How to Overcome Fear and Push Your Limits in the Lineup

Every surfer, regardless of their level or abilities, will eventually encounter fear in the sport. This is actually a humbling observation because for everyone, fear can be understood and accepted as a natural part of surfing. Whether you’re a beginner learning in the whitewater, or an advanced surfer tackling a powerful break, learning to manage fear and push your limits in the lineup can become a powerful journey that bridges the mind, body, and soul. 

This journey isn’t just about surfing bigger waves or performing advanced maneuvers; it’s about personal growth, mindfulness, and learning to enjoy the process of overcoming challenges. In this blog post, we’ll explore some helpful methods for understanding your fears, building your skills, cultivating mindfulness, and staying physically and mentally prepared to thrive in any lineup.

Know Your Limits

What Level am I?

Understanding and assessing where you are personally at in your surfing journey is often the first step to safely pushing your limits. Beginners may focus on catching and riding smaller waves, intermediates on improving their turns and handling bigger conditions, while advanced surfers might challenge themselves with technical maneuvers or heavy breaks. Being honest with yourself and others about your current level ensures that you set realistic goals, and is essential to staying safe and having an enjoyable experience in the lineup. 

What Do I Fear, and Why?

Common fears include wipeouts, drowning, collisions, or the raw power of the ocean. All surfers must eventually accept fear as a natural response, and never be ashamed or embarrassed for any type of fear you find you might encounter. First of all, it is crucial to know the following: fear is your body’s neurobiological way of protecting you, and it is completely normal. 

Advancing in surfing often involves pushing yourself into more challenging conditions, sometimes into the unknown. Therefore, changing your mindset from using fear as a barrier, rather than a tool, is the first step to safely pushing your limits. 

Improving Skills and Technique

For beginners, it is important to start small; literally. Focus on catching whitewater waves to build your confidence and understanding of basic techniques like paddling and popping up. Practice may not make us perfect, but it makes us more confident. Having this confidence built in the whitewater and on smaller green waves will prevent us from having bad experiences, which can only make fear harder to tackle. 

For Intermediate surfers, who are often starting to work on more technical aspects of surfing (such as turns, generating speed, reading waves, and positioning yourself in the lineup), fear can often show up when the unpredictability of the ocean comes into play. 

It is important, both for safety and your own mindset, to know how to safely get back to the beach when the waves are a bit more than you can handle. It is also important to not place yourself in any situation where you could potentially injure yourself, or others. Finding this balance between pushing your limits, and not getting into any situations where you feel unsafe, is often one of the biggest challenges that intermediate surfers face in their surfing journey. 

For Advanced surfers, who are often surfing more challenging breaks- such as reef breaks, which often produce more “heavy” and hollow waves- fear becomes an integral part of their surfing experience. Even big wave surf legends understand that fear is a natural part of their experience, and must transition to the other side of fear by becoming overcome with gratitude. 

However, with more experience comes more understanding of fear. Advanced surfers can reach milestones where they use their fear as a motivator to really push the limits of surfing; such as in tow in surfing or surfing XXL waves at destinations like Nazare or Pipeline. 

Progressing in your skill set provides the foundation for tackling bigger challenges confidently. Remember, patience is key— and it is always important to have empathy, and remember that everyone’s path is unique. It is the journey, rather than the destination, that makes surfing such a rewarding sport. 

Mindfulness in Surfing

What is Mindfulness, and Why is It Important?

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present in the moment, observing your thoughts and emotions without judgment. In surfing, this can mean focusing entirely on the sensation of the water, the sound of the waves, and your body’s movements. It can also be a practice that extends out of the water as well. 

Fear often stems from overthinking—worrying about what might happen if you wipe out, get caught inside, or face a big set wave. Mindfulness shifts your focus to the here and now, allowing you to channel your energy into what you can control.

One of the greatest joys of surfing is how it keeps us grounded in the moment. It’s as if all the distractions of the “real world” seem to wash away in the water when you are out there experiencing the beauty of the ocean. Surfing has tremendous benefits for the mind, body, and spirit. In order to maintain this essential mindfulness, there are a few tricks that work to connect the mind to the body: 

Breathing Exercises

Controlled breathing can help calm your mind in stressful situations, such as a heavy wipeout or navigating a crowded lineup. Practicing breathing exercises can help regulate the nervous system, slow down the heart rate, and calm your mind before entering the water. Pranayama, or breathing exercises associated with yoga, can have tremendous benefits as well. 

Practice Awareness

Practicing awareness in the water can shift your thinking patterns from the negative to the positive. Instead of fixating on potential dangers, focus on the enjoyable sensations: the refreshing feeling of the water, the rhythm of the waves, and the flow of your movements. By being fully present, fear can often fade, and you can surf with confidence and clarity.

Staying Active and Fit

Yoga

The relationship between surfing and Yoga can almost be compared to a marriage or the joining of two powerful healthy practices. Yoga benefits surfing because it improves flexibility, balance, and core strength, which are essential for paddling, popping up, and riding waves. Poses like Downward Dog, Warrior II, and Boat Pose are particularly beneficial. Yoga also promotes mental clarity and relaxation. Awareness and connection between the mind and body are things that yoga and surfing share. Here at Bodhi Surf and Yoga, we believe Yoga to be an essential tool to improving surfing skills for all levels of surfers. 

Prioritizing Your Health 

To help yourself perform at your physical best, it is important to stay active and healthy outside of surfing. When the body is strong, the mind gains confidence in its ability. Surfing is a sport based largely on muscle memory. With enough practice, the movements and motions of standing up on a surfboard and riding a wave become a more natural physical action. You improve your surfing by pushing yourself by, you guessed it, surfing. Preferably as much as possible. Doing a bit of research about fitness for surfers is super helpful as well. 

However, it is the case for many of us that surfing every day is just not possible. Therefore, activities like swimming, running, or cycling build cardiovascular endurance, while combined with a balanced diet, can help you maintain your athleticism when surfing is not possible. Strength training with weights will also help maintain the muscles used while surfing. It is also important to stay hydrated and prioritize recovery. Even though we want to be consistently pushing ourselves in surfing, it is also very important to prioritize rest, as well as mental health. 

Surfing and the Human Connection

The Camaraderie of Surfing 

There is a big misconception that surfing is a solitary sport. An incredibly important piece of advice when pushing your limits and overcoming fear is to have a friend, coach, mentor, or just another friendly surfer out there with you in the lineup. When left alone, we can often get inside of our own heads, and get caught up in negative or pessimistic thinking while trying to catch waves. When you have someone out there with you, you can distract yourself from any ruminating thoughts, and the vibe will become much more lighthearted. 

Having this human connection can often make surfing a much less stressful experience. Local surfers are also a great resource when tackling a new spot. They can provide insights into wave behavior, hazards, and the best entry and exit points. Try not to be afraid to ask for advice or insight from fellow surfers. Being polite and friendly will get you a long way in this sport, and will definitely help to ease your nerves before paddling out. 

Despite a very common stereotype of surfers being aggressive or territorial, you will often find that most surfers understand and empathize with the fear you may be experiencing. Fear can often lead us to isolate ourselves from others, but having conversations with other surfers or friends can help alleviate the fear of surfing a different or more challenging break. 

Always Know Before You Go 

Observe the break from the shore before paddling out, and pay attention to the different types of breaks you will be surfing. Note the wave’s rhythm, where it peaks, and the positioning of other surfers. This preparation reduces uncertainty and builds confidence. Research tide, swell, and wind conditions to ensure you’re surfing the break in optimal conditions. It also helps to familiarize yourself with potential hazards like reefs, rips, or rocks. Approaching challenging waves with preparation and respect not only keeps you safer but also allows you to enjoy the experience more fully.

The Importance of Surf Coaching

A skilled surf coach combines technical expertise with an ability to communicate effectively. They should understand your unique needs and provide constructive feedback to help you improve. A good surf coach will challenge you to get outside your comfort zone, but will also make sure that you are surfing waves and breaks that are appropriate for your skill level. 

A coach can identify and correct bad habits, push you to try new techniques, and help you navigate fear by sharing their experience. Sometimes, just hearing a skilled surfer talk about a scary experience they had to overcome can make you feel much better about facing your own fear. This communication, both in and out of the water, can help build a coaching relationship based on trust. They also provide safety tips tailored to your skill level, which is invaluable when taking on bigger or more complex waves.

Investing in surf coaching accelerates your progress and builds confidence by providing the tools you need to overcome challenges in the lineup. Here at Bodhi, we are so fortunate to have surf coaches who offer positive encouragement, combined with thorough instruction on important surfing knowledge; such as wave reading, analyzing surf reports, and reading the ocean before you paddle out. We recommend more immersive and longer programs to really help you push your limits in a safe way, but individual or one-time lessons can also tremendously improve your performance as well. 

A Million Ways to Surf

Surfing is as much a mental journey as it is a sport. Overcoming fear and pushing your limits in the lineup requires understanding yourself, and staying both mindful and prepared. Always remember to embrace the learning process, and remember that every surfer, no matter how experienced, had fear at some point. With the right mindset, training, and support, you can grow not only as a surfer but also as a person. That’s what makes surfing so magical: it makes us better humans, in so many different ways. 

Oftentimes, we fear not just the environment we are in, but how we will perform and how we will look to others. One of the greatest fears to overcome in surfing is the fear of “how will I look to others?” This, much like the fear of the physical conditions of surfing, can be one of the hardest mindsets to overcome. But, if there is one key takeaway from overcoming fear and pushing your limits in the lineup, it is this: as long as you are having fun, and doing it safely (both for yourself and others), then you’re doing great. As the saying goes, “The best surfer is the one out there having the most fun.”  

As big wave surfer Laird Hamilton once said, “’There are a million ways to surf, and as long as you’re smiling, you’re doing it right.”