1 Day Novice Surf Coaching Intensives

Get More Confidence and Control and Start Surfing More Challenging Waves

Held regularly in Raglan with popups in other areas of New Zealand from time to time, An intensive day designed to make you a more well-rounded surfer and help fast-track you to new experiences within surfing.

• Who is this for? – Surfers that are level 2 on our scale, or for graduates of our Beginner Surf Courses who have since practiced regularly on their own and built up some experience.
• Equipment – you might be riding a soft-top, minimal or fish and may be wanting to transition to a smaller board
• Goals – Go from sometimes successfully surfing across green waves when conditions are easy, to regularly surfing across waves and making turns in a much wider range of wave types
• $250 – Receive in-water guidance out the back, followed by land based coaching. This may include a video review session, surfskating, mobility training or theory. Whatever will suit the needs of the group best for improvement – a deeper dive towards intermediate surfing
• Maximum of 4 people per day to ensure personal attention

Upcoming Raglan Novice Surf Intensive Dates:

More dates may be added depending on demand and our availability. If you have a group that want to do a day of coaching, feel free to inquire about other dates.

Novice Surf Coaching Intensive Overview

The Novice stage of surfing is kind of the ‘make or break’ phase for surfers, particularly late starters. At this point you’ve had some magic surfs where you feel like you’re really getting it. But other days you feel frustrated, like you’re going backwards or that you’re so far down the pecking order that you’ll never get waves among a crowd.

Those are all normal experiences on the journey to good surfing, but you do need to make sure you don’t plateau too much at this stage because some surfers get stuck here. The reason is there are a few things that can halt your progress at this point, for example an incorrect pop-up technique, the wrong equipment, consistently attempting to surf in conditions that aren’t suitable for you, poor lineup awareness and wave reading, body movement limitations…and this is just picking a few of the more common ones.

Very often novices aren’t aware of what their roadblocks are until they are pointed out or highlighted. Once that is done they can go about improving steadily again, go past the plateau and head towards better waves and the intermediate level of surfing. Where you are just that much more consistent and can take on a wide range of spots, travel to the famous locations and really enjoy surfing as a part of your lifestyle.

How will I be coached?

At this novice level you are a bit more self sufficient so we usually paddle out alongside you on our own surfboard and spend the session observing first and then assisting. If the conditions and weather are suitable, we may also video some of your session from the beach for review afterwards.

We observe to see what you are doing and how we can help you improve. Assisting is about helping you get self sufficient. We won’t push you into waves as you need to develop the wave reading and paddle techniques yourself. So we talk you through what we are seeing when the waves approach, explaining where you need to be, how to get there efficiently and where to look as you go for a wave to successfully get on on the face every time. We basically impart our wave knowledge and lineup navigation skills on to you directly.

We also observe your fundamentals (popup,stance,turning technique) and will also provide assistance in those areas where needed.

At your level we also broaden the coaching to include more advanced technique work, introducing video and land based training methods for that. Surfskating using Smoothstars (or your own boards) is also something we do at this level. It is easy to thrash about on these things in a way that won’t carryover into improved surfing, so we ensure you understand how to use them right.

Theory is also beneficial when it comes to wave-reading and timing, so we may analyze clips on that or other topics. Mobility is another crucial part of progressing for many of our customers, and we provide specific advice on increasing range of motion to make the paddle position and surfing movements much easier with time.

We go through an internal checklist for everyone on the course, asking ourselves questions such as:

• Is your paddle angle into the wave ok? Are you using your rail for angled takeoffs?
• Is your pop up technique ok? How about on steeper drops? How about on your backhand?
• What’s your stance like? Foot placement? Can you compress properly?
• What are your turning mechanics like?

It’s really easy to improve if the above are all sweet, but if they aren’t it’s an uphill slog! Fortunately we are quick at identifying any issues and providing you with techniques to fix them up.

General Q and A – Novices generally have lots of questions and it can be good to get clear on any topics you want to ask about. Equipment? Etiquette? How can I get more waves in a crowd? You can fire away during your session.

The Details

Joining an Intensive: The meeting place and time will be advised beforehand, so you just have to be in Raglan or wherever the course is being held at that time.

You will need to bring your own board(s) and wetsuits although we can provide some soft boards ranging from 6’6 to 9’2 free of charge if needed. Bring anything else you’d usually take on a surf mission, plus some clothes you can do exercises in, and suitable shoes in case we do a skateboard session.

Our usual routine is a surf session first, then we grab a snack and head to our base for the theory part of the course and video review if we took footage. This is followed up by a 2nd active session, either a 2nd surf, a skate session or mobility and technique session. The exact schedule is fluid around the best tides for surfing, but the day is around 6 hours duration.

FAQ

What happens if the waves are not suitable?

We don’t need perfect conditions for the coaching to be beneficial but because this is for novice level we do need conditions where we can get out the back reasonably easy. So I will check the forecast a week beforehand and may shuffle the course forward or back a day if needed. If you can have that level of flexibility would be awesome.

Where will we be surfing?

We will be surfing at Ngarunui beach Raglan. We won’t surf the point breaks. As mentioned, popups are held in other locations that are suitable for novices at times. These will be promoted on our social channels when they are coming up, so follow us to stay informed.

Why are the courses held mainly on weekdays?

Raglan has become too busy on the weekends for coaching out the back. Catching waves and teaching in that environment is difficult, so we always run on weekdays in Raglan. Some of the popups will be on weekends if the location is less crowded or has a long beach and more room to move.

Bookings

To secure a space on an intensive,full payment must be made at the time of booking because there are limited spots available. A full refund will be given if we have to cancel due to unsuitable conditions.