Children and surfing

Now that we’re on holiday, we’re all starting to think about getting our children into surfing. Whether at a school, on their own, or with us, if we enjoy surfing ourselves.
For the first option, it’s a matter of choosing a school that appeals to you. Whether for the equipment, the location, … But what’s really important from our perspective as instructors is the teaching method. It’s key, along with the instructor’s approach.
The second option is more ‘one-off’, encouraging self-teaching, something that happened to many of us due to a lack of instruction in this sport, until a few years ago when it really took off. It carries the risk of picking up bad habits that are very difficult to eradicate or correct in the future.

And then there’s the third option, which is a combination of the previous two: if we’ve learnt at a school ourselves and want to pass on that knowledge and those experiences to our children.
Or if we want to send them to a school whilst still combining that with learning as a family.
We’ll be honest with you: from the point of view of learning and experiencing the activity, this is the best option. You’ll see how you progress together, building a stronger bond and sharing some really enjoyable moments. As well as the famous ‘feedback’—both intrinsic (your own experience) and extrinsic (showing others what you can do)—you’ll see these aspects reinforced in a positive way. The great thing about this sport, with the resources available today, is that it has a very high success rate when it comes to getting up on the board (take-off). After that, riding the wave along the face is simply a matter of practice until you overcome that initial hurdle of just moving forward through the foam. It’s just a matter of time.

That’s why we encourage you to give any of the options we’ve mentioned a go (the important thing is to take part), rather than just standing on the beach watching, or wishing you were there.
At our school, we offer all three options, although in this particular case, we’ve opted for the third one.