Out of the whitewash, into the green room

Oh, the gorgeous whitewash—on a small day, just by the beach. So welcoming, fun, and not dangerous at all. But do we call it surfing? At some point, you need to venture out back, to what my friends from the UK used to call “the green room.”

This is the biggest transition you will experience in surfing: moving from catching whitewater to riding unbroken “green” waves. A lot of things will change, but some things will stay the same.

????‍♀️ Time to paddle for real

You need to start paddling. Remember your first lesson when an instructor pushed your board and you stood up? No more. Not even your second lesson, when you gave it a half-arsed paddle and the whitewash propelled you forward with enough power to give you a few seconds to pop up—no siree. You thought what you’d been doing was surfing. But the name of the game is paddling.

First, you need to paddle through breaking waves to get to the unbroken waves. You can’t just waddle out. OK, maybe you could on a super low-tide day if you’re lucky. This will require a new skill: knowing how to get past the white water—will you find a channel and go around it, or learn how to time your paddles between the sets?

Second, now that the waves are not pushing you like the whitewash does and you need to actually catch them, your paddling technique needs to get a degree. Because it’s no longer about paddling fast and hard—it’s also about knowing when to paddle and how hard. Sometimes, you need two paddles if you’re in the perfect spot. Other times, you may need to paddle back and forth just to get yourself into a good position. On the plus side, it’s easier to catch a wave when you’re already moving.

Third, the paddle of shame. You didn’t hear about that one? That’s what happens when you’ve made it to the green room, didn’t catch a thing, and you still need to make it back to the beach. Surprisingly, not as easy as you’d think. All this paddling. You will get tired—waaay more tired than in the white water.

???? Pop up like toast

But it doesn’t end there. Now, the pop-up pressure goes up! In the whitewash, you can sort of flop up. On a green wave? Ha. You better pop like toast at a busy breakfast buffet. The window to get on your feet is so much tighter. You don’t stand up quickly enough and the wave will outrun you.

The drop on an unbroken wave is real. There’s no drop in the whitewash. Even if you think or feel there’s one. Maybe if you catch a reformer. But nothing prepares you for even the smallest drop. It will feel 10x higher when you’re starting out.

So now you have a) a drop and b) you gotta pop up quick, because if not, then c) you will pearl/nosedive/eat it and it’s bye-bye birdie.

???? Go hunting

Did anyone ever tell you that surfing is like hunting? You gotta hunt for waves, you gotta hunt for the best spot to take off, you gotta hunt the weaker surfers to get your wave count up. OK, maybe the latter is too extreme, but listen to our “equal dibs in surfing” episode to understand where this is coming from.

Whitewash waves literally break on top of you. You can’t miss them. But green waves… sometimes they’re not that easy to spot at all. You’ll obsessively start reading the horizon. Looking for those wee lumps. Guessing where they’ll break. You will spend years figuring it out. And when you finally see one, then there’s the whole business of positioning yourself accordingly and paddling before they break. Your brain will get partially fried from all the mathematical calculations.

There’s a shortcut, though—just sit and watch for a while. Notice where the waves break, how fast they move, and what other surfers do. Then copy the good ones—the ones that catch everything.

???? Position is everything

Lest we forget that when dealing with green waves, paddling doesn’t matter, pop-up doesn’t matter, the drop doesn’t matter unless you are in the right position.

You can’t just sit anywhere out the back. Too deep and you’ll get caught behind the wave. Too far out? You’ll miss it. Off to the side? You’ll get shoulder-hopped. You will not be ready for the peak yet, and if you hang out at the shoulder, this means you might have to wait until everyone who takes off at the peak eats it before you can take off. Because: surf etiquette.

Yes. No one cares about surf etiquette in the whitewash. But here, out back, you better know it or you will not be invited back in. And that’s another full episode too! Beware of a pecking order! Wait your turn, don’t you dare drop in, paddle around the break zone, and be super aware.

???? Is it worth it though?

Is it even worth it? All this nosediving, getting worked, wiping out spectacularly, panic paddling, missing waves, paddling for the wrong ones, backing out of perfect ones, getting yelled at for wasting waves? Yeah, it is. If you ever hear surfers talk about catching their first unbroken wave, experiencing the drop, riding the face—it is a transcendental experience.