Guide to Transition from Beginner to Intermediate Surfer

Once you’ve learned to catch whitewater waves on your own and pop up consistently, you’re probably ready to take on the next big challenge—getting past the break and riding clean, unbroken waves all the way to the shore. To help you make this leap, we’ve put together our best tips for transitioning from a beginner to an intermediate surfer. Let’s dive in!

Surf the Right Equipment for You

When learning to surf, it’s crucial not to ride a board that is too small for you. You will usually be on a foamboard for your first few sessions, which is the easiest and safest way to learn. After that, we recommend buying or renting a longboard made of fibreglass, foam, or epoxy. The construction does not really matter; buoyancy is an important factor.

At this level, you should ride a surfboard that has more volume for the following reasons:

1. You need to be able to catch as many waves as possible. A big board will help you catch waves with less effort. This will provide more opportunities to practise.
2. Once standing, bigger surfboards will give you stability, allowing you to focus on your stance and body position.
3. You will usually be learning in weak waves. When the waves are weak, you need a bigger board to float and glide on the surface of the water. Surfing a smaller board in weak waves is much harder. Even advanced surfers often ride bigger boards in smaller conditions.
4. Once standing, you want to accumulate “surfing time.” A bigger board will give you more margin of error, helping you surf waves for longer.
5. Learning to catch unbroken waves takes a lot of trial and error. A bigger board will make this process much easier. Riding a surfboard that’s too small for you will hurt your progression by limiting the number of waves you surf on an average session. Only when you are consistently catching decent-sized unbroken waves should you start thinking of going for something smaller. If you move to a smaller board, do it gradually. This will limit the impact on your capacity to catch unbroken waves.

For more information about surfboards check out Different Surfboard Types or A Guide to Surfboard Volume

Fix your Take Off Bad Habits.

When learning to surf, surfers will unconsciously develop small bad habits in how they take off on the board. The most popular mistakes surfers make when learning to take off are: Using the knees, looking down, not creating enough space under their body and using their hands incorrectly.

The earlier you can get yourself filmed, the better. The first way to fix something in your technique is to discover it in the first place. You have to be conscious of what you are doing wrong to start the process of fixing it. When watching your surf footage in slow-motion, pay close attention to every moment and isolate patterns that put you off balance or make you take longer to stand up.

Compare your videos to tutorials or footage from experienced surfers to understand how to fix your mistake. Once you have a clearer idea of what you need to change, try to remember and focus on fixing it during your next sessions.

Fixing your Take Off mistakes is essential. Intermediates suffering from unfixed take-off bad habits are very common. Taking off quickly and efficiently is the starting point of your ride. Not being able to take off optimally is the most common reason for surfers failing to follow the wave successfully.

If you need help fixing your takeoff, check out the “Take Off Techniques” complete Online Course, to which you can get access by signing up for a 7-day free trial on Barefoot Premium. On top of breaking down the 4 most popular takeoff techniques, we go over each of the most common mistakes and guide you through fixing them. You could also send videos of your take-off to our coaches so they can give you instant feedback.

Alternatively, you can check out our articles on The Push Up take off technique or the Standard Pop Up

Learn to stay compressed and centred over your board

Beginner and low-intermediate surfers have the reflex of standing too tall on their surfboard. This puts them off balance and makes it harder to control the water flow under their board.

Advanced surfers keep a low center of gravity and properly distribute their weight over their board, providing extra stability. They are ready to extend and compress to generate speed or power through turns in this position.

As a beginner or low intermediate, developing the habit of surfing in a compressed position is how you will build your foundation for an optimal stance. Again, get some footage of your surfing and see if you are compressing your lower body enough.

To dive in deeper, check out The Proper Surfing Stance

Learn to Angle your take-off.

Angling the take-off provides considerable benefits that are crucial for beginners and intermediates. Learning to angle the takeoff is like having a little “boost” every time you get into a wave. Here are a few reasons why surfers would angle their takeoff:

Easier to draw the line on the shoulder

When surfers angle their take-off, they actually ride the wave on their chest toward the right or left for a short time. This allows them to build momentum toward where they want to go. Also, it puts them in the right line right from the start to follow the wave.

It helps to surf Fast Peeling Waves.

It will also be extremely useful in certain types of conditions. Surfers don’t have the extra seconds to drop straight down and go back up the wave when waves peel very fast. They need to get going towards the right or the left as soon as possible.

More Time

Because you are already riding the shoulder with the same line you’d be taking if you were standing on your board, you don’t need to pop up in an instant. This is great for surfers who have slower take off techniques, or for those who still need to readjust their stance often once they’re up. The end goal is to pop up in the proper stance quickly, but angling the take-off will give surfers a bit more time to take off until they reach that point.

If you would like to dive deeper into Angling, check our Angling the Take Off Article

Learn to move your feet on the board.

The main element to understand about basic footwork is that moving your feet forward will provide speed, and moving them backward will allow you to turn more efficiently.

Turning

If you are standing too far forward on your surfboard, you won’t be able to turn efficiently. There will be too much weight forward on the surfboard. With so much weight towards the front, you might sink your surfboard’s rail in the water as you try to turn, which will probably make you fall. Sliding your feet back, so that your back foot gets over the tail of the surfboard is essential to turn.

Accelerating

If you need to accelerate, practice sliding your feet up the surfboard. Slide your back foot forward closer to your front foot, then slide your front foot forward on the board. This works very well when you feel you’re losing the wave. For example, if it’s getting too soft you could move forward to accelerate and stay with the wave.

Beginners sometimes try to accelerate by leaning forward on their longboard. A 9 or 10-foot longboard is too big for that. This slight weight shift forward might give you a bit of extra speed, but often it won’t be enough. Becoming comfortable moving your feet back on the board before starting your turn or forward on the board for extra speed is a crucial progression step.

To dive deeper into our How To Turn on a Surfboard article.

Get some footage of yourself and look for Feedback.

The earlier in your progression journey you can get yourself filmed, the better. The first step to fix something in your technique is to discover it in the first place. You have to be conscious of what you are doing wrong to start fixing it. When watching your surf footage in slow-motion, pay close attention to every moment and try to isolate patterns.

Compare your videos to tutorials or footage from experienced surfers to understand how you should approach fixing your mistakes.

Asking an experienced surfer friend or surf coach to give you feedback on your technique can help you fix your mistakes more efficiently. Surfers can keep making the same mistakes for years without noticing them if they don’t get proper instructions.

Once you have a clearer idea of what you need to change, try to remember and focus on fixing it during your next sessions. The more you try, fail, get feedback and correct your skill, the faster you improve.

Surf Quality waves for your level.

Just like there are world-class waves for advanced surfers, there are world-class waves for beginners and intermediates. Understanding this and planning your future surf trips accordingly could play a major role in your progression. Imagine an extremely consistent spot with glassy/offshore conditions, offering long peeling waves, an easy paddle out and clearly defined peaks with both rights and lefts. Now imagine repetitively surfing a spot like this, perfectly adapted to your level with a mellow crowd, for seven or more days straight. This setup would help you take major steps forward in the techniques you are trying to learn and your overall surfing skills.

If this sounds interesting to you, you may want to check out our surf coaching retreats. At Barefoot Surf, we specialize in coaching beginner and intermediate surfers one-on-one on some of the most consistent surf spots worldwide in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Mentawais. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like any additional information (info@barefooturftravel.com)