Surf Lessons in Taghazout
Beginners and intermediates.

The pop-up is the movement from lying and paddling to standing and surfing. It asks for upper body strength, flexibility, a strong core and strong legs, all at the same moment, and it is the single hardest thing about a first surf lesson. Practise it on land before you get in the water. Every good instructor will make you, and there is a reason.

1. Hand placementPalms flat on the deck under your chest, roughly level with your ribs, elbows tucked in. Not out by the rails, not up by your shoulders. From there your arms can press straight down and lift your whole torso clear of the board.
2. Legs togetherKeep your feet together and your legs straight while you paddle and while you push. Splayed legs drag, and they leave you with nothing to swing forward when the moment comes.
3. Body positionChest up, eyes forward, back arched. If your hips are too far back the nose lifts and you miss the wave. Too far forward and you pearl. The right spot is a few centimetres either side, and you find it by feel.
4. One fluid motionThe pop-up is a single movement, not a sequence. Push, swing, land. Anyone who goes through their knees first will still be doing it in three years.
5. Low centre of gravityLand in a crouch, not standing tall. Knees bent, hips low, weight over the middle of the board. You can always stand up afterwards. You cannot recover from landing stiff.
6. Stay centredLand with both feet on the stringer, the line down the middle of the board. A foot on the rail tips the board and puts you in the water before you have started.
7. Muscle memoryPractise on the sand, on a towel, on the floor of your room. Thirty repetitions a day for a week does more for your surfing than a whole extra session in the water.
8. Build the strengthThe pop-up is a burpee in worse conditions. Push-ups, planks and squats translate directly. So does anything that opens the hips.
9. Grab the railOn bigger or steeper waves, one hand on the rail as you come up gives you something to steer against and stops the board sliding out from under you.
10. Shift your weightThe instant you land, move your weight back over your rear foot to control the drop, then forward again to generate speed. Knowing where your weight is at all times is most of surfing.

Your stance is where control and speed come from. Get it right and you can steer the board through every manoeuvre. Get it wrong and it caps how far you will ever progress. The key is learning to shift your weight and rotate your upper body rather than staying square and rigid.

1. The beginner stanceThe one everybody starts with: bum out, back straight, shoulders upright. It feels stable and it kills every turn you try. Fixing it is the fastest visible improvement most surfers make.
2. Open stanceTurn your chest and hips towards the nose of the board rather than square across it. You see more of the wave and your body is already loaded for the turn.
3. Low centre of gravityBend at the knees and the hips, not at the waist. If you are folding forward at the waist you are heading over the front.
4. Bend your kneesKnees are your suspension. A stiff-legged surfer gets bounced off the board by every bit of chop. A bent-legged one absorbs it.
5. Head over the bodyYour body follows your head. Keep it stacked over your chest and between your feet, and stop looking at your feet. There is nothing down there.
6. Feet placementBack foot over or just in front of the fins, front foot roughly over the middle. Too far back and the board bogs. Too far forward and it will not turn.
7. Surf through the hipsTurns start at the hips, not the shoulders. Rotate the hips and the board follows. Shoulder-only turns pivot you off the wave.
8. Shifting feetSmall adjustments, made constantly, without looking down. Learning to move your feet on a moving board takes a season and it changes everything.
9. Pumping for speedWeight down through the bottom of the turn, unweight through the top. It is the same motion as pumping a swing, and it is where speed comes from on a slow wave.
10. Eyes forwardLook where you want to go, not where you are. Surfers who look down the line surf down the line. Surfers who look at their board fall off it.

We spend far more time paddling than riding. Better paddling means more waves caught, and more waves caught is the only reliable route to better surfing. It is also the first thing to fail: most beginners are limited by their shoulders, not by their balance.

1. TimingStart paddling earlier than feels necessary. Most missed waves are missed by two strokes, not by strength.
2. Position on the boardFind the point where the nose sits a few centimetres clear of the water. Too far forward and you plough. Too far back and you push water like a barge.
3. One arm at a timeAlternate. Two arms together rocks the board and wastes energy for no extra speed.
4. Stay relaxedTension burns oxygen. A relaxed paddler surfs for three hours. A tense one is finished in forty minutes.
5. Long strokesReach forward, pull all the way past your hip. Short choppy strokes move water, not you.
6. Deep strokesGet your whole hand and forearm under the surface. A hand skimming the top is doing almost nothing.
7. Relaxed handsFingers slightly apart, not clamped shut. Slightly spread fingers move more water, which is a genuine and counter-intuitive finding borrowed from swimming.
8. Smooth entry and exitEnter the water fingertips first, without splash, and exit cleanly at the hip. Splash is wasted energy.
9. Feet togetherLegs together and still. Kicking rocks the board and slows you down.
10. Do not rollKeep your chest and hips steady on the deck. Every degree you roll side to side is a degree you are not moving forward.

Duckdiving is how you get under an oncoming wave to reach the line-up where the good waves break. It is essential, and it is one of the harder things to learn. Done well it takes almost no strength, only timing. Execute the four steps as one smooth movement, each flowing into the next.

1. Forward momentumPaddle a few hard strokes straight at the oncoming wave. The more speed you carry in, the less the wave can push you back. Committing is safer than hesitating.
2. Grab and pushWhen the wave is about one board length away, take the rails, straighten your arms and press the board down as deep as it will go. Lean forward over it and let your body follow it under.
3. Offer no resistancePush the tail down with your knee or your foot and flatten yourself onto the deck. The smaller you make yourself, the deeper you and the board go, and the less the wave has to grab.
4. Pull the nose upAs the wave passes overhead, pull the nose up towards you and let your own buoyancy bring you back to the surface. Be paddling again the moment you break the surface.

Compared with the surfing on your feed, all of us are some distance off. That is not the point. Paddling stronger, turning faster and looking less like a startled crab are all achievable inside a single week.

1. Train out of the waterCross training, weights, cardio or yoga. Paddling strength and flexibility are the two limits most beginners hit, and neither improves by only surfing.
2. Surf with other peopleSafer, and it creates the kind of friendly competition that makes you go for the wave you would otherwise let pass.
3. Study yourself and othersWatching footage of yourself is uncomfortable and it is the fastest correction available. Watch the surfers around you too, how they move and where their weight sits.
4. Ride different boardsA fish, a longboard, a bodyboard, even body surfing. Every different craft teaches you something about the wave that your usual board hides.
5. Set one goal at a timeOne specific thing, practised repeatedly: a clean bottom turn, a proper duckdive. Vague ambition produces vague surfing.

Generating speed and controlling it is the centre of everything. Staying ahead of the breaking section, and every manoeuvre you will ever want to do, comes back to speed. This is the level where coaching stops being instruction and becomes guiding: the right spot on the right day matters as much as the right technique.

1. Wave selectionSpeed starts before you stand up. A wave with a shoulder gives you somewhere to go. A closeout gives you nothing, no matter how well you surf it.
2. Board selectionVolume and outline decide how much speed you can generate and hold. Too little volume on a weak day means paddling hard and going nowhere.
3. Trim before you pumpTrim is finding the fast part of the wave and staying in it. Pumping is generating speed when trim is not enough. Learn trim first: most people pump when they should simply stand still.
4. The bottom turnThe single most important manoeuvre in surfing. Everything you do afterwards is powered by what you set up at the bottom of the wave.
5. Clean waxA slick, sand-filled wax job costs you grip, and grip is what lets you commit. Strip and re-wax more often than you think.
6. Change your finsBigger fins hold better and turn slower. Smaller fins release earlier and feel looser. It is the cheapest way to change how a board feels.

In the end it is about time in the water. But a strong, healthy body recovers faster, gets injured less and lasts longer in a session, and that is the difference between four waves and fourteen. Four areas matter.

1. Upper body strengthShoulders, arms and chest carry every paddle stroke of the session. Train the pulling muscles you use, and train the opposing muscles in your back too. Surfers develop imbalances quickly.
2. Core strengthYour abdominals and lower back keep you stable on a moving board. Every turn is a rotation through the core. It is also what protects your spine when a wave lands on you.
3. FlexibilityGetting to your feet means bending and unfolding, repeatedly, in cold water. Yoga, pilates or plain stretching lowers your injury risk and makes the pop-up easier. Stretch after a session, not only before.
4. Legs and balanceThighs, calves and feet hold the stance and absorb the chop. Balance boards, one-legged work and skateboarding all transfer directly to the water, which is exactly why we rent skateboards.