How Much do You Suck at Surfing?

Two types of people live here. First: you’ve never been on top of a surfboard, don’t know what a whitewash is, and honestly aren’t sure which end of the board is the front. Welcome — everyone starts here, and this is exactly where good things begin.

Second: you’ve had a session or two but you’re taking it easy, not wanting to get scared, and you’re happy working on the most forgiving form of surfing — whitewater riding. There is absolutely no shame in this. The whitewash is where you build the muscle memory that everything else is built on. With a good instructor, you will get past this stage faster than you think.

You are a beginner if:

• You have never stood up on a surfboard, or you’ve only tried once or twice
• You are only comfortable riding the whitewater (broken waves) straight to the beach
• Your pop-up (the move from lying to standing) still requires conscious thought
• You don’t yet know how to paddle efficiently or position yourself on the board
• The ocean still feels more unpredictable than readable to you

Your surf baptism is over. Things are starting to get exciting — and your family is beginning to believe the story. You can survive in the water, you’re building real confidence, and something that actually resembles surfing is starting to happen.

This is the stage where you take your first real green waves — unbroken, open-face waves — in a controlled environment, with your instructor watching every move to make sure everything is going well. It’s a completely different feeling from the whitewater, and when it clicks for the first time, you’ll understand why people get addicted. You belong in this group until you can catch waves independently across different sizes and degrees of steepness.

You are beginner–intermediate if:

• Your pop-up is becoming automatic — you’re not thinking about it anymore
• You’re riding whitewater consistently and starting to angle the board
• You’ve caught your first unbroken green waves with instructor guidance
• You can paddle out through small whitewash without getting completely washed back
• You’re starting to feel when a wave is going to work — before it actually does

Welcome to the place where most surfers spend the majority of their career. Don’t worry — that’s not an insult. It’s a sign that surfing has become real for you. The intermediate level is where the actual challenges live: you’re no longer just surviving the ocean, you’re trying to do things on waves.

This is the stage you dreamed about while gliding on your surfskate at home. Your first real turns on the wave face. Cutbacks. Floaters. The sensation of actually shaping a ride rather than just hanging on. You’re also learning everything that happens before the wave — reading the forecast, understanding tides and currents, choosing your spot. The mental game of surfing opens up here, and it’s just as demanding as the physical one.

A word of warning: the intermediate plateau is real. Many surfers get comfortable catching green waves and stop actively improving. This is exactly where video analysis and focused coaching make the biggest difference. Seeing your own surfing from outside is one of the fastest ways to break through it.

You are intermediate if:

• You can catch unbroken green waves independently, without instructor guidance
• You are learning or have landed your first turns — cutbacks, top turns, floaters
• You can duck dive through breaking waves to get out the back
• You choose your own waves in the lineup with reasonable success
• You understand tides, currents, and basic surf forecasts
• You know how to read a line-up and position yourself for the best waves
• You can identify different types of breaks and know which ones suit your level

After years in the water, surfing has become part of how you think. You can look at a break, read the forecast, and know before you paddle out whether it’s worth it — and where to position yourself. You catch a significant number of waves per session because you’ve learned to be in the right place at the right time, which is a skill that takes longer to develop than any manoeuvre.

Your turns are no longer experimental — they’re intentional. You’re applying advanced concepts: keeping the board’s energy through sections, engaging the rail through turns, staying in the pocket of the wave rather than surfing the flat shoulder. Your mum, aunt and grandma are proud of you. They’re also a little worried after you came home with your first set of stitches from your earliest attempts at getting barrelled.

You are advanced if:

• You catch a high percentage of waves you paddle for in most conditions
• You can select the best spot at a new beach by reading the forecast and swell
• Your turns are controlled and committed — cutbacks, snaps, floaters on demand
• You understand and apply rail surfing, pocket positioning, and wave energy management
• You are comfortable in solid, overhead surf and know how to handle hold-downs
• You are starting to explore or successfully getting barrelled
• Other surfers in the lineup treat you as a known quantity

Not much to say here. If you’re a pro, you’re travelling the world, enjoying your sponsor money, and have very little reason to be reading a surf level guide on a Galician surf school website. Better not send us too many photos — or do, actually. We might send some stickers back.

• You are competing at QS, CT, or WSL level
• You have sponsors
• You are definitely not reading this