How to Start Surfing in the Bay Area: Lessons, Rentals and the Best Beaches to Learn | KQED (2024)

A photo of three-time world champion Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina — seemingly floating over the Pacific waters of Teahupo’o, Tahiti, surfboard suspended vertically mid-air — is being hailed as the defining image of the 2024 Olympics.

If this awe-inspiring competition is making you curious about surfing, you don’t have to be a world-class athlete or venture into the waters of Teahupo’o (called the “wall of skulls” for its dangers) to try the sport.

Jump straight to:

• Which Bay Area beaches are beginner-friendly?
• How do I find my first wetsuit and surfboard?
• What surfing terms should I know?
• Where can I find surf lessons near me?
• How safe is surfing?
• Where can I find a surfing crew?

The benefits of taking up surfing

Surfing can be tailored to different experience levels and athletic abilities and has many mental and physical benefits. There’s nothing quite like feeling fully present in your body as you navigate waves; the exhilaration of the ocean pushing you; and the camaraderie of cheering on friends — even when someone wipes out.

“What surfing really embodies for me is just play,” says Lia Posatiere, head coach at City Surf Project, which offers free surf lessons to youth at 16 San Francisco high schools and after-school programs. “It’s a unique way to channel your inner child and observe emotions that come up and let them go with the ocean.”

“You’re out there with the fish and the dolphins and the birds,” says Kyla Langen of Queer Surf, which offers sliding-scale lessons to LGBTQIA adults. “You’re among the life cycle and the food chain, just communing with nature. It’s lovely.”

Though many still imagine the stereotypical surfer as a bleach-blond white dude, the practice of riding waves has roots in Polynesia, South America and West Africa going back centuries and even millennia. “So a lot of people, we watch them come to our programs and express that it felt like a homecoming,” says Esabella Bonner, founder of Black Surf Santa Cruz, a group that offers free lessons and fellowship for surfers of color. “They realize that our space is in the ocean.”

Despite its reputation for cold weather and challenging conditions, the Bay Area is home to plenty of beginner-friendly surf spots, meetups and organizations striving to make the waves inclusive. So, if you’d like to learn how to surf, read on for essential tips for trying it for the first time.

How athletic do I need to be to surf, anyway?

You don’t have to be a championship swimmer to get out into the ocean. Decent swimming skills and the ability to tread water will do.

“You’re in a wetsuit, which is a flotation device. You usually have a surfboard, which is a flotation device,” says Langen, who spent 12 years as a pro surfer. “And a great place to start is in super close, where you can touch [the bottom].”

“Just starting really slow is key,” they add.

Surfing uses much of the same upper-body and ab strength as yoga. If you feel comfortable doing the cobra and warrior poses, you most likely already have the strength required to pop up on your board (more on that later).

Where are the best places to learn to surf in the Bay Area?

Just south of San Francisco, Pacifica is home to popular beginner surfing spot Linda Mar (in front of what is perhaps the world’s most scenic Taco Bell).

Bolinas Beach in Marin County is also a popular beginner spot, as is Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz. Both of these tend to have warmer conditions than Pacifica, although they are further away from the Bay Area’s urban centers.

All three of these beaches have nearby surf shops where you can rent boards and wetsuits before hitting the water.

Do I really need a wetsuit?

Wearing a wetsuit when surfing in Northern California is essential. In addition to your wetsuit being your “floatation device,” as Langen says, local beaches can be quite chilly the majority of the year. Pacifica, for example, is typically enveloped in a blanket of fog and temperatures rarely reach above 66 degrees, even when heat waves scorch the rest of the Bay Area.

But with a wetsuit, surfing in the summer feels plenty warm, and it’s pretty doable even in the winter. Wetsuits work by trapping a layer of water between your skin and the suit’s neoprene material. Your body heats the trapped water, keeping you toasty throughout your session. Wetsuits come in different thicknesses, but a 4/3 millimeter suit will do you right year-round in the Bay Area.

Booties will definitely add to your comfort level: They not only keep your feet warm but also protect them from rocks. Some surfers also wear neoprene hoods and gloves during the winter months.

Surf shops typically offer wetsuits for rent (but not booties or hoods — those must be purchased). Many shops will offer you space to shower and change. Otherwise, surfers typically change by their cars under towels and surf ponchos.

What kind of surfboard should I get as a beginner?

When it comes to boards, beginners typically start on eight and 9-foot foam boards. These are wide, buoyant and sturdy, and much better for balance than shorter, narrower and harder fiberglass boards.

You can, of course, rent your surfboard from a surf shop, which can also advise you on things like sizing. Queer Surf occasionally hosts garage sales where people can buy used gear on a sliding scale, as does City Surf. Both groups typically announce these on their Instagram pages.

Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are also reliable sources for cheap used gear. Another handy tip: if you rent a wetsuit and like the fit, check the brand’s website around Black Friday, Fourth of July and other major holidays — they might have a sale.

What surfing terms should I know?

The dictionary of surf lingo is pretty vast, but there are a few terms that are helpful to familiarize yourself with as a beginner:

Paddling out: Laying down on your board and paddling to the spot where you’ll station yourself and attempt to catch a wave.

Popping up: How surfers push themselves up from lying down on the board to standing on it.

Break: The area where waves crash and turn into white water near the shore.

White water: The foamy, white waves that have already broken, typically in the shallow portion of the beach.

Lineup: The area in the water where surfers wait their turn to catch a wave.

Impact zone: Where waves are breaking the hardest (and you may get smacked around).

Turtling: A technique for dealing with crashing waves while you paddle out. It involves turning your board over and holding it over your head, fin-side up, while you’re underwater.

Party wave: When multiple surfers ride a wave at once.

Localism: When locals have a hostile or territorial attitude towards newcomers.

OK, I’m still interested. How do I catch my first wave and find surf lessons?

It’s possible to learn to surf without an instructor, but you’ll have a much easier time getting the hang of it with a private or group lesson — especially if you don’t have experienced, patient friends willing to show you the ropes.

Lessons are typically around two hours, and group classes can run from $80–$150 per person, depending on the surf school. Pacifa, Bolinas and Santa Cruz each have several options for surf lessons.

Black Surf Santa Cruz hosts several daylong, small-group lessons a year for beginner surfers of color in their Pop-Up Program, as well as a longer Prepare to Pop-Up program with four to five lessons over the course of several weeks. All of their programming is free, with a welcoming approach.

“If you want to just ride waves on your belly or boogie board or on your knees, or if your goal is to stand up, we celebrate everyone, no matter where they are,” Black Surf Santa Cruz’s Bonner says.

Queer Surf also frequently hosts hands-on beginner lessons for LGBTQIA adults throughout Northern and Southern California, as well as beginner practice sessions for those who can hold their own but could use some guidance. The lessons are donation-based, on a sliding scale of $80 to $250, and there are scholarships for people of color.

YouTube offers plenty of instructional videos for popping up on a surfboard. It’s helpful to practice the motions on land so you commit them to muscle memory and don’t get overwhelmed when you hit the water.

Posatiere of City Surf stresses the importance of “not being hard on yourself — it took me a year to figure it out.”

“If you’re learning by yourself, it’s a really hard thing. Don’t get discouraged by the people around you who are shredding.”

Should I be worried about safety when surfing?

Like driving a car or skiing down a mountain, surfing has its risks.

Be aware of changing conditions

Each day in the ocean is different, so it’s important to assess conditions before entering the water. “We have a little rule of three minutes for every foot of wave,” Langen of Queer Surf says. “So if the waves are only 1 foot, if [they’re] real small, you still need to watch for at least four minutes to kind of see what’s going on. Two feet: watch for six minutes and up.”

As a beginner, only go where you see other surfers and watch out for safety warnings from city agencies and conservation organizations.

“Sometimes the ocean will tell you, you know, you’ll look, and it’s out of your skill level,” Bonner says. “So, making that a part of your practice to just slow down and ask for permission to enter.”

The app Surfline assesses wave size, wind direction and other important data points at popular surf spots — although it’s not 100% reliable and doesn’t take the place of scanning the ocean yourself.

As you enter the water, pick a landmark on the beach and stay aware of it so that you don’t drift away.

Watch for rip currents — and know how to escape them

It’s important to be wary of rip currents and rip tides, which are strong off-shore currents that can pull you tens or even hundreds of feet away from the beach. Rip currents may look like a dark strip of water with a deceptively calm appearance, moving in a different direction than the waves around it. Look for variations in wave patterns and foam or debris sputtering out of the water.

If you find yourself being pulled away from the shore, remain calm and swim parallel to the beach, eventually angling towards the shore to make it back to land.

It’s important to not swim directly to the shore if caught in a rip current. You’ll keep getting pulled back and tire yourself out, which can put you at risk of drowning. (Before you freak out, know that the risk is small — there are over 100 rip-current fatalities in the U.S. each year.)

Sharing the water with animals

Sharks (and the occasional board-biting sea otter) rarely pose a danger to humans in California waters, but they do make appearances, although rarely on the popular surfing beaches.

Know how to take a spill

Lastly, you’re bound to get knocked off your board as you learn.

If you tumble underwater, cover your head and the back of your neck with your arms like a helmet and allow yourself to float to the surface — instead of fighting the current.

How do I navigate ‘the lineup’?

Beginner surfers tend to stay close to shore in the white water, where waves that have already broken can push their boards. It’s important to give other surfers plenty of room and be in control of your equipment so no one gets hit with a board.

Some beaches have what’s called a lineup, where surfers crowd around and wait their turn to ride the wave. In places like Santa Cruz, hardcore locals may not take kindly to amateurs messing up the flow of traffic, even if by accident.

“You can get yelled at. It sucks, but it’s totally a rite of passage as a surfer,” Posatiere of City Surf says.

Respecting right of way is another reason why it’s important to watch what’s happening in the water before you paddle out. Observe who’s been waiting and what order surfers are going in. This can be an intuitive thing that takes experience, trial and error. And if you mess up — which you will — “I think just having a general attitude of gratitude and friendliness gets you really far in catching waves,” Posatiere says.

Bonner says she stays away from terms like “surf etiquette” to not intimidate participants who may already be wary of potential racism and other-isms. “By calling it ‘best practices’ and moving away from that almost supremacist thinking of ‘[there’s only] one way,’ I think that helps our participants feel more rooted in the Indigenous because we share waves.”

Where can I find my surf crew and meet people to surf with?

In addition to Black Surf Santa Cruz, Queer Surf and another group called Salted Roots (formerly Brown Girls Surf), there are general surf meetups for beginners around the Bay Area. Meetup is a good place to look, as are Facebook groups like Surfing Around SF and Women Who Surf – SF Bay Area Beginners.

Langen says they’ve watched friendships blossom through their lessons and surf camps. “That’s definitely the most rewarding part … seeing people find each other at our events and then come back to our events together, or we see that they went and did their own surf trip on their own,” they add.

In majority-white cities like Santa Cruz, affinity groups can help make the beach a welcoming space for people of color. In addition to their lessons, Black Surf organizes a Juneteenth celebration on the waves called Liberation Paddle Out. “A lot of people express that they feel really isolated in Santa Cruz, and intentional spaces to come together with people that look like them really is greatly beneficial to their mental health,” Bonner says.

Surfers also regularly coordinate informal outings on Signal and WhatsApp. “So if you, just like, chat up someone in a surf shop and be like, ‘Hey, any chance you like are part of a group chat?’” Posatiere says. “I think making friends and having people that you can trust and also enjoy their presence in the water just makes it a lot more pleasant when you’re learning.”

“Also, know that you don’t look stupid,” she says. “So much of that’s in your head.”

Posatiere’s ultimate message: “Nobody cares. Everyone had to learn.”