Category: Uncategorized

In this blog we’re going to talk about the old cliche of process versus outcome and what to focus on. There are probably literally millions of articles discussing this on the internet. This concept, though overplayed is actually really applicable when it comes to progressing in your surfing.

So how does it relate to surf coaching?  First of all, what this means specifically is, when trying to learn new a skill in surfing, we try to get the student to practice with a complete disregard for the outcome. I.e. wiping out doesn’t matter, commitment to the process of learning the task does. A concern about the outcome will taint this commitment. Ultimate freedom and success comes from an unwavering commitment with a disregard for the outcome.

So, if you want to learn fast, here is the solution: We first learn roughly how to do what we are working on. Weight on the back foot, look where you want to go etc etc. But then we apply an approach: Fall. Fail hard, fast fast and fall a lot. Basically going into whatever it is you are working on with full commitment. As you probably don’t know how to do the skill its going to almost certainly result in a wipeout This flagrant disregard for the outcome sends us on a steep learning trajectory. Its what commitment is built on.

So many people, especially adult learners apply an outcome focussed style of learning. The theory being that they can analyse their way to a perfect outcome. Whilst this is often possible with cerebral tasks, its most certainly not with tasks of a more physical nature. Take learning to ride a bike. You can talk about, observe and analyse this skill all day if you want to, but eventually we have to get on the bicycle and risk almost certainly falling. Also the more willing you are to fall the quicker you learn.

Surfing from an outcome orientated approach means staying safe, going for the same old turns you’ve been doing for years because riding out of them gives you some bleak sense of accomplishment in the very short term at least. “Yeah! I didn’t fall’. Unfortunately this approach makes for a very static, flat learning curve, ultimately with this approach you’ll still be doing the same surfing a year, 2 years, 10 years from now.

See, there is process orientated effort and outcome orientated effort. Sure, I want to be a rockstar; to stand on stage in front of thousands at Woodstock. But I am definitely not willing to spend years practicing and lugging around instruments, playing gigs to empty concert halls. I would love the outcome, the stage, the crowd, the attention (outcome); I cannot stand the idea of doing the necessary grind to get there (process). Essentially I’m not willing to risk the almost certain failures.

So to put this in surfing terms: Lets imagine you want to learn how to do a cutback, and lets say you have never attempted one. Provided you’re at a place in your surfing where learning a cutback is the next logical step, by far the best and quickest route to learning this manoeuvre is to throw yourself into learning to turn well on the wave face without worrying about falling. The not falling part comes at the end once you’re successfully mastered the skill. Everything up until then is a process of failing and learning from the failure, regrouping and trying again.

The reason I write this is because time after time I see and work with surfers who display an aversion to falling. Like staying on the board is the metric of success. In a sense this is true if you’re trying to score a 10 in surf contest, but this is rarely the case, most of us are plugging away at getting better at our beloved (and frustrating) sport.

Hitting a plateau is very common in the sport of surfing and I feel that the topic discussed here is the primary reason why people hit a wall. So for those of you frustrated and feeling like the learning curve has flattened, go out and fall… Fall like you’ve never fallen before!! and see falling as a good result, not a bad one!  This will transform your surfing.

Learning to surf is a long term goal. It takes time. It can be a challenging road. Fraught with difficulty and frustration but spotted with moments of pure, blissful joy.

The reason for this is that surfing is heavily centred around psychological punishment and reward. Do something right, you get rewarded with a dopamine hit, do something wrong and fall and you can suffer frustration and impatience.

The ability to delay gratification is key for success in surfing. It means putting in the time to practice the mundane repetitions needed to learn a set of skills. The same is true for all sports. This is also true of many other ares of one’s life. Welcome to the grind.  The ability to sustain the hard yards needed to achieve something worthwhile without giving up and putting off the discomfort of disappointment/boredom or the lack of an immediately good outcome.

So with this in mind, knowing that the path to success in anything lies behind a lot of failure, disappointment and psychological punishment, what do we do to move forward?

The answer lies in acceptance. Acceptance of the hard work involved in anything worthwhile. In the rolling up of the sleeves in honour of the long term pay off. Also it helps to reframe the failure. If failure is seen as a necessary outcome and is expected, its easier to accept. After an initial phase of resistance the mind learns to recognise the pay off. It makes the association between the grind and the subsequent results that this can bring. Think of it as developing a sort of mental fitness. In the case of surfing this means learning to enjoy the wipe outs.

Mental fitness is commonly overlooked in terms of its importance compared to say physical fitness. Imagine your brain as a muscle. When you first start to exercise it aches and there is pain. There is zero recognition of a long term pay off at first so everything seems hard and pointless. But after some time there is a recognition of progress. This is the beginning of an association in the brain. A very beneficial one.

Long term benefits are a sustained, deeper kind of satisfaction. These are the achievements you look back on and take pride in.

So what’s ultimately beneficial in most life situations is a willingness to fail and to put in the hard yards and build a pattern of reinforcement. A neural pathway that identifies the positive association between hard work and long term benefit. Exercising this part of the mind spills over to other areas of life.

After a while, this positive association results in an enjoyment in the work needed to be done. Once hard work becomes enjoyable you can bet that your surfing and your life will start to take shape.

Why the size of your board (and your ego) matters when it comes to progressing in surfing.

As a surf coach I find myself often confronted with a common sell. Surfboard size: getting people to ride bigger boards. So here’s the deal, the shortboard revolution planted a seed in everybody’s head. And that seed was that smaller is better. Often the smallest possible board you can ride. The peak of this happened in the 90s where everyone emulated Kelly Slater. A wispy little shortboard, very, very thin and very narrow too. ‘If its good enough for Kelly, its good enough for me’.

In more recent times we’ve moved on from this specific style of slender, thin surfboard. But the shortboard lives on, it’s becoming a timeless design. And why shouldn’t it? The shortboard is still the most widely sold style of board in the world. The 3 fin squash tail thruster is a very successful and versatile shape and allows for some insanely high performance surfing. It is the style of board still used by the vast majority of professionals.

But its dominance has left a crowd, a very large crowd of learner to intermediate surfers hungry. Hungry for its prestige. Hungry for its iconic status. A small board is a badge of pride. Its says ‘i’ve made it to advanced level’.

You see it time and time again, a person surfing a board is in someone’s world deemed fashionable but completely inappropriate. Though some maybe riding a board thats too small because of misinformation or simply not knowing, I would bet a vast majority of improvers are to some extent falling victim to their pride. The truth of the matter is this. If you are feeding your ego with a small board in a vain attempt to look the part you’re in for a long wait to see any improvement.

So lets consider the motivation for this curious behaviour. GQ magazine released an article: How Not to Be A Kook

If we are indeed running from the kook label then we’re gonna get a bit teenaged for a second and consider the term ‘kook’. A kook is not so much someone of low skill but a surfer who regards their skill as better than it actually is, often reflected in the type of board that they ride. Consider the irony in this. In running from a label, you are squarely placing a label upon yourself.

The answer to all this likely lies in a term known as the external locus of evaluation. That is, a behaviour which satisfies an ego drive and an attempt to win the approval of others. Conversely there is also the internal locus of evaluation or a behaviour that satisfies ones more authentic being.

An internal locus of evaluation is considered healthy and derives satisfaction from an authentic part of the self. Whereas an external locus of evaluation whilst can satisfy a temporary ego need, can leave one feeling inauthentic and perhaps a little detached from your wiser self.

The more extreme fashion tastes can be a great example of this.

What would you surf if you were on a desert island alone? Imagine the surf is good and you have a rack of boards of all different shapes and sizes. Except no one is there to watch.  This is an interesting question as it can expose an error in your thinking.

Simply put, a board thats too small is going to leave you frustrated, you’ll catch fewer waves and progress slowly. Bigger boards are great for improving. They give you more waves, better waves, allow you to surf at greater speed and yet with more stability and time to make manoeuvre decisions and conscious corrections.   Given these advantages guess who’s going to improve more rapidly? And guess who’s going to have more fun?

The shortboard is no doubt one of the most successful shapes but it has a lot to answer for, poisoning the minds of many would be surfers!

Where are the large sweeping cutbacks and floaters? What happened to surfing with flow, grace and style? This is a beautiful stage that the intermediate surf will never reach if they are forever reaching for this arbitrary ideal.

So if you want to get better at surfing, get on that big, unsexy foam board and get putting in the hard graft that will ultimately give you much more joy than prancing around the beach pretending to be something you ain’t!

There are no shortcuts.