place for beginners. The water is warmer thanks to the power plant just a little ways up the coast and the waves a long and friendly for those who don’t know what they’re doing. There’s also plenty of space so you don’t have to worry about getting in anyone’s way. San Clemente also has a ton of surf shops to rent from plus a Pipe’s cafe which is the perfect place for a post-surf burger. The only real downside is that you have to pay a nominal fee to get in. If you’re going to be serious about going often you can buy a pass that pays for itself in about 3 trips though. Also, they cap the number of people they allow in so if you’re going on a saturday morning you have to be there fairly early unless you want to sit outside the gate and wait for another car to come out.

  • Waves

    All the beginners in Newport start out at Blackies (right to the right of the Newport Pier) San Onofre is a good place too. I’d stay away from 56th street in Newport and try anywhere between 15th and 44th.

  • Waves

    All the beginners in Newport start out at Blackies (right to the right of the Newport Pier) San Onofre is a good place too. I’d stay away from 56th street in Newport and try anywhere between 15th and 44th.

  • Brandon

    Also, ask around. There are a decent amount of surfers at CMC. For those with a little bit of surfing experience and who want to get better, taking surf PE is also an option. You can catch rides with people in the class.

  • Brandon

    Also, ask around. There are a decent amount of surfers at CMC. For those with a little bit of surfing experience and who want to get better, taking surf PE is also an option. You can catch rides with people in the class.

  • Yodels

    Biggest tip for beginners from someone that has taught a lot of people to surf and seen a lot of people struggle:

    Don’t try to just go out there and copy everyone else. Don’t worry about looking dumb either, because trust me, everyone knows immediately just by looking for 5 seconds at you that you are a beginner and don’t know what you’re doing…

    So you’re out there and you’re a beginner and you don’t know how to surf, don’t pretend you do. Rather than paddling around and trying to catch waves, which will just make you tired, have you take a beating, and probably not yield any waves that you catch where you can actually stand up… (and most importantly it won’t be fun!)

    you should start out in the white wash. The white wash is the already broken wave a long way in from the real surfers. It is easier to catch and a lot more stable for beginners. Just position yourself in front of some oncoming white wash and paddle straight towards the beach with all your might, hopefully the wave will start to catch you. Then go ahead and stand up… try your best to do it all in one motion. Standing on your knees and then getting to your feet is actually hard and is not a skill that will help you progress in surfing. To catch waves you don’t even have to go out past where you can stand, just do it in water where you can still stand so that way you can actually surf some waves without tiring yourself out… paddling is very tiring for non-surfers. And the whole sitting on the board thing can be a little dicey at first.

    You can practice standing up on your board all in one fluid motion on the sand. Like I said don’t worry about looking dumb because you look dumb already and there is nothing you can do about it until you’ve been surfing at least like 100 times… Don’t practice trying to stand up on your board floating in the water it is way harder to stand up on a non-moving board in water than a moving board… despite what you may think.

    let me know if you have any questions.

    on another note… as an experienced surfer i thought san onofre would be good for beginners too, but it turns out that if you are a complete and total beginner its not great because there are rocks on the inside and you want to stay on the inside when you are first learning.

    one more point… to learn to surf you really need a longboard like 7’6” plus at least… preferably a gynormous foam board that makes you look like kook. its way hard to learn on a shortboard… at least i would think.

  • Yodels

    Biggest tip for beginners from someone that has taught a lot of people to surf and seen a lot of people struggle:

    Don’t try to just go out there and copy everyone else. Don’t worry about looking dumb either, because trust me, everyone knows immediately just by looking for 5 seconds at you that you are a beginner and don’t know what you’re doing…

    So you’re out there and you’re a beginner and you don’t know how to surf, don’t pretend you do. Rather than paddling around and trying to catch waves, which will just make you tired, have you take a beating, and probably not yield any waves that you catch where you can actually stand up… (and most importantly it won’t be fun!)

    you should start out in the white wash. The white wash is the already broken wave a long way in from the real surfers. It is easier to catch and a lot more stable for beginners. Just position yourself in front of some oncoming white wash and paddle straight towards the beach with all your might, hopefully the wave will start to catch you. Then go ahead and stand up… try your best to do it all in one motion. Standing on your knees and then getting to your feet is actually hard and is not a skill that will help you progress in surfing. To catch waves you don’t even have to go out past where you can stand, just do it in water where you can still stand so that way you can actually surf some waves without tiring yourself out… paddling is very tiring for non-surfers. And the whole sitting on the board thing can be a little dicey at first.

    You can practice standing up on your board all in one fluid motion on the sand. Like I said don’t worry about looking dumb because you look dumb already and there is nothing you can do about it until you’ve been surfing at least like 100 times… Don’t practice trying to stand up on your board floating in the water it is way harder to stand up on a non-moving board in water than a moving board… despite what you may think.

    let me know if you have any questions.

    on another note… as an experienced surfer i thought san onofre would be good for beginners too, but it turns out that if you are a complete and total beginner its not great because there are rocks on the inside and you want to stay on the inside when you are first learning.

    one more point… to learn to surf you really need a longboard like 7’6” plus at least… preferably a gynormous foam board that makes you look like kook. its way hard to learn on a shortboard… at least i would think.