The power of Coaching

Learning to Surf is like learning to swim, bike and run

I recently had the opportunity to visit URBN SURF in Melbourne, Australia, to learn how to surf.  For those who don't know what URBN SURF is, it's a man made surf park, think Skate Park or Ski Field but with water....the perfect wave every wave, and an ideal location to learn how to surf....as I was to find out.

My default when picking up a new activity is to try it first and then try to figure out myself why I can't do it very well.

Having never been on a surf board I knew I was going to be out of my element from the second I picked up the board.  I wanted to make sure this expereince was one I could learn from and develop a new skill set to continue working on.  The best way to do this is to start from scratch in the learning process, working on the basics first and then stepping up as I got better and better over through the course of the days I was to be there.

This is just like the sports we do in Triathlon and Multisport.  They are largely skills based activity (running is a bit simpler) and knowing the correct technique and method to perform the activity is a lot more efficient, easier to do, less risk of injury and eventually less embarassing when it doesn't quite go right.

So here I was in the Surf Academy room with a middle aged Singaporean lady also learning to surf (who was almost as nervous as I was) and Ricky our Coach.  The first thing was to learn what side of the board to stand on, and how to stand up on dry land.  This is just like swimming...stand by the pool and learn the basic movements of the freestyle stroke, or in cycling, how to climb on and off your bike.  Or in Kayaking, how to get in and out of your boat and how to paddle and turn.  On dry land this felt easy as I had Ricky telling me step by step what to do, and after about a dozen goes at it I reckon I was pretty good at popping up.  In swimming terms I was ready to go into the adults pool, and if cycling I was ready to roll onto the road.

Once in the water all those learned skills seemed to disappear and I was right back to 'Stand Beside Your Board 101'.  The chaos of white wash water, noise, wind and other people around meant suddenly I had forgotten everything.  It took me a few reminders from Ricky as to the order of things in order to catch a wave and pop up before I was confident I could grab one.  After a few minutes I was on a little wave, and standing on my board....and so was my Singaporean friend.  

It was right at this point that I understood the value of having someone teach you an activity from scratch.  If I had tried to do this myself I would most likely be floundering aimlessly, not knowing what I was going wrong, and only advancing very slowly, most likely with the wrong technique.

So at this point I could almost consider myself a Surfer.  I could see a wave coming, I knew how to catch it and I knew how to stand up...sort of.  The next step for me was to learn how to ride a wave.  This is exactly like the progression in swimming, cycling and kayaking, where you move onto more advanced activities and skills.  I was learning to surf and I was loving it.

My next lesson was more advanced and had me further out towards the breaking waves, my Coach for this one was Louis, and I was the only one in the session, so it was basically a 1 on 1.  Louis showed me how to pick a wave, where to position for it, when to start paddling, where to look when on the wave and how to control the direction of the board.  This was really challenging for me, and I likened it to learning how to Open Water swim or how to properly descend a twisty road on a bike.  I could really see the benefit of having someone right there, each wave telling me how to improve on the previous attempt.

But as is the same with those sports, the more you do the better you get, and better still with someone telling you how to perfect it, the better.  I even had the added advantage of my Surf Coach filming me so he could point out other things in my stance that I wasn't aware of. 

As you can see below I'm not great, but I am certainly better than I was a couple of hours earlier.

I can definitely say that if I had persevered and tried to teach myself how to surf I wouldn't be where I was after such a short time.  I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it, and I would most likely having given up, deciding it wasn't for me.  Having a Coach watch my every move and give immediate feedback made all the difference and the whole experience was so much more enjoyable.

So if you are picking up a skills based sport such as swimming, cycling or kayaking, make sure you take the time to learn it properly at the start before you get too far in and learn bad habits.  It's money well spent and you will enjoy it so much more.

If you are visiting Melbourne and enjoy surfing, or better still, want to learn how to surf I highly recommend visiting URBN SURF.  The place is purpose built for safe surfing and there are some fantastic facilities on site to make it a really enjoyable experience.