Small Waves Can Still Be Fun

How to Have More Fun When the Waves Are Small

Just because the waves are small doesn’t mean the session is ruined. If you shift your mindset, make smart equipment choices, and treat small days as a chance to try new things, you’ll start having way more fun, even when it's knee-high and mushy.

Start with Mindset

The first step is letting go of expectations. If you paddle out hoping for barrels and power turns, but the ocean gives you one-foot mush, you’re setting yourself up to be disappointed. Instead, treat small days like a playground. The pressure is off and you’re not trying to prove anything. It’s just you, maybe a few friends, and whatever the ocean gives you.

Mess around, laugh, fall, and take off too deep on purpose just to see if you can make it. There’s no ego in this kind of surf, just an opportunity to enjoy the water in a different way.

Play Around with Boards

This is one of the biggest factors in making small surf fun. If you take a short, narrow board out in waist-high slop, you’re going to have a hard time grovelling. 

The solution? Grab a board with more volume. Longboards, mid-lengths, soft tops, anything that helps you catch more waves and keeps you on them for longer. When the waves are small, more foam equals more fun. You’ll get in earlier, ride longer, and have the speed to actually do something on the wave.

This is a good time to test boards you wouldn’t normally ride. Twin fins, retro shapes, or even finless boards! Small surf is the perfect setting to explore what different boards feel like, without the pressure of performance or the risk of wiping out too hard. 

Use It to Improve Your Surfing

Small waves can actually help your surfing, if you approach them the right way. Since they don’t give you much speed or power, you have to create it yourself. That means better positioning, fine-tuning technique, and smarter wave reading. 

You’ll also be forced to focus on style and flow when riding bigger boards, in addition to practicing smooth movement, using every section of the wave, and staying light on your feet. 

With less size and power in the waves, this is the perfect time to try something outside your comfort zone!

Make It Social

One of the best parts about small surf is how social it can be. When the waves are firing, everyone’s focused and trying to get their waves. In smaller surf, the vibe changes and invites more chat, connection, jokes, and more room to share waves.

Use these sessions to link up with friends, bring boards to swap, take turns filming each other, or even push each other into waves. The session becomes more about time in the water than performance, and making that shift in mindset makes a big difference.

Better Than Nothing

If you stop seeing small waves as a letdown and start seeing them as a different kind of opportunity, you’ll enjoy a lot more of your time in the ocean. There’s always something to learn, always something to try, and always a way to have fun no matter what the forecast says.

Enter the Basis Paddle Trainer

I've gone months without surfing and rolled up to pumping swell and surfed 3 hr sessions, multiple times a day, day after day after day, by using the Basis Paddle Trainer.

Train anytime, anywhere, so you can catch more waves and have more fun.

Unlike elastic resistance bands, swimming in the pool, or funky gym workouts these things actually work.

Shipping globally now! www.surfbasis.com

For a deep dive customer testimonial from one of our early beta testers check out: