Tips and Tricks to Take your First Wave

Do you dream of surfing your first wave? Taghazout is a region of world renown for surfing: its various spots offer very beautiful waves adapted to beginners as well as experienced surfers. The ideal conditions are created to help you progress. In the meantime, discover the basic tricks and manoeuvres of surfing!

1 – The wave analysis and selection process

It is the very essence of surfing, the choice of the wave that will take you back to the beach. You need to learn to read the waves and anticipate how they break to have an optimal sliding experience. There are 4 types of wave types: “Left”, “Right”, “Frame”, “Close out”.

2 – The Lying Position

To position yourself properly on your board and be stable, you should not be too far back or too far forward. The nose of the board should not take off from the water nor should it sink when you row. The head must be in the third of the board. Your hands must be flat on your shoulders in order to perform a proper take-off.

3 – The Row

To row effectively, you need to look far ahead and bring far behind. You have to make the most of your arms. The hand must follow the board, parallel to it. A word of advice: it is better to favour a slower but powerful movement in depth than to row the foam at full speed.

4 – The Take-off

It’s just getting up on the surfboard. To succeed in catching a wave, you must row quickly and then get up, one foot before the other. You must get into a kneeling position in order to be stable on your board.

5- Airplane mode

A name that makes sense. The aircraft mode is a technique that consists in understanding the axes of rotation of your board. The surfer is lying on it while keeping his chest up and his eyes in front. Once caught by the wave, he simply extends his hands like the wings of an airplane. To turn the board, he can play with a support on the left or right.

6 – The Back-side

Unlike the front-side, to succeed in surfing in backside, the surfer must think about opening the front foot. He must point his toes a little more in the direction of the nose (the nose of the board). This position opens the pelvis and allows you to better turn your shoulders. Remember to maximize the play with the upper body.

7 – The Front-side

A frontside turn is a turn facing the slope. The surfer is leaning on his toes. When surfing on the front side, the feet are generally parallel and remain perpendicular to the axis of the board.

8- The Bottom-turn

It’s the turn at the bottom of the wave. Usually, the surfer performs this movement after the take-off. If it is well done, it will give the rhythm of the wave. It is necessary to know how to balance between support and lightness. The difficulty of the bottom-turn is not to lose the speed acquired when the wave descends.

9- The Rollerball

It’s a tight turn on the upper part of the wave, at the lip level. Its utility is to store the potential energy of the wave, by going up, and then transform it into kinetic energy by going down, which will allow you to gain a lot of speed if it is well done and if you follow the tempo imposed by the breaking wave… Last but not least, don’t drop in, that is, take all the waves a session can offer, at the risk of attracting the wrath of the locals… Now you have all the cards in hand, it’s up to you….

Find all our surfing tips on our website ! Contact us: surfcampmaroc@yahoo.fr

Aloha from Taghazout