Your mind, speed, and surfing

Speed is the most critical ingredient in surfing. Without speed, you're limited in your ability to perform turns or any other maneuvers. Think of speed as the fuel for your surfing. The first problem is more often than not you’re not going fast enough. The second problem is what might feel too fast to a developing surfer (which would feel mellow or manageable to an advanced surfer) still isn’t fast enough to perform a great turn, causing you to throttle back on the speed even though you should actually be trying to maintain that speed or go even faster.

The solution is you must recalibrate your mind to accept this new norm of speed as your new norm. Pay attention to the sensation of speed you feel when dropping into a wave and remember that’s how you want to feel going into your bottom turn or doing your turn from the top of the wave or on the downward phase of your pump. 

This increase in speed can be challenging. Everything happens so quickly in surfing, and it might be hard to react in time. The more you practice, the more your perception of time will adjust. Situations that once seemed too fast will become more manageable as you recognize patterns having encountered similar situations before.

In summary, mastering speed is all about awareness, practice and familiarization. Continue to expose yourself to challenging situations, and over time, you will develop the skills and mental snapshots necessary to handle and exploit speed in surfing effectively.