For anyone living in the centre of an island state such as the UK, surfing and other water sports are an unlikely sort of activity for the average family. There is no mention of surfing anywhere near and the only kind of water sports are of the rowing and sailing kind – myriad variations it has to be said. However the big waves and small surf board kind of action is definitely not one that ever features on our local news, as far as I am aware. Obviously there are beaches within a couple of hours drive from the centre of Britain. But these are not generally blessed with waves higher than knee cap height and sometimes struggle to bring in a lolly wrapper so a surf board with a body on it would be quite something.
There are however surfing schools and coaches along the most spectacular of our ‘surfing capital’, Cornwall. Obviously the way to get into surfing would be to visit the area and take an ‘new experience’ session where a coach will go through how to start from absolute zero. This would include how to carry your surf board – may sound obvious but many a mishap has occured by mishandling these very expensive boards. How to catch waves is another very important topic, as is how to stand up once you’ve caught one. These taster sessions generally last 2 hours and are broken down into bite sized chunks of coaching on the beach with extensive time on the water to make the most of the new skills being passed on.
Once an introductory experience session has been completed and if someone really takes to the sport, the next logical step is to book a two part progression session. This picks up from the catching a wave and learning to stand up on the board – feeling your feet as it were. The second part really hones in on improving technique and gaining confidence. Once some success has been achieved, there can be the opportunity to learn the techniques for paddling out through waves or even catching green waves . . . The open sea offers so much and we do have rather a lot of it around us!