There you are, casually scrolling through Instagram. Or perhaps you’re searching surf related content on YouTube. Or even simply Googling surf images and/or clips, surfing stuff hardly obscure to find online. Now, whether you like, follow or subscribe to certain content or not, chances are you would’ve encountered some surf blogger/vlogger/coach etc bleating on about helping complete beginners with their surfing.
“Hah!” you scoff, sneering a little. “It’s been a while since I’ve been a complete beginner, what utter codswallop!”
Surf beginner tips: Go skate! Apparently.
Still… You’re kinda over watching Nate Florence’s slab clips. And let’s be honest about the Brazilian air game. Impressive as watching Italo and the boys spin around like manic dreidels may be, air clips are a dime a dozen. Perhaps even cavernous barrel clips no longer thrills you quite so much.
“What the hell,” you reckon, “let’s check out some beginner tips. Could be good for a laugh!” (Could actually be damn valuable, you think to yourself in your heart of hearts in the deepest recesses of your inner thoughts.)
So cue beginner tip video, resplendent with a white toothed-grinning Aussie or earnest American with tousled beach hair. You ignore their prattling on about a paid subscription to their online courses, knowing full well they’ve never coached any World Champ you’re aware of. So you give the bitcoin payment a miss – but you save the link. Just in case. Your carves could do with some fine tuning you feel. Anyhow, after skipping along in the beach sand with his herd of eager beginners of all ages, this certified surf coach suddenly cuts to a new arena.
Scene change.
It could be a parking lot, with little orange traffic cones like he’s the worst driving instructor ever (this is evidenced by the lack of car), or a kinda enticing little wooden or concrete skate bowl. The latter often has colourful lines painted all over it, like Jackson Pollock if he were a straight edge artist. Anyhow, cue – the surf skate.
Said coach will enthusiastically promise the exact same sensation and skills required to move your surf skate translates perfectly into surfing a surfboard on a wave. Spoiler alert – Trident’s top tip: it won’t.
Yet, even the most cynical among us cannot deny this particular vehicle should at least help with certain aspects of surfing. At the very least, unlike some other beginner surf craft, you’re unlikely to slice open someone else’s Achilles tendon or jugular in the lineup. This is simply because you’re not actually in the surf lineup. So there is the plus for actual experienced surfers – you’re not actually in the lineup.
Imitating waveriding without waves.
The minus however, is that you’re not actually in the lineup. Trident has seen plenty of would-be surfers, trying to imitate turns on a wave and doing so brilliantly on a surf skate on flat asphalt. Sadly however, the moment these same dudes try and whip a backhand care the way they do on concrete doesn’t always translate well to a wave. Instead, their surfing style often looks like they are suffering from a severe case of hemorrhoids. Their turns? Well, their turns have about as much of an arc as one of those barely flexible old school hologram plastic rulers your teacher slapped your knuckles with.
Stance, flow, style – you can do these things on a surf skate. You can also travel between surf spots to check conditions on them. But in terms of ability on a surf skate translating to actual surfing on a wave?
Trident is not convinced. Not yet at least.
