01 avril, 2026

Surf Advice from Benjamin Golding-Webb, That Surf Guy John West, Aaron Buckner, and Saint Christopher

This month’s podcast conversations circled around the importance of foundational practices in surfing, and how to maximise your time in the water with tools, training, and determination. Benjamin Golding-Webb talked about how positioning and perfecting the pop-up makes everything else easier. John West broke down the value of consistency within progress, and focusing on small technical improvements over time. Aaron Buckner shared insights on building a strong foundation and motivation to train using his passion and love for surfing, and Saint Christopher brought about the equally important element of surfboard design and choice. Here’s a quick recap of our podcasts this month:

Check out the podcast video below along with some of our favorite tips from our guest.

“If you go to North Wales, got some decent waves there, but from where I live, it's about three hours to get there. So if I was going to say, ‘Look, I am leaving the kids, I'm leaving my wife, I'm leaving my work, I'm doing all that, I'm going to drive all the way.’ And then if I wasn't able to endure with the paddling, then I couldn't work on standing up on a surfboard.”

“Make sure that you can see yourself when you’re doing it because that makes all the difference.”

- Benjamin Golding-Webb

“I think just meeting new people, making connections, making friends in other spots. It's kind of what surfing's all about.”

“The actual keys to getting better at surfing: I think video, surfing a lot, and being willing to try stuff too, just being open to willing to fail, fall on your face and not really care, but continue putting those reps in to get better. Video analysis to see what you're doing wrong. I mean, imagine being like you're trying to lose weight and you didn't have a mirror. That'd be a little tough. Or you have a date, you want to look good, you need to have a mirror. So I think surfers need that same third party perspective to actually view their videos and see what they're doing wrong, and then make the adjustments”

- John West “That Surf Guy”

“One of the locals at Porto, he has seen me out there surfing quite a bit, and a couple of weeks ago he came up, he's like, dude, you move around so well out there for not being by the water. What do you do to stay in shape? And I told him, I use this Basis Surf system. He's like, I thought that thing was a scam, and I'm like, I did too. And it's not. It works.”

“Positioning is key. Where you're at in the wave, where you're at in the lineup, really determines how early you're going to get into the wave, where you're going to get into the wave, how much of that wave you're actually going to get. But being able to paddle yourself into position is what gets you there.”

- Aaron Buckner

“The most simple thing is take a spoon and turn the tap on and hold the back of the spoon against the water and see how the water flows around the spoon and almost pulls it in, versus if you let the water run against the sort of concave side where you eat your soup from the water will push the spoon away. And that to me is a one-to-one illustration of what we're getting when we have a concave on the bottom of the board.”

“When I made my first Edge Board, the main takeaway feeling I got was that flatter rocker of the rail was engaging in the wave and pulling up towards the lip in a way that generated so much speed and allowed you to hold a high line, and exist in a spot on the wave that I always kind of wanted to for longer but wasn't able to.”

- Saint Christopher

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.

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