Hello everyone, in this section we will explain the basic notions to consider to learn how to surf.

We have been with the school for several years and we see that when people are learning they always repeat a series of mistakes, which if not corrected from the beginning end up becoming a vices that are very difficult to remove. Therefore Mino Villar, director and monitor of the school Llanes Surf & Aventura, will answer these and any other questions you can leave in the comments.

How to avoid catching bad vices in surfing?

It is important to start with a surf school to avoid catching these vices and choosing your surf school well because if you choose badly it will not be of great help.

What are the most common failures in beginners?

We have observed that in beginners a series of faults are repeated, which are easy to correct and that by focusing on them it is easier to get up.

• The look: It is important to take it to where it points to the tip of our board, but half a meter above, so when we get up we will not unbalance, since our body always tends to go where we look.
• Weight distribution on the lift and above the board: Weights are very important in surfing, because if we have the weight far back, the board sinks and we will fall, and if it is too far ahead, it will nail the tip and we will fly out.  Having the weights correctly placed influences from the moment we lie on the board, because if you are far behind, you will paddle the waves and they will not take you, but if you are very far ahead when you paddle you will stick the tip in the water and you will fall.
• Leave the weight in the right place when getting up: When we take the steps for standing up, it is important to leave the weight at chest height. Therefore as soon as the wave begins to take us, we would perform the step: 
  1) hands at chest height and push with arms to raise your chest (there we will leave all the weight in the hands)
  2) We place the foot back at the height of the knee (we keep leaving the weight in the hands, because if we remove the weight of the hands, we will tend to support the knee and with this we would leave the weight behind and the board would sink)
  3) We throw the front foot (The weight is still in the arms)
  4)We push with our hands to climb (in this step it is in which we change the weight of the arms to the foot of the forward)
  "If you notice, in all the steps matches the weight in the same place, which is the widest point of the table (forward foot – accelerator)"
• Front foot placement: The feet are placed in parallel with each other and the front a little more open. If you once stand, you notice instability, look at your front foot and it's probably pointing towards the tip. This will create a lot of instability.
• The placement of the back foot : If when you lift notes that your board is slowed down, it is usually because when you perform step number 2 (place the foot back at knee height), you did not leave it at that height and leave it further behind , therefore when you get up, all your weight will be further back and the board will slow down.
• Arms: You have to focus your attention on the placement of the arms, because if you leave them down (typical habit of the people who do SNOW), in addition to not getting turned the board ahead, since they are our steering wheel, the board will stop , because when you leave your arms behind or below, the weight passes to the foot of the ataras and therefore the board will brake.

What is the best board to learn?

The choice of the table is important, to learn you need a table with which you are able to catch many waves, because the more times you get it, the faster you will learn. Therefore to get started it is better to learn with a large and bulky soft board (I recommend 8 feet for all ages), so you will learn faster to get up, and as soon as you are able to get up properly we will decrease the size and volume, until you reach the proper table according to our style, level and continuity that we give to our surf.  

A very big failure is that people immediately want to move to thin, small and fiber boards, since they are more manageable and comfortable, but with this they get is that they take longer to improve, since they will catch very few waves or none and therefore will take longer in improvement in improvement R.

What do you need to surf a wave?

There are three things that will help you get up on a surfboard, having any of these three things, you will be able to get up on your board: 

• Flexibility: If you are able to easily pull the front foot forward, it will be easier to perform the steps to get on your feet.

• Strength: If you have strength in your arms and legs it will be easier to get up, so people who tend to play sport have more ease.
• Mental state: If you focus on the steps we explain and you are determined to do it. This is the most important, because whoever wants can, we control our mind, and if we tell him that we will be able to do it we will, instead if we go with the idea that we can't do it, we will never do it since your mind will be telling your body that You can't.

What do you have to look for at your surf school?

You have to find a school where you are taught well and that you will also have a good time getting good results. For this when choosing a surf school, you have to look at the ratio of monitors per student with which they enter the water, the involvement of the monitors when giving the class, that the monitor is pending the students and helping them to catch many waves and the choosing the beaches according to the level of the students, in order to evolve.

How important is the choice of the beach depending on the level of the students?

The choice of the beach is the most important thing, because if you always go to the same beach you will be matched by perfect days, but the large part will be days when you can only catch foams because the waves will be very strong or dangerous for your level.

What is the best beach to learn?

There are a lot of beaches where we can learn, depending on our level and forecasts, we will choose one or the other beach (in the news section you will find a link that puts beaches of Llanes, in which I tell you the beaches of the area , hazards and what level you require to surf in them), the important thing when choosing a beach is:

Initiation level: In our first steps we look for a broken wave, which breaks steady and away from the shore to have a good course. We have to avoid waves that break very close to the shore as it won't give us time to get up. In this phase it is best to catch the broken waves, since you will stand on a horizontal surface, this will be easier than lowering a vertical wave.

Level initiation that already stands and manages to dissect the board on both sides: At this point you will arrive very quickly, as long as you choose the right school in which you are corrected in every wave you catch. Here begins the real surfing odyssey, which is to start entering the background to catch some wave and follow the direction that marks you. This is the most complicated and what will take you the most hours, but it brings great satisfaction.

Level improvement: They are students who already know how to surf and want to improve faster. In surfing an important thing is the constancy, and if you join a good training plan and technical correction, both in and out of the water, success is guaranteed. A good way to improve is the video correction, therefore in our surf school we have a state-of-the-art tool for this SOLOSHOT3 , with this tool the teacher can enter the water with the students and correct them from the water and when leaving collect the videos of the class and send them the correction of all the waves, since this camera has a tracking system and is capable of recording you the whole class. For these students we recommend waves with some strength but not very large, because if the size of the wave is large, people will not be comfortable in the water and will not be able to concentrate on performing the technique correctly.

With these tips I tell you "to water ducks" you will tell me what they work for you and if you have any other questions we will answer it in the comments.