How To Surf With Confidence

Mike Parsons on the mentality behind surfing better

Parson's apt pupil, Kolohe Andino, uses power and flow without a second thought. Photo: Lowe-White

With decades spent as a professional surfer, Mike Parsons knows how important confidence is when it comes to reaching your potential in the lineup. Currently working as coach for Kolohe Andino, Parsons has placed a solid emphasis on building not only Kolohe’s physical game, but his mental game as well. Lucky for us, we got a moment with Parsons to talk about how important confidence is when it comes to taking your surfing to the next level.

Confidence is at the foundation of every great surfer. There’s a definite connection between being confident in your abilities and surfing well. You can be a tremendously talented surfer, but if you lack confidence, your surfing will suffer and you’ll never really reach your potential. Confidence is at the basis of all great surfers and confidence comes from surfing well. Surfing well comes from lots of practice and good equipment. So much of surfing is mental; it’s in your mind, you want to feel like you’ve got an advantage, and that builds confidence.

In competition, be prepared. If you paddle out to a heat and are feeling unsure, you can get rattled really quickly. But if you’re prepared for your heat and know exactly what it’s going to take to beat your opponent, you’re going to be starting the heat off on the right foot. If you want to use Kolohe as an example, when he hits the water, he knows which strengths of his he has to play up to beat his opponent. If you want to surf with more confidence, you need to prepare, prepare, prepare. You have to know yourself, and your opponent. Leave as little to chance as possible.

Know your strengths. A lot of confidence comes with your personality, but that’s not to say that you can’t learn to build more confidence in your surfing. For me, I remember having Tom Carroll in a heat and seeing him on the beach before we paddled out. One look at him and I instantly knew that he was going to win that heat. To be confident, you have to be able to look at your opponent and know that you can take the heat. Like I said before, a lot of that comes from tons of preparation.

Be decisive. There’s another key element that comes with every great, confident surfer: You have to be willing to follow what you believe is right and not worry about what anyone else thinks. Kelly is the perfect example of that. He’ll be ridiculed by some people for the boards he’s riding, and then he’ll go out there and completely own the heat. A few months later everyone’s riding what he’s riding. He sets his own trends, makes his own decisions, and sticks to his plans without second-guessing himself.

Be confident, not arrogant. There’s a fine line between being confident in your ability and being cocky. You don’t want your confidence to turn into arrogance and you have to respect your opponent. You need to know that you’re going to be able to win the heat, but he’s not going to just hand it to you. You’re gonna have to work for it.

What happens on land translates to the lineup. Being confident outside of surfing definitely influences your confidence in the water. The best surfers almost always seem to be really happy people. It all spills over. Look at Mick, Joel, and Kelly. They have balance in their lives and they all seem really content. That’s how you build confidence.

How To Be A Well-Rounded Surfer

Ian Walsh on mastering the spectrum of conditions

Ian Walsh, always a standout in the lineup at Jaws. Photo: Noyle

To be a great surfer, you have to be ready to handle whatever the ocean throws at you. There are few people more capable of handling every type of condition than Ian Walsh, so we asked him for advice on how to be versatile in the water.

Good surfers are well-rounded. The days of being a specialist in a certain field have gone the way of Nose Guards and the Bud Tour. The best surfers of today are truly jacks of all trades, equally adept at manhandling a 12-foot reef pass and getting technical at 2-foot beachbreaks. “I feel like all the best surfers in the world today, whether they are on the Tour or not, are amazing surfers in every type of surf,” says Ian. “A good chunk of the leaders of the next generation are standouts when it comes to airs and big barrels, and are really capable in massive surf. The days of just being one or the other are quickly fading away.”

Doing it all takes training. If you’re hell bent on expanding your surfing, you can’t approach it lightly. For Ian, making the transition from fun-sized to terrifying conditions almost cost him his life. “When I was younger, I didn’t even think about it, I just surfed and treated a huge day like any other day. But after two bad situations, I started doing more to get my body and mind ready for the worst-case scenarios,” says Ian. “I haven’t really told many people this, but I used to not be able to hold my breath very long or swim deeper than 25 feet. So to get myself ready for the bigger stuff, I started doing free-dive training to learn how to use my lungs for all they’re worth. It’s also given me the know-how to control what my what my body is going through. Mix that with a lot more time in the gym, and that’s how I train for big waves. I went from being able to hold my breath for 45 seconds to being able to do a four-minute static in the pool. Free-dive training transfers to smaller waves and heats as well. I think knowing how to relax and lower your heart rate really quickly is useful in any type of surf.”

Be a grom. To keep his small-wave game razor sharp, Ian hasn’t grown jaded over the years and remains just as pumped to surf when conditions are less than stellar, as he did when he was barely a teenager. There will inherently be mediocre days, but if you paddle out anyway, your small-wave game will only benefit. “When you’re having fun, you’re surfing better,” says Ian. “If it’s small and still looks fun, I’ll be frothing like I was 14 again, dying to drop in and get the fins out the back. That never gets old.”

Put in the time and don’t be afraid to fail. They say if you’re not making any mistakes, you’re not improving. For Ian, becoming a well-rounded surfer didn’t come easy. But through plenty of time in the lineup, he was able to slowly improve his game to eventually become the surfer he is today. “You can’t be afraid to fail,” says Ian. “There isn’t a specific trick you can do to be a better all-around surfer. It takes work and you have to surf a lot of different waves in a variety of conditions. If you’re uncomfortable in big waves, start training your body and start surfing them more. If you don’t feel like you’re surfing well in small waves, surf them more. You have to put in the time and be okay with making mistakes. The more you do anything, the more comfortable it becomes.”

You're as likely to find Ian in the lineup on a head-high day as a 20-foot day, and he'll still be turning heads. Photo: Noyle

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Who’s the most well-rounded surfer today? Leave your answer in the comments section below.

How to Balance Surf and School

Kekoa Cazimero on staying in the water while earning a college degree

Kekoa Cazimero, keeping the balancing act going on the South Shore of Oahu. Photo: Baeseman

Balancing the demands of higher education and a saltwater addiction is not an easy undertaking. Between cramming for midterms and keeping your place in the lineup, something is bound to suffer. But according to Kekoa Cazimero—a former NSSA Open Men’s National Champion and current full-time college student—if you get your priorities in order, and make best use of your time, you can thrive in both realms.

Set Your Goals. Kekoa graduated from a traditional high school with a 4.0 GPA. In the ensuing four years, Kekoa became a budding pro surfer and spent his days chasing events, shooting photos, and more or less living the good life. Despite the good times, he eventually opted to pursue a higher education. “I’ve always believed having a college degree would open a lot of doors for me. And the way the job markets are right now, you’ll need everything you can get to get a great job,” says Kekoa. “I looked around at what I was doing and what everyone was else was doing and decided that I wanted to go to college. I talked to all my sponsors and told them what I wanted to do and they were really accommodating. We worked out a way for me to still do photo trips and shoot videos and do a few contests, all while I’m a full time student taking 18 credits a semester. It’s by no means easy balancing school and my love for surfing—going back and chasing the Tour is still a very real goal of mine—but in the long-term, I know that having a college degree will be worth it.”

Make the Time. Very few of us are milking the day for all it’s worth. For Kekoa to commit himself to a full-time curriculum, he had to prioritize his schedule. “My days are pretty grueling, to be honest. I spend a lot of time at school studying. But to get the most out of every swell, I’ve scheduled my classes in the morning so that I have a window in the early afternoon to head down to Bowls or Sandy’s for a quick session. After that, it’s back to school to study until it’s dark and then home for dinner and then more studying. Wake up and repeat. There’s time in the day to do both, but you’ve got to be on it and make the most of each hour.”

Turn off the TV. If you’re looking for an easy way to shave an hour off your schedule, turn off the TV. It’s estimated that the average American watched an average of 34 hours of TV each week. If you can find the time to tune into Dancing with Stars, you can find the time to get in the lineup. “That’s an easy one,” says Kekoa. “I’ll watch a bit here and there, but there’s no way I could keep surfing as much as I do and still keep my grades up if I watched a lot of TV or screwed around on the Internet all day. Sometimes, you’ve got to cut out the stuff that’s keeping you away from your goal.”

Stay Driven. There will undoubtedly be days when it’s easy to brush off quick pre- or post-work session. You’re tired, it’s too cold, too small, too big, etc. We know, we’ve all been there. But it’s a rare occurrence when you regret paddling out. “Yeah, of course there are days when I feel like I’m too tired or too burnt out from studying to want to jump in the water,” says Kekoa. “But I truly love surfing and feel better almost every time I come in from the water. It’s not always easy to get in the water, but it’s always worth it to find the time to squeeze in a surf. You just got to stay fired up.”

How do you balance surf and school? Leave your answer in the comments section below.