Surfing Bad No.9: Having A Wave Count That Wouldn't Trouble a Two-Year-Old

My wave count is dreadful as soon as the waves pick up over 3ft.

I think the reason is that as you become an intermediate surfer, paddle to the outside and start to get selective about the waves you catch two things happen:

1. You don't want to get caught with the bigger waves of the set landing on your head so you end up sitting a little too far out for most of the waves.
2. You start getting selective, trying to choose the bigger and 'better' waves - so you go for less waves and, what's more, the bigger the waves get the harder it is to catch them. You are also more likely to fall because you get more anxious the less waves you catch and the bigger the waves are.

These things are largely due to lack of experience, confidence and also simple fear (largely of the dreaded foamy whitewater).

When I watch the better surfers they tend to move around more: paddle in and catch some smaller waves. Then paddle out and go for the larger waves in the set. One guy said to me once, when we were sitting on the outside, "I think I'm going to paddle in a bit and actually do some surfing".

There's a lot to learn!