How to Get Better at Surfing Faster (Without Surfing More)

There's a stage every surfer hits where trying harder stops working.

You're past beginner. You can catch waves, you can get down the line. But the thing that got you here, effort, just paddling more and wanting it more, has quit paying you back.

What you need at that point isn't more effort. It's a system.

Two surfers, same year, different outcome

Picture two people who both surf three times a week for a year.

One surfs. Paddles out, catches what comes, goes home.

The other picks one objective per session, tells someone what it is, and finds out afterward what actually happened.

Same wave count. Completely different year.

The reps aren't what compress the timeline. The feedback on the reps is.

Close the gap

I spent five years working at a church between my pro surfing years and starting this company. The most useful thing I took from it had nothing to do with surfing: I learned how to narrow the gap in a feedback loop.

Looking back at my life, every single time I learned something fast or enjoyed it more, it happened the same way. I received feedback with humility, I detached my feelings from it, and I applied it as soon as possible.

The gap between hearing it and doing it is where most progress dies.

So who in your life is actually giving you real feedback on your surfing? And how long is the gap between hearing it and applying it?

Find your crew

It matters more than almost anything technical.

You want people you trust who have your back, and people who pull you toward a better version of yourself. In surfing, in work, in health.

Find the people you trust and the people you want to be like. If you're the best surfer in your crew and nobody ever tells you anything, you'll plateau politely for years.

Find your why

Why do you want to surf better? Why do you want to surf like that specifically?

It's a boring question until the session is terrible and the week has fallen apart, and the why is the only thing still standing there.

Go at the thing you avoid

My least favorite condition to surf is fast, waist-high lefts. It's always been my kryptonite. I hated contests at Newport as a kid when it was low tide. I couldn't understand how to fit a tight turn into the pocket of a wave moving that fast.

For the last few years it's been a focus of my own surfing. Not because it's fun. Because if my goal is to be well-rounded, I want to be able to take advantage of the conditions that are actually most common where I live.

Three things I'd tell anyone doing the same:

Audit what you avoid. Take an honest look at the thing you want to do least in your surfing. Pull apart the layers and see what's actually in there. Most of us already know what it is. We just avoid it.

Ask what it unlocks. How does focusing on this make you a more complete surfer? Sometimes slowing down and looking at what's slowing your progress at your normal speed is what unlocks speed later.

Celebrate the small wins. When you're locked in on one weakness you stop noticing what's going right. Make time to analyze AND to celebrate. I fell a lot the day I started working on this. I also landed a backside air reverse that was slow and not very pretty. I'll take it.

Build the stuff that works when you're not thinking about it

The goal of all of this is for the knowledge to go second nature.

Reading the sandbar without thinking about it. Knowing from the tide alone where you should be sitting. You build it once and it pays you back every session for the rest of your life.

It sounds backwards, but structure is what buys the freedom. When I know my forecast, my peaks, my markers and the one thing I'm working on, I'm free to just surf.

The system isn't the cage. The system is what lets you take the chance.

Let's keep building.