Hello and welcome! As you may know from my Bucket List, I try to seek out adventure at every possible opportunity. My trip to Sylt was no exception here and when I first saw Südkap’-s Surf School in Wenningstedt, I knew I had to take this chance.
To get the best results, I decided I wanted to squeeze as much surfing in my 7-day vacation as I could. For me, this meant surfing 6 days in a row, each time for two hours. It was also super important to me to have accompanied lessons by a teacher, who can call out my mistakes and saves me time by teaching me the right technique. (And to have someone who would save me from drowning).
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How Each Lesson Went
Each time our lesson started with getting into the wetsuit. For those who never tried to get into one let me tell you: it is already super exhausting. Once I pressed myself into it and looked like a stranded whale, we would all go to have a Spot Check, where we would observe the waves, the wind, and the beach to get an impression of the circumstances. Our teachers taught us how to evaluate the overall situation and where we would enter the water.
After the spot check, we continue with the theoretical practice that would include learning more about the physics behind the wave for example when, where and why it would break.
I and the fellow pupils would get our boards and bring them down to the beach where we would have a proper warm-up, consisting of some running and yoga exercises, before practicing paddling and standing up on the board.
Then we jumped right into the ocean and started practicing what we’d just trained until our lesson was over.
Recommend: Germany’s Hidden Gem – Norderney
When You Learn How to Surf
Before I dive into my progress in surfing (hehheheh diving.) Let me tell you straight: I went into it very unprepared and think that it takes so much more than 6 days to learn how to surf. This sport is a mental mixture of timing, strength, balance, and feeling and in my opinion super hard to learn. I am super proud of the process that I made that led me to be able to do a turtle roll, surf green water, and even got to do proper take-offs. Nevertheless, I am super eager to learn more!
Day 1 – Balancing on The Board
I started my first day by simply learn how to lay on my board. You have to know the exact position on the board that will prevent you from falling over or slowing down too much. It was kind of a rough day then and I got swept off my board quite a few times. One tip that I want to mention right away is to always protect your head with your arms when falling off the board to prevent having the board hit your head. It happened to be the first day and well it hurts quite hard. But all in all, it helped me to get a feeling for the wave and my board.
Day 2 – Paddling and Feeling the Wave
On my second day, I got into paddling and learned how to do a turtle roll. A turtle roll is a technique that enables you to roll underneath a foamy wave without loosing to much strength while paddling out.
Day 3 – 6 Getting Better And Better
Day by day I learn more about how to position myself on the board and standing up. Finally, by the fourth day, I got to do my first proper take off! From the I got more confident while the waves around me got smaller and smaller. By my last day, they were so tiny that one could barley paddle out. Furthermore, I was surrounded by jellyfish, so not the best conditions overall. I did it and I am so happy that I even got this shot of my, bursting out in joy!
3 Tips on Learning How to Surf
If you want to learn how to surf too, let me give you a few helpful tips on this difficult sport.
Get a Proper Surfing School.
Surfing is so hard and even besides the practical part, there is so much to learn about surfing, that it just makes the most sense to learn it properly. It is also crucial for your safety since a lot of things can happen when you are just learning. They will tell you where to enter the water, where dangerous places are, and save you from drowning.
Before Getting Started, Make Sure to be Super Fit and Trained.
If you want to surf, you need to be super fit. Since I just decided to go on the course spontaneously I couldn’t get any fitter in advance, but I really advise you to not do the same.
If you want to nail it, I advise you to you train your arms especially. You will need some extra power in there.
Don’t be Discouraged When You Don’t Instantly Look Like a Hawaiian Goddess
If you do, congratulations (i hate you anyway). If you do not, don’t be discouraged. Learning how to surf is incredibly hard and not something you learn overnight. It takes practice, practice, and practice and there is not so much you can do about it. Just make sure that the journey is a fun one!
