There are many surfing hazards you have to avoid when riding the waves. Get expert advice on surfing techniques in this video.
Stay with comfortable wave sizes
Bring a friend
Be wary of dangerous marine life
Be aware of fellow surfers
Consult fellow surfers for potential dangers
Mike Jones has been surfing since he was only six years old. He was lucky enough to surf the pro tour for a few years before starting his own surf shop and clothing brand, As-hi-as-I-aM International. The brand now has shops in Tahiti, Hawaii, California, Florida, and Washington. Through his love of surfing, Mike has been able to travel all over the world.
MIKE JONES: Hi, I am Mike Jones from AZ-HI-AZ-I-AM. Today we are going to talk about surfing hazards and how to avoid them in the water. All right. One of the main surfing hazards obviously would be drowning. If you are not a proficient swimmer, you want to make sure you are staying in water and wave size that is not out of your league. It is great to start in small waves. Go to a beginner's beach, some place where there is a lifeguard on duty and you will feel a lot safer. You want to also make sure you use the buddy system. Never go out surfing by yourself. If you get injured out in the water, you get knocked out by a board, nobody is going to be there to help save you or get help for you. So one thing is to always bring a friend or two. Other hazards out in the water, there are stingrays that lay on the bottom of the ocean floor. What you want to do when you are walking out into the water, you do not want to just blindly step wherever. You want to kind of shuffle your feet as you are walking out, like, I will just keep my feet on the ground and kind of like tap it, let them know that you are coming, just walking out to the line up. If you just go and step on one of these things, they are going to rear up. They are going to stick a barb into your leg or into your foot. One of the other main hazards of surfing is the other people surfing with you. A lot of people ride 10, 12 foot long boards. They carry a lot of force when getting pushed by a wave. Say somebody ditches their board in front of you and it is big 10-foot long board coming right at you. What I would do is I would throw my surfboard towards the beach so it is not in front of you, throw your surfboard towards the beach and just dive under and let that board go past. Stay under there for 10 or 15 seconds and let that thing go by. Submerge drops, a lot of places in California, sometimes where there is--it looks like a full sandy beach, you get out a few feet into the water there might be exposed boulders or rocks. The only way you are going to know that they are there is either by hitting them or by seeing little ripples of water or what we call boils. When you see boils, it is kind of like the up welling of the water off the rock when the wave motion comes through it. Veteran surfers know there is a rock there that is not where you want to fall, okay? It is also best to ask other surfers if there's any hazards in the water that you need to know about. Is there any rocks on this side? It is really common place for surfers to ask those questions so do not feel embarrassed.
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