Paddling out is one of the first things that you need to learn when it comes to learning how to surf, and for obvious reasons as well. Paddling out sounds like such a simple process, but in reality, in surfing situations, you also have to be simultaneously balancing your body on the water, which is moving, and you need to keep yourself afloat while you are dodging breaking waves.
So padding out sounds really simple before you get on your board, and then you find yourself learning how to surf and everything seems so overwhelming. Remember that you need to be willing to start small, and you need to find water where there aren’t any big waves so that you can spend some real quality time learning how to paddle out without getting knocked around too badly on your old surfboard.
The first thing that you are going to want to do is to walk out into the water with your board until you are in the water up to your waist or chest level. You should lay your body across the deck of your board, and you should take special care to make sure that you are centering your weight on the board’s middle in order to keep yourself properly balanced. The natural tendency for most people is to lean back against the board’s tail, but this will cause the surfboard’s nose to rise up and this can create unnecessary resistance when you are trying to move yourself forward.
Instead, what you should do is to keep your chest just a little above the board’s center point. Once you are feeling stable, you can lean forward so that the nose and the tail of the surfboard are allowed to level out. Once you level out, you are ready to get going. Now you should be cupping your hands and alternately paddling your arms. The more resistance that you feel, the faster you will go. As you begin to hit choppy or bumpy water, what you are going to want to do is lightly lift your chest, lessening the weight that you are placing on the board in order to keep your nose and your rails from going under.
You need to remember that you need to be balancing many aspects of your body. Your right side, your left side, your head and your legs all need to maintain a proper level of balance while you are simultaneously paddling yourself out to the line up for a wave. You should practice until you feel comfortable paddling out, because this is one of the most vital skills for you to know. Once you know how to paddle out, you can catch waves and ride them back to shore good and proper. If you never learn to paddle out properly, you will end up nose diving before you hit the wave, and that’s no way to impress your friends.